Do we need a new POTUS nomination thread?

[regexcellent]

He's an extraordinarily competent surgeon. It's possible he's just really good with his hands.

That's not enough to be a surgeon of his caliber. You also have to be very smart. As I said before, lots of smart people believe stupid things. Noam Chomsky as mentioned is one. Albert Einstein refused to accept quantum mechanics.

The politically controversial areas of science are not super important to medicine (in fact, they're relevant to very few professions). Evolutionary biology is somewhat important for infectious diseases, which is not his area of medicine.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Someone should grill him on it and ask him at what age he went "Hmmmmm. I'm carefully weighing up what I'm going to get erections at the sight of. Will it be boobs, or will it be bollocks? Obviously bollocks are lovely, but purely on a whim on this lovely summer's day, I've decided to get sexually aroused by boobs. I can always change my mind at a later date after all!".

Because if he didn't do that, he's lying for votes and insulting everyone's intelligence in the process.

[regexcellent]

I think you could be misrepresenting what he said. There's overwhelming evidence that homosexuality has a substantial environmental component. Acknowledging that shows a degree of honesty a lot of politicians don't actually have.

This has no implications for how we should treat homosexuals, but it is nonetheless the truth.

I admit that I haven't actually read the quote, so that might not have been what he was saying.

[giblets]

That makes sense if you define "environmental" as "not genetic". Homophobes tend to think homosexuality is "environmental" as in "children become gay because of single moms or homosexual propaganda or because they were molested or..." and Ben Carson apparently thinks getting raped in prison can turn you gay.

[Lorizael]

That's not enough to be a surgeon of his caliber. You also have to be very smart.

Yeah, I was being facetious in the hope that someone would tell a sex joke.

As I said before, lots of smart people believe stupid things. Noam Chomsky as mentioned is one. Albert Einstein refused to accept quantum mechanics.

Violations of Bell's inequalities weren't seen experimentally until well after Einstein was dead, so it wasn't entirely unreasonable of him (stupid) to believe quantum mechanics might incompletely represent the state of a system.

Anyway, yeah, you won't get any argument from me that smart people can believe stupid things. It's a basic fact about how the human brain operates.

The politically controversial areas of science are not super important to medicine (in fact, they're relevant to very few professions). Evolutionary biology is somewhat important for infectious diseases, which is not his area of medicine.

I could make an argument that allowing science to become politically controversial is a dangerous road to travel down, but I've got a throbbing headache at the moment so I'm probably just going to go to bed instead.

[Thoth]

, he's lying for votes and insulting everyone's intelligence in the process.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I think you could be misrepresenting what he said. There's overwhelming evidence that homosexuality has a substantial environmental component.

That doesn't make it a choice.

[Elok]

In related news:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34741010

(I don't actually give a damn about Carson, the headline asked why so many people thought the pyramids were granaries and I clicked on it to see if it was Civ2's fault somehow)

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

It's hard to think of a less efficient way to build a granary. This man is a simpleton.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Republican Ben Carson has admitted that he never applied to join the US military academy at West Point, despite implications in his book that he had.
The presidential hopeful wrote in his 1996 autobiography, Gifted Hands, that he had been offered a full scholarship by the prestigious school.
But the academy said it had no record of an application from Mr Carson.
His team has denied that he lied about West Point, saying the academy effectively offered him a place.
In his book, Mr Carson recalls a meeting in 1969 when he was a high school student in Detroit enrolled in the ROTC programme, which provides preliminary officer training for students.
Then 17 years old, he dined with the decorated general, William Westmoreland, and says in his book that a "full scholarship" was subsequently offered.
Analysis - Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, North America reporter
Whether any of this will adversely affect Mr Carson's standing in the Republican presidential race is an open question.
The retired neurosurgeon has made condemnations of the media and "PC culture" a standard part of his campaign rhetoric, so he may already be immunised against perceived attacks from the mainstream press.
In last week's Republican debate on CNBC, a moderator who pressed Mr Carson to respond to allegations that he had close ties to a controversial nutrition supplement company was roundly booed by the partisan audience.
"They know," Mr Carson concluded. And they very well may continue to stand by their man.
The bizarro-world of Carson denials
But his campaign team on Friday, after inquiries by Politico, said he never applied to join the academy and the scholarship assertion was based on "conversations" he had.
"His senior commander was in touch with West Point and told Dr Carson he could get in, Dr Carson did not seek admission," campaign spokesman Doug Watts told Reuters in an email.
The confusion comes as other parts of Mr Carson's personal story related in his book have also been questioned.
He has stood by his assertion in the autobiography that in his youth he was prone to sudden violent rages that he has overcome as an adult.In one episode, he lunged with a knife at a close friend but fortunately struck his friend's belt buckle.
The retired neurosurgeon has made much of his struggling childhood while on the campaign trail.
Mr Carson is the joint frontrunner in the Republican presidential race with businessman Donald Trump, who wasted no time in capitalising on the latest story.
Mr Trump tweeted: "Wow, one of many lies by Ben Carson! Big story."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34748996

He's finished.

[giblets]

In one episode, he lunged with a knife at a close friend but fortunately struck his friend's belt buckle.

Luckily, it takes more than one person to launch the nuclear weapons

[Thoth]

It's thanks to people like Ben Carson and Hillary Clinton that the next president of USA is likely going to be Trumpie.

[Ming]

It's thanks to people like Ben Carson, Trumpie and the rest of the moronic Repugs that the next president of USA is likely going to be Hillary Clinton.

FIXED

[Elok]

Sorry, sudden attack of historical perspective: didn't the Reagans not only believe in astrology, but allow it to affect their scheduling of official events? Also he was apparently senile in office and his administration technically committed treason and stuff. Still remembered as the concentrated essence of awesomesauce by Republicans. So I'm not sure this will necessarily sink Carson.

[Thoth]

FIXED

Last I checked, the surgeon guy was ahead of Hillary by ~10 points and Trumpie was still pretty close to surgeon guy.

Time will tell.

THB, I'm not sure which would be worse: President Trumpie or President Hillary.