Free Republic

The thought of abortion for convenience is repugnantSeveral years ago, I was consulted by a young woman who was 33 weeks pregnant and was on her way to Kansas get an abortion. I informed her of the multiple options available to her outside of abortion and she decided to go through with the pregnancy even though the child had hydrocephalus and required neurosurgical intervention after birth a few weeks later. She kept the baby and loves the beautiful child that has resulted. A couple of decades ago, I came into the pediatric Intensive Care Unit on morning rounds and was...

When government grows too large, dependency replaces achievementWhen I was in high school in Detroit, I had a job as a biology laboratory assistant. I spent a substantial amount of time in the greenhouse, preparing botany experiments. I had acquired some seeds of an interesting plant and was anxious to use them to produce my own crop of these plants. I planted the seeds in a special container and kept enriching the soil and providing plenty of moisture and sunlight to enhance and accelerate the growth. I was very disappointed with the results and eventually abandoned the project, leaving the...

It’s time to ignore the inflammatory rhetoric of the haters and dividersA few years ago, I was participating in a national radio interview when the questioner asked me, “Dr. Carson, I notice that you don’t speak very often about race. Why is that?” I replied, “It’s because I’m a neurosurgeon.” The puzzled look on her face demanded further clarification. I proceeded to explain that when I take a patient to the operating room and open the cranium, exposing the brain, I am operating on the actual thing that makes that person who they are. The hair, scalp and skull bones...

Earlier this year, one of the mainstream media networks was planning to do a special on my retirement from neurosurgery. They recorded a lecture that I gave at my medical school, as well as one given at a high school in Detroit. They also accompanied me to my old neighborhoods, where many of the neighbors came out to greet me and talk about old times. I was struck by some of the comments I heard, including the notion that I always had lofty dreams that seemed unrealistic, but that others enjoyed hearing about anyway. Someone else told me that they...

When I was a kid growing up in Detroit and Boston, there were multiple Christmas celebrations in public school. Everyone participated in the celebrations, including the Jews and the many individuals of Middle Eastern descent. Christmas carols were sung, presents were exchanged and food was consumed in a partylike atmosphere. There were very few people stoking the fires of sensitivity or trying to make everyone feel different. There’s nothing wrong with diversity, but there is also nothing wrong with unity and enjoying overarching fun and good will. When someone said “Merry Christmas,” it was regarded as a salutation of good...

As a youngster, I remember being taught to offer your seat on the bus to any elderly person. It was not unusual to see people offering to help carry a heavy or awkward box when a perfect stranger was obviously struggling with one. In today’s culture, it would not be unusual for the stranger to encounter harsh criticism instead of help, because he failed to appropriately plan the transport of the heavy box. What has produced the coarsening of attitudes in modern society? Are the crude and mean-spirited comments heard on television and read in the print media having an...

The lessons learned in youth jobs can pay off laterI vividly remember as a teenager obtaining my first job with a regular paycheck as a high school biology-laboratory assistant. It’s hard to describe how excited I was to be receiving a salary and contributing to the upkeep of my family’s household, but the biggest thrill was doing something important while at the same time acquiring many skills that would prove useful in the future. Through the kindness and interest of my high school science teachers, I gained great familiarity with many scientific techniques that enabled me to acquire a job...

When I was a teenager, my mother broke her own rule of never buying someone else’s trouble and purchased a used car. We were quite excited because it was beautiful and sleek, and it was a convertible. The salesman said the car was practically new and was the deal of the century. Before long, it was discovered that the engine was completely shot, and the car was essentially a beautiful piece of junk. The salesman did not know my mother, and in the end, gladly refunded her money and took the car back. This kind of story is, of course,...

When I was a teenager, we loved to play baseball, and in my neighborhood there were two teams. Both of them were quite good, but they were bitter rivals. It was not uncommon for fights to break out when they played each other. On one very memorable day, a very boastful team from another neighborhood challenged our neighborhood to a game. Their team was quite formidable by reputation, and neither of our teams would likely have been able to beat them. We decided to put aside our differences and use our strongest players to form one neighborhood team to take...

What do the following five things have in common? The highest corporate-tax rate in the world; high personal and small-business taxes; the Affordable Care Act; an oppressive regulatory atmosphere with intimidation rather than help from the government; and overly aggressive environmental-protection policies. These five things — along with the devaluing of the U.S. dollar by the constant printing of money backed up by nothing but reputation — are largely responsible for an extremely sluggish economy that has little hope of improvement without a drastic change in economic philosophy. I was recently talking to a couple of very well-known entrepreneurs who...

The presidential election of 2016 will be a defining moment for the nation and for the Republican Party. Not so for the Democratic Party. There's no controversy among Democrats about what America should be and what their party is about: big government, welfare state socialism and secular humanism. The only question about the Democratic presidential ticket is which welfare state socialist, secular humanist the party will nominate. The picture for Republicans is more complex, and this makes Democrats happy. They see Republican Party dissension as division and weakness, which, in their view, can only help Democrats. Key issues divide Republicans...

We have all heard the news stories about people so morbidly obese that they could not exit their house or apartment. I remember one story of a person who had to be lifted out with a crane after a wall was removed. These people are addicted to eating, and in some cases, ate incessantly even though they knew that they were jeopardizing their health and eventually, their lives. They grew so large that they were barely able to move and rendered themselves largely useless except as a food-disposal unit. This reminds me of our federal government, which was once agile...

I rec'd a petition and request for funds from a Committee to draft Ben Carson for president. Has anyone else rec'd one?

Are Americans feeling the pain?

Many can remember as youngsters doing something wrong, for which they knew punishment was deserved. In order to avoid the punishment, they would try to create a diversion of some type in order to distract the attention of parents or teachers who, hopefully, would not notice or would forget about the original infraction. The PC world of the secular progressives still uses this tactic quite effectively when they try to refocus attention on an individual or organization that opposes their agenda. This was certainly the case last week, when at the Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C., I stated that...

Dr. Ben Carson, the former director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, drew a parallel between Obamacare and “socialized medicine” and cited Communist leader Vladimir Lenin’s support for government-run health care as the “keystone to the establishment of a socialist state.” Speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Dr. Carson said that Obamacare “was never about healthcare. It was about control,” and making all Americans “subservient to the government.” He then commented on why the Democrat-dominant Congress in 2010 moved swiftly to pass the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare. “And why did they...

Ben Carson Values Voter Summit 2013 FULL SPEECH. obamacare slavery. Dr. Ben Carson, a conservative commentator and neurosurgeon,Ben Carson, fresh off signing a new contributor contract with Fox News, told the crowd that Obamacare is "the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery." In fact, Carson said, "in a way, it is slavery, because it is making all of us subservient to the government." He went to explain that the Affordable Care Act "was never about health care, it was about control." For Carson it all comes down to a quote from Vladimir Lenin, who said, "Socialized...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Ben Carson is probably best known for his work as a neurosurgeon, but in recent months he has become a conservative firebrand and today he offered some controversial red meat to the audience at the Values Voter Summit in Washington. Carson, who is a contributor to Fox News, assailed president Obama’s health care law, saying it is akin to slavery. “I have to tell you, you know Obamacare is really, I think, the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery,” Carson said. “And it is slavery in a way because it is making all of us subservient...

A few weeks ago, I arrived from Europe at one of the Washington area’s international airports. The wait in the customs line approached an hour, because there was only one customs agent working as more than 20 of the booths stood empty. I was told by a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent that this was a result of sequestration and it was designed to inflict maximum inconvenience on travelers so they would realize no part of the federal budget can be cut without horrible consequences. In similar fashion, the current government shutdown over disagreements about Obamacare has caused many “nonessential”...

Medical practice and healthcare policy are on a collision course. From an intellectual perspective, we are entering a golden age of the healing arts. The full promise of genomic medicine informing diagnosis and treatment beckons from just over the horizon. Younger physicians, just entering practice, have the ability to alleviate human suffering that no generation of doctors has ever previously known. But not so fast. The administration of health care policy, and ultimately dollars, are also undergoing a generational shift. But this shift is founded on some of the most irrational politics this country has ever seen. Future generations observing...