Actual painting from Ben Carson's house. More https://t.co/QllFNO54oY c @nomoremister @Smartypants60 @owillis pic.twitter.com/dRmG6Kknli
— Paul Canning (@pauloCanning) November 7, 2015I understand the notion of the personal relationship with God, even though I'm an atheist -- however, I find that my reaction to this sort of thing is colored less by my lack of religious belief than by the fact that I live in New York, where a lot of people work really hard to gain to proximity to the famous, and to make sure everyone knows about it. To me, an image like this doesn't convey a sense of profound faith -- it's boasting. It's saying, "Jesus and I? We're like this."
Best responses to the image on Twitter:
@monochromegod @pauloCanning @nomoremister @Smartypants60 @owillis A Klingon hugging Billy Ocean?
— Name cannot be blank (@thejimpster) November 7, 2015@daveweigel @pauloCanning @nomoremister @Smartypants60 @owillis Jesus offering Dr. Carson a full scholarship to heaven.
— Louis Ambrose (@louambrose58) November 7, 2015The photo is from this gallery at The Guardian, titled "Ben Carson's House: An Homage to Himself – in Pictures," where we also see the following, which is not an homage to Carson but also isn't an homage to correct spelling:
And now I'll be accused of an elitist attack (on a Yale graduate, let's not forget). Spelling aside, what's the first word that comes to mind when you think of Ben Carson? I'm sure it's not "humility."
*****
UPDATE: Yeah, I know -- this is a common trope. See, for instance, Jesus - With You Always.
24 comments:
Delusions of grandeur?
A white Jesus, with his hand out.
ROTFLMAO
The LORD is my caddy; I shall not shank.
Does anyone else find the thought of some raggedy bearded dude in a robe hanging over them all the time kinda creepy?
Also, that first painting is so bad it makes paint-by-numbers work look like Rembrandt.
Quite a grip ol' Hay-soos has on the Doc's shoulder.
Proofread.
The 11th commandment.
"poverbs" is that thing of when you have a verb, but can't afford a "g": runnin', jumpin', sittin'.
I find Ben Carson's spa robe Jesus to be a touching testament of his God Complex.
NBB, my first thought was Turkish Bathhouse.
Christ chilling with Ben after a busy day casting moneylenders out of temples & separating Siamese twins.
But for the ultimate happy ending, I really want Jesus' General all. over. this.
I think we can put the 'girlfriend in Canada'-anywhere for that matter - to rest for good.
Except for the hairstyles, I think Carson and Jesus look alike in that painting.
Based on the state of his house & everything he says about himself, if Ben Carson's ego were depicted anthropomorphically, it would be little Ben perpetually jerking himself off to a slide show of Jesus & a host of both actual & imagined people congratulating him for being 'just the most awesome amazing everything ever'.
In my line of racket, it's not uncommon to deal with people suffering delusions of grandeur. It can take a while in conversation to cotton to it, sometimes. I think I got a little better at it after completely missing it in a fellow who'd tried passing himself off as a local celebrity but getting the name (hilariously) wrong. I ended up sitting down with a shrink who took me item-by-item step-by-step thru the diagnostic protocol. Even then, I'm not about to claim I could do it at distance or anything remotely like as a properly trained experienced professional; I'm categorically incompetent. But I've seen more than my share of 'em & really don't see how Carson would be in any way a hard call.
Steve left out the one for "surgeon": it's pretty freaking awesome.
Not only was there a lack of proofreading in that engraving but they screwed up on the centering of the second line and the space between the comma and the 'H' of honor. And they left the ending of the verse didn't they?
How in the name of God (ahem) did this man attend Yale and head up the neurosurgery department at Johns Hopkins?
We've all heard of "idiot savants" but this is ridiculous.
Sweet Sue, I grew up in family with not a few nurses & doctors. The notion that physicians are 'educated' is off; they're trained. And many of them work in environments where the nursing & other support staff treat them like deities. Because they're not 'educated', because it's not strictly necessary that they be anything more than technically proficient & otherwise competent in their practices, they can be as prone as any fool to foolishness, idiocy, ignorance & particularly a striking sort of naivete about almost anything in the world outside their practices. Dentists, ophthalmologists, radiologists, chiropractors & osteopaths, are no less so, and in my own experience, taken as a category, have been worse.
One of the most remarkable views of Carson as someone running for what is, as a matter of historical happenstance, currently the HIGHEST PUBLICLY OFFICE on the planet, subject to election by & on behalf of over 300 million humans - third highest population of humans of any nation & a number more-or-less the same as the entire human population as recently as a few hundred years ago, so large it's well beyond impossible for someone running for POTUS to be personally acquainted with every eligible voter, beyond possible for even a thousandth of 1% of them - is he apparently thinks it's JUST NEWS MEDIA curious about his past & about what he believes & the bases for those beliefs, that reporters should be denied the ability to look into his past, and that in doing their jobs - well or poorly, doesn't matter - some zone of privacy he's entitled to by ... something, I don't know precisely what, is being violated. He's totally alone in this. Apparently he's either oblivious as to what the press did with Bill Clinton in the 1990s or he believes the same zone & news media credulity he insists on for himself is justifiably denied to "politicians", including every single one of the other candidates for president in this cycle, regardless of party, each of whom has been 'vetted' in some manner repeatedly over years of running for public office.
That's doctor-think for you, right there.
The contrast with the Ivy-educated Barack Obama that strikes me is one of self-awareness. At some level, it's a form of signalling to the brethren that goes beyond, "I'm one of you" well into, "We relish the discomfort of non-followers."
You don't have to be President of all the people, just the ones that are gonna really matter after the rapture.
So, I visited the "Jesus-with You Always" link and started sampling the other pictures. I especially liked the one with the fighter pilot and couldn't help thinking, "What marvelous satire." Then I clicked the link for the artist and saw that he was serious!
Conspicuously absent from the gallery was a "with you always" depiction of Jesus with a sex worker. Seeing how such a woman washed Jesus's feet with her hair, Luke 7:36-47, I looked forward to seeing a modern depiction of this. Oh well, I guess the artist is a modern Pharisee.
Carpenter's do have strong hands.
The only actual reporter in Dan "Abram's Media Group", Tommy Christopher, as a handy dandy expandable up-to-date item-by-item review of the State of the Carson at www.mediaite.com/online/sht-ben-carson-says-the-complete-collection/#0
& note also the self-hypering link to his earlier piece at the Daily Banter. I like in particular how the sheer level of detail Christopher cites renders Carson's first public outburst over being tied to Mannetech takes the matter waaaaay beyond an issue over semantics.
Kevin Drum (who I expect we all have good wishes for) does a nice job justifying shifting this from campaigns-will-be-campaigns and media-is-media and never the twain shall meet election biznitz per usual bullshit to this being about Carson's as to put it delicated, a LIAR.
To that unfunny point, I'd add, & also suggest as more of a problem for him with his own support among GOPers, that he's rapidly being turned into, to maybe mint my first ever Internet coin, a figure of Fudd. When the broader public, THIS far in front of the general, has basically just been introduced to a candidate and already are calling him stuff like Brain Man, the Pyramid Schemer, Gaffted Hands, and [my fav] Jesus' black friend, I think even that part of the GOPer Base who've not been choosing him while nonetheless still have been boosted his favorables, are soon to turn away from him. And Triump the Wonder 'do, who I'd joined with others in thinking was crazy to go after Carson, has somehow managed to get himself looking like the Great Trumpini.
I'm aware of Steve's immediately prior post, but FWIW we both credit that to kneejerk ranks closing whenever the Lib'rul Media goes after one of its own, but I see that as really thin. I foresee it drifting away in a few days like Idaho oathkeepers who biked down to NM to shoot them Yankee support for Brother in White Cliven Bundy.
@Unknown
"I'm aware of Steve's immediately prior post, but FWIW we both credit that to kneejerk ranks closing whenever the Lib'rul Media goes after one of its own, but I see that as really thin. I foresee it drifting away in a few days like Idaho oathkeepers who biked down to NM to shoot them Yankee support for Brother in White Cliven Bundy."
I really can't get the way the evangelicals think, but my guess is that most of that fraction of the base will stick with him all the way. I think your comment only really works for the not-so-religious goopers.
Charon, I hope I didn't give off the wrong impression (I certainly didn't say it.), but actually, I'm not arguing with you on that part of his support.
I referenced just the growth in Carson's support, since CNN, Politico, WSJ and others in the MSM commenced focusing on him recently. It's that recent circle- the-wagons GROWTH I see as fragile. I agree Carson would have to be caught wearing a tutu in bed with a transvestite to lose more than a sliver of his religious support, if that.
As to whether he hangs in, I think this is all a very new experience for Dr. Carson - being called out as a liar. We don't have precedent to refer to as to what he might do. But if he loses the recent pity bump & then a few weeks to months go by without him moving up in percent, then I think lack of precedent IS precedent, especially with his ego in charge.
Various sort of bad stuff has been coming out about Carson for weeks now, yet his poll numbers kept rising in the face of that. I really do not know what to make of that. (His polls seem to have flattened the past week or so, though.)
I do have a Jesusy RWNJ sibling who exploded in anger at me when I sent him some factual information about where Carson's fundraising goes. I do not really understand that, either, but I can not imagine the guy abandoning Carson, ever.
"Carson's support" isn't really support, per se - there are no actions anyone can take to support him for the next 5 or so months, other than sending him money. All his "support" is, really, is pressing a button on line, or saying, "Hell, yeah!" in the local bar. It will melt away, as he melts down.
Aunt Snow, I'd agree with you, except: Where else are the GOP fundies & TeaPsters going to go?
GOP supporters over the last 3 months have displayed an almost admirable consistency is rejecting who they see as the 'professional politicians' in the GOP Clown Car race. If Trump & Carson stay in longer - and I for one don't see why either being motivated to leave the context - where's the evidence suggesting that will change? I would expect each of the leading pro pols, Rubio, Cruz & moneybags Jeb, to exceed their polling numbers once the contest gets past Iowa, N.H. & S.C., but not enough to send either Trump or Carson to the sidelines. If either of those were to leave - & we may think we know that'll happen, but we really don't - I'd expct that be for something to do with their own expectations, not because their campaigns will be shown up as necessarily losing. Again: MORE THAN HALF the GOP Base has shown a resilient determination to effec a game change. And there's precedent for this in their party: 1964, when week and week would go by with Goldwater in the lead, with none of the 'smart money' insiders believing Goldwater's lead was sustainable. But it turned out it WAS sustainable, at leat among GOPers. And then came the general election and the inevitable slaughter at
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