PJTV Trifecta - Gifted Mind - The Wisdom of Dr. Benjamin Carson

Dr. Ben Carson is a source of inspiration for millions. Hear why as Trifecta looks at the virtue of education, in addition to the spirit crushing waste of the welfare state

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Dr Ben Carson - New Signs Obamacare May Cost Taxpayers Even MORE Money - Neil Cavuto

Nancy Pelosi famously said “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it.” Well that 2,700 page bill she was referring to was passed three years ago and everyone is finally starting feel what’s in it and what’s in it is a complete disaster.

Let’s face it, ObamaCare is destroying our healthcare system in ways you can’t even begin to fathom. Since 2011 Republicans have had multiple opportunities to de-fund ObamaCare and have done nothing, Dr. Ben Carson sat down with Neil Cavuto and discussed how disastrous ObamaCare really is for Americans.

aired April 24, 2013

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Star Parker - The Predictable Liberal Assault on Ben Carson

Dr. Ben Carson stepped into the national spotlight recently when, as speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast, to an audience that included President Obama, he was openly critical of the President’s approach to health care and his overall management of the nation’s economy.

Carson, who is director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, is a hero to many. His life story, rising from a Detroit ghetto to a life of accomplishment and distinction, is a story of American ideals on steroids.

Those ideals say that America is about merit not circumstance. Your life, your achievements are the result of what you do and how you live, not where you came from.

The hard history of blacks in America has always made it a challenge for them to accept this credo. Many still carry a sense that those ideals may be true for whites, but they never were true, and still aren’t true, for blacks.

So in this context, Ben Carson’s story is particularly important. It’s making liberals nervous, and the attacks on him are starting.

He’s now pulled out, under pressure, from giving the commencement address at Johns Hopkins University because some are unhappy with how, in an interview on Fox, he expressed his views regarding the importance of maintaining the integrity of traditional marriage.

Blacks have known about Carson for years. I gave his book Gifted Hands to my daughters to read when they were little girls. A highly acclaimed made-for-TV movie about his life aired in 2009, with Dr. Carson played by Oscar-winning actor Cuba Gooding, Jr.

But this story of personal responsibility, hard work and traditional values is becoming a political story. It is becoming political because Ben Carson’s American dream story, according to the liberal script, is not supposed to work for blacks.

Ben Carson is the biggest threat to liberals since Bill Cosby got out of line at an NAACP banquet in Washington, DC in 2004.

Cosby had the temerity to deliver tough, critical talk about what too many blacks are doing with the freedom that civil rights activists of the 1960’s fought to achieve.

He contrasted the sixties generation with the new generation of black youth sitting in jail. “…..these are not political criminals. These are people going around stealing Coca Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake.”

Cosby attributed the chaos to breakdown in values, family, and personal responsibility. It’s the last thing the NAACP crowd wanted to hear that night and he paid a price. He was vilified and marginalized until he backed off.

Liberals never take on what black conservatives actually say because they can’t. So the attacks become personal.

Trillions of taxpayers’ dollars have been poured into black communities over the last half-century producing virtually no change in the incidence of black poverty.

Yet, Ben Carson, through diligence and traditional values, achieved on his own what those trillions of dollars of government programs were supposed to deliver.

Liberal black writer Ta-Nehisi Coates put the cards on the table in an article about Cosby which appeared in 2008 in The Atlantic magazine. The typical black conservative votes for Democrats, he notes, “not out of love for abortion rights.... but because he feels…. that the modern day GOP draws on support of people who hate him.”

So stoking paranoia about racism has always been the strategy of liberals to fend off the political threat of conservative values that so many church-going blacks embrace.

Predictably, Coates has produced a New York Times column on Carson, reducing this great man to the usual caricature of a black empty suit manipulated by white conservatives.

Ben Carson is an accomplished and wealthy man. Americans, certainly black Americans, need him in public life more than he needs to be in public life. Let’s hope the left wing and the haters of traditional morality don’t succeed in making him conclude it’s not worth it.

Star Parker

Star Parker is founder and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, a 501c3 think tank which explores and promotes market based public policy to fight poverty, as well as author of the newly revised Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can do About It.

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Deneen Borelli - Dr. Ben Carson - Black Conservatives

FreedomWorks Director of Outreach Deneen Borelli participates in a special hosted by Sean Hannity on American politics and Black Conservatives. Also featuring Rev. CL Bryant and Dr. Ben Carson.

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Dr. Ben Carson - Marriage and Easter

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray,
and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways;
then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)

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PJTV - Alfonzo Rachel - Why Liberals Like Touré Love Racism

AlfonZo Rachel examines the ugly, racist comments delivered by MSNBC's Touré about Dr. Ben Carson. Hear what Touré said, and why Zo is outraged by MSNBC's brand of liberal racism.

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Stoplight - Stuart Shepard - Absolutely Nothing

In his Stoplight® commentary, Stuart Shepard shares a good joke -- and a good true story.

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Dr. Ben Carson - Responds to Rush Limbaugh Comments

On this morning’s Fox and Friends (3/20/2013), Dr. Ben Carson weighed in on his CPAC talk that’s continuing to make waves and headlines around the country. In particular, the doctor reacted to comments made yesterday by conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, who claimed that the ripple effects of Carson’s speech are undoubtedly being felt within the Democratic party.

“I think Dr. Benjamin Carson probably got everybody in the Democratic party scared to death. It’s going to be really hard to demonize this guy … really, really hard, partially because of his race, but not just because he’s African American. It’s because you can call this guy all kinds of demonic names; he just doesn’t fit the bill,” Limbaugh said.

Carson said that he hopes the host is right.

“I try to lead the right kind of life, a life that is inspired by my love of God and love of my fellow man, and it is very hard to demonize someone under those circumstances.” However, he made a point to express his belief that both political parties are guilty of trying to “rule by fear” and deceit, adding that he would be happy to expose any politician engaging in such tactics.

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American Life League - Dr. Ben Carson - Gifted Hands

In this episode of Celebrate Life! originally airing on June 21, 1992 (20 years before CPAC), world-renowned surgeon Ben Carson (aka "Gentle Ben") describes his climb up from poverty, and explains how miracles have transformed lives.

aired June 21, 1992

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CPAC 2013 Dr. Ben Carson

Outspoken critic of ObamaCare, Dr. Ben Carson, addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference this morning, detailing why he felt he had to speak out against the new health care law.

"Health care is one-sixth of our economy. If the government can control that, they can control just about everything. We need to understand what is going on, because there are much more economic models that can be used to give us good health care than what we have now. And we were asleep at the wheel to let it happen, but we have to find a way still to make it work," said the neurosurgeon, who drew applause by saying "economics is not brain surgery."

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Dr. Ben Carson - If God Is For Us

Dr. Benjamin Carson was featured on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace on 2/24/2013.

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Star Parker - Ben Carson Owes No Apologies

According to Cal Thomas, well-known nationally syndicated columnist, Dr. Ben Carson owes President Obama an apology.

Carson spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC this past week – a bi-partisan annual event held since 1953, attended by members of Congress and usually the President.

President and Mrs. Obama were present this year and Thomas feels that Dr. Carson was out of line for including in his remarks comments about areas considered public policy – our national debt, our tax system, our publics schools, and health care.

According to Thomas: “Our politics have become so polarized and corrupted that a president of the United States cannot even attend an event devoted to drawing people closer to God and bridge partisan and cultural divides without being lectured about his policies.”

Dr. Carson is an African American physician, Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, who rose out of poverty in a ghetto in Detroit. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush in 2008 and is a role model for every American of every background.

I’m also proud that he serves on the national advisory board of my organization, CURE.

Although Carson did mention these various aspects of how we manage – or mismanage – our national affairs, he never once referred to the president or associated his comments on these issues with any political party.

To the extent to which President Obama might have taken Dr. Carson’s remarks as personal criticism, it would only be in the sense of “If the shoe fits, wear it.”

To the contrary, Dr. Carson began his remarks with citations from Proverbs and Chronicles, and tied the issues he spoke about to his broader theme about the moral crisis of our nation today. He talked about the moral decay of ancient Rome and how “they destroyed themselves from within.”

And he then expressed optimism about Americans being able to solve our problems because “we are smart” and that “we have some of the most intellectually gifted people leading our nation.”

No, if President Obama was offended by Dr. Carson’s penetrating remarks, it is because the president had to be the one losing perspective of the moral tone of the event and Dr. Carson’s observations.

What seems to offend Cal Thomas is that Dr. Carson has not fallen victim to the Washington disease that Thomas himself seems to have contracted as result of too many years in our nation’s capital.

Carson noted the vital importance of freedom of expression in America and how “political correctness keeps people from talking about important issues while the fabric of the society is being changed.” He warned that “we can’t fall for this trick.”

What, after all, is the point of a National Prayer Breakfast, “devoted to drawing people closer to God,” if the core issue now dividing us is whether we are indeed a “nation under God” and whether this means that His Word, as revealed in scripture, is even relevant to our national life and how we conduct our affairs.

This Word has already been banished from our public schools and increasingly from all our public spaces. Now apparently it’s even off limits at the National Prayer Breakfast.

If anything, Dr. Carson was forgiving to not mention the moral disaster of abortion legal under any circumstances and 55 million murdered unborn children -supported by our president. Nor did he mention our president’s endorsement of same sex marriage and today’s collapse of the American family.

The prophet Isaiah admonished, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the Lord…..even when you make many prayers I will not hear: your hands are full of blood….cease to do evil, learn to do good…”

Religious ritual devoid of content is pointless and destructive. This was Isaiah’s message 2800 years ago.

This is Dr. Ben Carson’s critical message for America today. Certainly nothing to apologize about.

Star Parker

Star Parker is founder and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, a 501c3 think tank which explores and promotes market based public policy to fight poverty, as well as author of the newly revised Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can do About It.

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Ben Carson - An Extraordinary Life

Ben Carson overcame all odds to become a neurosurgeon and, by age 33, director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Childrens Center. Hear Carson discuss his work and philanthropy, his thoughts on health care reform, and about whats still on his to-do list.

Interview length 57:39 (March 2010)

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Jeannie DeAngelis - Barack Obama’s Breakfast Spanking

Originally posted at The Blacksphere

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Pro-choice/gay marriage Barack Obama angered some constituents when he dragged his sleepy gum-chewing self to the 61st Annual National Prayer Breakfast. While there, Obama quoted Scripture, referenced Jesus’ “nail-scarred hands,” talked about America’s past racism, and predictably made a few jabs at perceived critics. Barack Obama even pled for unity while fostering disunity and suggested the nation exercise humility, while exhibiting none himself.

The President was on the roster with politically incorrect Dr. Ben Carson who gave Obama a respectable prayer breakfast spanking. Carson, a world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon, was unafraid in Obama’s presence. That’s probably because Dr. Carson has worked on brains just a tiny bit smaller than Barack’s.

For those on the left there’s nothing worse than a black man refusing to play the victim, insisting that his success was achieved through individual freedom and personal responsibility. That’s why the President probably came real close to losing a waffle while listening to Ben share how, against all odds and without government assistance, he overcame poverty, racism, and a violent temper to become a world-renowned neurosurgeon.

Benjamin Carson is a 61-year-old black man raised in Detroit by a single mother who refused to let her sons fail. As a peeved Obama stoically glared at him, Dr. Carson talked of his mother Sonya’s demand that, although unable to read herself, he and his brother Curtis, rather than watch television, read and write book reports.

Once nicknamed the “dumbest kid in the world,” Ben described how books taught him about the individual self-determination “people of great accomplishment” exercise. Those lessons led to an epiphany for Carson: “At that point I didn’t hate poverty anymore, because I knew it was only temporary: I could change that.”

Clearly, Dr. Carson’s idea of ‘change’ is radically different from that of the president. Change for Ben Carson came with the revelation that the best one can be requires hard work and personal responsibility.

Carson dared to touch on America’s “moral decay and fiscal irresponsibility” with Barack Obama, the main contributor to both problems, sitting just a few feet away.

For mathematically-challenged Obama voters who find it hard to grasp the enormity of the nation’s 16.5-trillion-dollar liability, Carson broke it down by explaining that if one were to count “one number per second…it would take “507,000 years … to count to one trillion.” The doctor even brought up tax-free health savings accounts – now that takes a hearty dose of intestinal fortitude!

Ben Carson was not shy about laying out a flat-tax proposal, either. He suggested that if “You make 10 billion dollars, you put in a billion. You make 10 dollars, you put in one.” Then, he cleverly used the flat-tax argument as a springboard to expose the president’s class warfare tactics when he pointed out that “some people” (ahem) say, “That’s not fair! It doesn’t hurt the guy who made 10 billion dollars.”

Dr. Carson then asked, “Where does it say you have to hurt that guy? He just put a billion dollars into the pot!” The 2008 Presidential Medal of Freedom winner should have just turned and spoken directly to the presidential ‘winner’ sitting nearby, who was trying desperately to keep his composure.

Unfortunately, Carson chose not to do that, but the unasked question dangling here is: Why are these two men so different? Both are black males abandoned by their bigamist fathers and raised by single mothers. Each one married an accomplished woman, and both reached the pinnacle of achievement. Yet, despite the fact that Dr. Carson would probably happily release his college transcripts if asked, the differences between the two far outweigh the similarities.

Having performed surgery on a twin in its mother’s womb, Ben saved an unborn child. Barack, both philosophically and monetarily, supports the destruction of the children Dr. Carson saves.

In the first book about himself, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, Barack shared his quest for identity, and peppered the journey with references to communist mentors, anti-Semitic pastors, and poetic, possibly made-up tales of racial animosity.

On the other hand, quelling division rather than stoking it, Ben Carson writes uniquely American books with a Christian flavor that inspire people to be all they can be, such as Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence. Carson’s recent book America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great, was co-authored by his wife, Lacena ‘Candy’ Carson.

Thus far, prolific author Barack Obama has never written a patriotic book with his wife Michelle, who confessed just a few years ago that “for the first time in my adult lifetime I’m really proud of my country.”

Barack Obama likes hanging with Hollywood heavy-hitters like lip-syncing Bey and her hubby Big Pimpin’ Jay. On the other hand, in the 1990s Dr. Carson advised young people that talking about Madonna, Michael Jordan, and Michael Jackson was “not creating the kind of society we want to create.”

At a Randolph-Macon College commencement, Carson shared his views on America’s legacy, admitting that although we’ve made mistakes, “This nation was able to turn around the horrors of civil rights in record time and has created an environment in which anybody…willing to work hard can succeed.”

For the president, hearing sentiments like that coming from a black man had to be super cringe-worthy. That type of straight talk has the power to destabilize Barack Obama politically, because think of it – when a person of Dr. Ben Carson’s caliber receives accolades for his wisdom and successes, it proves that what defines a person in America is character, not color.

All it took was one courageous man to step forward at a Washington DC breakfast event and unabashedly do what the pusillanimous Republican Congress seems unable to do – confront tyranny with truth. Unlike Barack Hussein Obama, Benjamin Solomon Carson exemplifies faith in Jesus and a grateful, patriotic view of America. The doctor accomplished miraculous things by exercising the type of humility the president talks about at prayer breakfasts, but clearly lacks.

In the end, separating Siamese twins joined at the head and successfully performing hemispherectomies by removing half the brain of sick children must have infused Dr. Carson with the type of confidence needed to literally speak truth to power – directly to the President of the United States’ face.

Jeannie DeAngelis

Jeannie DeAngelis writes almost exclusively for American Thinker and has been published on the conservative website Pajamas Media, as well as hosting a blog. See Jeannie's Blog

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Ben Carson - Excerpt from Gifted Hands Movie

Ben Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 18, 1951.

His mother Sonya, though undereducated herself, pushed her sons to read and to believe in themselves. Carson went from a poor student to an honors one, going on to medical school and becoming Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital at age 33. He became famous for his ground-breaking work separating conjoined twins.


Ben was eight and Curtis, Ben's brother, was 10 when Sonya was left to raise the children on her own. The family was very poor, and to make ends meet Sonya sometimes took on two or three jobs at a time in order to provide for her boys. Most of the jobs she had were as a domestic servant.


There were occasions when her boys wouldn't see her for days at a time, because she would go to work at 5:00 AM and come home around 11:00 PM, going from one job to the next. She was frugal with the family's finances, cleaning and patching clothes from the Goodwill in order to dress the boys. The family would also go to local farmers and offer to pick corn or other vegetables in exchange for a portion of the yield. She would then can the produce for the kids' meals. Her actions, and the way she managed the family, proved to be a tremendous influence on Ben and Curtis.

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Star Parker - Ben Carson on America's Education Challenge

In the midst of the third presidential debate in Florida, which was supposedly about foreign policy, President Barack Obama interjected a few words about American education.

The rationale was not unreasonable. A better-educated America will be a better-performing and more internationally competitive America.

"Let's talk about what we need to compete. ... Let's take an example that we know is going to make a difference in the 21st century and that's our education policy," he said.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case with politicians, what we hear sounds so logical, so compelling. If only it had anything to do with reality.

According to the fractured political logic on education, which is not much different from what we hear regarding most areas of public policy, the reason we have failure is we're not doing enough of what already isn't working.

In the case of education, we're spending a lot of money and not getting results. So the problem must be, in the brilliant political take on matters, we're just not spending enough money.

"I now want to hire more teachers, especially in math and science, because we know that we've fallen behind when it comes to math and science," Obama said. "And those teachers can make a difference."

But, Mr. President, what information do you have that leads you to conclude that more teachers can make a difference?

According to information recently published by Face the Facts USA, a nonpartisan project of the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, over the last decade the federal government spent $293 billion and states spent a combined $5.5 trillion -- money targeted to improving academic performance -- with no discernable change in reading and math scores. "A quarter of high school seniors don't meet basic reading standards and a third fall below basic math proficiency," Face the Facts USA reports.

Throwing money at education may make those who get the money better off, but there is little, if any, evidence that it makes any difference at all in improving academic performance.

Recently, I sat down and interviewed one of my heroes: Dr. Ben Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Outside of his work, Carson's passion is education. As someone who grew up in a Detroit ghetto, whose mother was a domestic who could not read, he has some idea what it means to start with nothing and achieve the American dream.

But listening to Carson -- whose latest book is titled "America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great" -- you get a much different take on what is wrong with education and our nation today than what we hear from politicians.

Carson says, "We were a 'can do' nation and now we're a 'what can you do for me' nation."

He talks about the two biggest influences when he was a boy: a demanding and caring mother and his church.

According to Carson, "we're being crucified by political correctness -- that any lifestyle is equivalent to any other lifestyle."

Through the Carson Scholars Fund, he provides $1,000 college scholarships to kids "who excel academically and are dedicated to serving their communities." He also builds reading rooms -- there are now 77 at schools in 11 states -- designed to provoke kids to want to read.

After a half-hour interview with Carson, here's my takeaway: Education is about family, meaning, personal responsibility, standards of right and wrong, and appreciating the uniqueness of every child.

Without these fundamentals, truckloads of taxpayer money will accomplish nothing. Which is why the trillions being spent are poured into a black hole.

I would add that, given the realities of today's public schools -- defined by the political correctness that Carson says is crucifying us -- there is no hope of meeting his standards for education without giving parents freedom to choose where to send their kid to school.

Star Parker

Star Parker is founder and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, a 501c3 think tank which explores and promotes market based public policy to fight poverty, as well as author of the newly revised Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can do About It.

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