The National Prayer Breakfast is not supposed to serve as a forum for a clash of political visions, but that was what Ben Carson made it.
The Johns Hopkins Hospital neurosurgeon and motivational speaker lit up the event with a politically charged speech that quickly went viral. Mention "death panels" standing a few yards from the president, and that tends to happen.
Putting aside the propriety of Carson delving into policy at an event that is supposed to be apolitical, the speech demonstrated the power of the old-fashioned American up-from-the-bootstraps success story joined to a celebration of old-fashioned American virtues.
Carson's personal story sounds like an elaboration of the old saw about walking to and from school through the snow uphill both ways. He grew up in Detroit. One of 24 children, his mother married when she was 13. Her husband was a bigamist, and she ended up raising her children on her own with nothing.
Carson was a rotten student, teased by other children for being "dumb." At times, he lashed back at them, losing "all rational control," as he put it in his autobiography. A broken family. Poor impulse control. Anger. These are not ingredients for success. For too many young men, in fact, they are ingredients for jail or an early grave.
As Carson tells it, his mother, working as a domestic, noticed that people in the homes where she was employed didn't watch much TV. One day, she came home, turned off the TV and told Carson and his brother that they would read instead. She assigned them two written book reports a week, even though at the time she was only semiliterate herself.
She refused to take welfare, and she forbid her kids from feeling sorry for themselves. As Carson put it at the prayer breakfast: "She never accepted an excuse from us. And if we ever came up with an excuse, she always said, 'Do you have a brain?' And if the answer was yes, then she said, 'Then you could have thought your way out of it.'"
Carson's grades improved. He went on to graduate from Yale and then from the University of Michigan Medical School. He became a gifted and celebrated pediatric neurosurgeon, performing the first successful surgical separation of conjoined twins.
Against this personal backdrop, Carson has a very traditional American attitude toward success. He celebrates it unabashedly and believes in the gospel of self-reliance. Don't become dependent on anyone else. Don't consider yourself a victim. Don't begrudge others their success. Get an education, work hard, and thank God you were born in the greatest country in the world.
Carson's is a voice of hope and aspiration but also of rigor and of standards. He spent a long part of his speech decrying the decline of American education.
There is none of this that President Barack Obama or most any other liberal would disagree with. President Obama has spoken of his own single mother prodding him to study as a child. But Obama and company represent the party of government, and the premise of government programs tends to be that you can't help yourself.
A few days after being subjected to Carson, Obama delivered a State of the Union address that offered some program or other for practically every problem he identified. He took a pass on dealing with the debt and pushed for more taxes on the rich.
Warning of the disastrous effects of "moral decay" and "fiscal irresponsibility," Carson touched on a very different approach in his speech, advocating government frugality, a flat tax and health-care accounts controlled by individuals.
Carson insists - not persuasively, given the complexities involved - that these items are just common sense. What is common sense, or used to be, is the ethic of self-discipline and individual advancement that he exemplifies and extols so powerfully.
May his viral moment give him the chance to spread the message even more widely.
I hate dog movies. In dog movies, the good, loyal, lovable dog always dies at the end and I end up sitting there in the dark with big tears streaming down my cheeks.
I’ve not kept it a secret that I find people who dress their dogs in clothes to be, to put it nicely, somewhat more than just eccentric. And many friendly, helpful readers out there have not kept it a secret that they really wish I would not express my views about dogs dressed as humans.
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
It sounds like the plot from a dystopian libertarian novel. The word “patriot” and the phrase “educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights” triggered heightened scrutiny from the most intrusive agency in the federal government.
The action at the bird feeder has been spectacular lately: Cardinals, finches, songbirds in impressive variety crowding around all day long in search of sustenance. It is truly gratifying …
Everyone presumes that Sen. Chuck Schumer, the media-hungry Democrat from New York, wants to be the next Senate majority leader. His performance in the negotiations over the Gang of Eight immigration plan should bolster his case for an eventual promotion.
An NPR broadcast examines the question of how communities can better prepare for tornadoes like the one that struck Moore, Okla. on Monday. The broadcast features commentary from Michael Fitzgerald, who reported a five-part disaster series for the CNHI News Service.
Shayla Taylor was so far along in labor that her nurses at Moore Medical Center decided not to move her when Monday's tornado hit. They waited out the storm in an operating room, where the wall disappeared as the tornado hit the building.
An NPR broadcast examines the question of how communities can better prepare for tornadoes like the one that struck Moore, Okla. on Monday. The broadcast features commentary from Michael Fitzgerald, who reported a five-part disaster series for the CNHI News Service.
Commentary
Discussion
Ben Carson vs. Barack Obama
By Rich Lowry CNHI
The National Prayer Breakfast is not supposed to serve as a forum for a clash of political visions, but that was what Ben Carson made it.
The Johns Hopkins Hospital neurosurgeon and motivational speaker lit up the event with a politically charged speech that quickly went viral. Mention "death panels" standing a few yards from the president, and that tends to happen.
Putting aside the propriety of Carson delving into policy at an event that is supposed to be apolitical, the speech demonstrated the power of the old-fashioned American up-from-the-bootstraps success story joined to a celebration of old-fashioned American virtues.
Carson's personal story sounds like an elaboration of the old saw about walking to and from school through the snow uphill both ways. He grew up in Detroit. One of 24 children, his mother married when she was 13. Her husband was a bigamist, and she ended up raising her children on her own with nothing.
Carson was a rotten student, teased by other children for being "dumb." At times, he lashed back at them, losing "all rational control," as he put it in his autobiography. A broken family. Poor impulse control. Anger. These are not ingredients for success. For too many young men, in fact, they are ingredients for jail or an early grave.
As Carson tells it, his mother, working as a domestic, noticed that people in the homes where she was employed didn't watch much TV. One day, she came home, turned off the TV and told Carson and his brother that they would read instead. She assigned them two written book reports a week, even though at the time she was only semiliterate herself.
She refused to take welfare, and she forbid her kids from feeling sorry for themselves. As Carson put it at the prayer breakfast: "She never accepted an excuse from us. And if we ever came up with an excuse, she always said, 'Do you have a brain?' And if the answer was yes, then she said, 'Then you could have thought your way out of it.'"
Carson's grades improved. He went on to graduate from Yale and then from the University of Michigan Medical School. He became a gifted and celebrated pediatric neurosurgeon, performing the first successful surgical separation of conjoined twins.
Against this personal backdrop, Carson has a very traditional American attitude toward success. He celebrates it unabashedly and believes in the gospel of self-reliance. Don't become dependent on anyone else. Don't consider yourself a victim. Don't begrudge others their success. Get an education, work hard, and thank God you were born in the greatest country in the world.
Carson's is a voice of hope and aspiration but also of rigor and of standards. He spent a long part of his speech decrying the decline of American education.
There is none of this that President Barack Obama or most any other liberal would disagree with. President Obama has spoken of his own single mother prodding him to study as a child. But Obama and company represent the party of government, and the premise of government programs tends to be that you can't help yourself.
A few days after being subjected to Carson, Obama delivered a State of the Union address that offered some program or other for practically every problem he identified. He took a pass on dealing with the debt and pushed for more taxes on the rich.
Warning of the disastrous effects of "moral decay" and "fiscal irresponsibility," Carson touched on a very different approach in his speech, advocating government frugality, a flat tax and health-care accounts controlled by individuals.
Carson insists - not persuasively, given the complexities involved - that these items are just common sense. What is common sense, or used to be, is the ethic of self-discipline and individual advancement that he exemplifies and extols so powerfully.
May his viral moment give him the chance to spread the message even more widely.
(c) 2013 by King Features Syndicate
I hate dog movies. In dog movies, the good, loyal, lovable dog always dies at the end and I end up sitting there in the dark with big tears streaming down my cheeks.
May 21, 2013
Mr. President, the buck stops with you.
President Truman set that standard, with these very words posted on a sign on his Oval Office desk.
But now, with over a thousand days left in this second Obama administration, we find a Nixonian stench emerging from the “W. House.”
May 21, 2013
Rarely has the White House briefing room so resembled the main ballroom at a meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference.
May 21, 2013
I’ve not kept it a secret that I find people who dress their dogs in clothes to be, to put it nicely, somewhat more than just eccentric. And many friendly, helpful readers out there have not kept it a secret that they really wish I would not express my views about dogs dressed as humans.
May 17, 2013
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
May 17, 2013
The federal government recently announced new regulations for buying fast food.
May 17, 2013
It sounds like the plot from a dystopian libertarian novel. The word “patriot” and the phrase “educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights” triggered heightened scrutiny from the most intrusive agency in the federal government.
May 17, 2013
The action at the bird feeder has been spectacular lately: Cardinals, finches, songbirds in impressive variety crowding around all day long in search of sustenance. It is truly gratifying …
For my neighbor.
That’s what it’s like at his feeder.
May 14, 2013
On April 27, Dr. Jeff Butts demonstrated a rare form of servant leadership as he participated in the Go Love Indy westside service project.
May 13, 2013
Everyone presumes that Sen. Chuck Schumer, the media-hungry Democrat from New York, wants to be the next Senate majority leader. His performance in the negotiations over the Gang of Eight immigration plan should bolster his case for an eventual promotion.
May 13, 2013
Follow me on Twitter
Will you be attending this year's Indy 500?
Tires
Telecommunications
Beauty Salons
Government
An NPR broadcast examines the question of how communities can better prepare for tornadoes like the one that struck Moore, Okla. on Monday. The broadcast features commentary from Michael Fitzgerald, who reported a five-part disaster series for the CNHI News Service.
May 22, 2013 1 Photo
Complete Report:
Part I: Are We Prepared? | Part II: Disaster Dollars
Part III: Lessons Learned | Part IV: Warning Signs
Part V: The Big One
Shayla Taylor was so far along in labor that her nurses at Moore Medical Center decided not to move her when Monday's tornado hit. They waited out the storm in an operating room, where the wall disappeared as the tornado hit the building.
May 23, 2013 1 Photo
An NPR broadcast examines the question of how communities can better prepare for tornadoes like the one that struck Moore, Okla. on Monday. The broadcast features commentary from Michael Fitzgerald, who reported a five-part disaster series for the CNHI News Service.
May 22, 2013 1 Photo
Complete Report:
Part I: Are We Prepared? | Part II: Disaster Dollars
Part III: Lessons Learned | Part IV: Warning Signs
Part V: The Big One
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