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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Is Ben Carson nuts, or just a pathological liar?

Mike Luckovich
For more cartoons by Mike Luckovich, CLICK HERE


Ben Carson is not having a good week. First, stories about his past, particularly those told in his book Gifted Hands, have been all but debunked — including the ultimate lie about his supposed offer of a full scholarship to West Point, as well the apparently tall tale about his supposedly violent past.

In short, it seems that all of the famously inspirational stories about the boy from the ‘hood turned brilliant neurosurgeon may be complete fabrications.

Well, another story from Carson’s background is making headlines, and it is just as sketchy as the others that are unraveling before our very eyes.


Carson paints himself in this latest story as a poor, but eager scholarship student who had such respect for his professors and his studies that he actually dressed in a tie and pocket protector just to go to his classes each day (likely another lie), but that’s not even the real kicker.

The good doctor also insists that he was named the “most honest” student in one of his classes at the prestigious Yale University.

In the story, yet another from Gifted Hands, Carson weaves a tale of every college student’s worst nightmare: A professor informing the entire class that they had to take a final exam all over again, because theirs had all perished in a fire.

Not only that — but the second version of the exam was supposed to be the most difficult. Every student in the class protested the professor’s solution to the supposedly burned up exams and refused to take the test over. Every student, that is, except the remarkably honest and obedient future world-famous neurosurgeon, Ben Carson.

Carson went on to reveal that this was a “hoax” on the party of the professor, writing:
“The professor came toward me. With her was a photographer for the Yale Daily News who paused and snapped my picture. ‘A hoax,’ the teacher said. ‘We wanted to see who was the most honest student in the class.’”
This alleged incident took place in a Psychology class called Perceptions 301. There’s just one little problem with that, though: Yale University itself has informed The Wall Street Journal that this was not a class that was offered when Ben Carson attended Yale.

So, in other words, another one of Carson’s stories doesn’t pass the smell test. Surprise, surprise. Perhaps he’ll tell us he dreamt it, just like when God gave him the answers to a final exam in a dream, but it was so realistic that he mistook it for a memory of an actual event. Or something.
Either way — another day, another lie from Ben Carson.