"Holocaust could've been avoided if the Jews were armed"

[VelociRapture]

So it sounds like you are saying the solution is not the right to bear arms, but rather arming everyone? If not, I am sorry that I am not following the logic.

I actually don't know a lot about history (it is embarrassing), but from what I know I would agree that Japanese Americans probably didn't fear harm any more than other minority populations. If anyone knows more about this topic and cares to share, I would be interested in learning.

A quick google search suggests that the Jewish population in the 1930s constituted less than 0.75% of the population. At the time of internment, Japanese Americans constituted less than 0.1% of the US population. So, while I agree Japanese Americans represented a far smaller fraction of the population, I am not sure that it is really relevant to the conversation Jews represented such a small fraction of the German population?

Feel free to ignore me - I am not meaning to nit-pick. I am just very interested in this issue.

You should check out what George Takei has to say about it - his family was imprisoned in a camp located in Arkansas when he was 5 until he was around 8 or 9. He's spoken at length many times about how his family were forced from their home at gunpoint and imprisoned for years - simply because they looked like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor.

I was a five-year-old. My parents told—my father told us that we were going on a long vacation to a place called Arkansas. It was an adventure. I thought everyone took vacations by leaving home in a railroad car with sentries, armed soldiers at both ends of the car, sitting on wooden benches. And whenever we approached a town, we were forced to draw the curtains, the shade. We were not supposed to be seen by the people out there. We thought that was the way things happened. We saw people crying, you know, and we thought, "Well, why are they crying? Daddy said we're going on a vacation." So we were innocent children.

When we arrived at Rohwer, in the swamps of Arkansas, there were these barb wire fences and sentry towers. But children are amazingly adaptable. And so, the barb wire fence became no more intimidating than a chain link fence around a school playground. And the sentry towers were just part of the landscape. We adjusted to lining up three times a day to eat lousy food in a noisy mess hall. And at school, we began every school day with the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. I could see the barb wire fence and the sentry towers right outside my schoolhouse window as I recited the words "with liberty and justice for all," an innocent child unaware of the irony.

Source: io9.com/george-takei-describes-his-experience-in-a-japanese-int-1533358984

[anjulibai]

George Takei is awesome, and Ben Carson is a moron.

He might as well have said slaves should have killed their masters in their sleep.

[AmazonGrace]

"Obamacare is really, I think, the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery," he said. "And it is -- in a way -- it is slavery, in a way. Because it is making all of us subservient to the government."

Because getting healthcare is totally analogous to losing your freedom in and being a possession.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/201 ... ous-gunman

On Monday, he wrote on Facebook, "I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away."

[Iamhispurity]

This is disgusting. Does he really think that?

As a German national I hate it when people draw comparisons to the holocaust. Just no. :angry-banghead: Why do people do that? Is that acceptable anywhere???

P.S. I am a conservative christian and can´t quite figure out whats so "christian" about most republicans. They don´t seam to take the "love thy neighbour as thyself"-part very seriously :snooty:

[RosyDaisy]

Son of a bitch! He really went there!

[Peas n carrots]

Son of a bitch! He really went there!

Not sure which is worse - being a dumb smart person or being glib to garner votes.

[doggie]

Not sure which is worse - being a dumb smart person or being glib to garner votes.

we keep seeing how the candidates are trying to out dumb each other. the sad part is people want to hear this crap.

check out this video on carson about the mass shooting it really lets you know the real face of carson.

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/1rvf14/th ... -president

[Rachel333]

I knew when I saw that title that this had to be Ben Carson.

You know what you call the guy who graduates at the bottom of his med school class?

Doctor!

Jokes aside, I sometimes wonder how Carson got through medical school. Or college in general. It wouldn't surprise me if there was cheating going on somewhere. The guy really just does not seem smart enough to be a physician.

God gave him the answers!

Carson explained how his plans of being a doctor were nearly ruined when he was failing his chemistry class so badly that even if he got an A on the final exam, he wouldn’t have been able to pass. His only chance was a rule put forth by the professor that allowed students to receive double credit on the final. Upon hearing this, Carson asked God for a miracle the night before the test.

But instead of studying, Carson fell asleep and had a dream that he was alone in an auditorium where a “nebulous figure†appeared before him with a blackboard and wrote out the answers.

“When I went to take the test the next morning, it was like The Twilight Zone,†Carson said. “I opened that book and I recognized the first problem as one of the ones I dreamed about. And the next, and the next, and the next, and I aced the exam and got a good mark in chemistry. It worked out okay and I promised the Lord he would never have to do that for me again.â€

[bionicmlle]

Something is really off about Ben Carson. His speech tends to be soft and slurry and he doesn't open his eyes wide. It could be that he just has a really bad pair of contacts that bother his eyes (I've seen that before) but it could also be something like the aftereffects of a small stroke. (Think Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls. Her filters came off after her stroke.) It could also be that it's a personality disorder coming out.

Just because someone has the technical skills to be a neurosurgeon doesn't mean s/he is not a sociopath.

He's always been this way. I have, unfortunately, been captive audience to his speaking engagements several times over the years since I was a teen. He spoke at a notable event in my life, having nothing to do with origins, but used the time to wax eloquent on his theories of creation. It was ridiculous and self aggrandizing. This was years ago. He always talks like he has had a stroke and gets praised for being "the gentle physician." :ew:

[nastyhobbitses]

THEY. FUCKING. WERE. A lot of times. How fucking dare you ignore and belittle the extremely courageous resistance movements that Jews in the most deplorable of conditions, including IN THE FUCKING CONCENTRATION CAMPS, undertook to save themselves and their families?

Fuck you, Ben Carson. Fuck you with a cactus coated in Tiger Balm. Go back to operating on people's brains. Maybe take a look at your own if you're going to be this fucking insensitive and obtuse.

Sorry, but as a Jew, I get kind of touchy about this. I'm fucking tired of Republicans trying to play the Holocaust card for their own purposes.

[Peas n carrots]

I knew when I saw that title that this had to be Ben Carson.

God gave him the answers!

SAY WUT? :think:

So the guy was fucking failing chem but Jesus helped him cheat? This is a man who clearly has a massive God complex.

[Deist woman]

I had not heard about him saying he had a gun shoved in his ribs during a hold up, until I read it here. So I looked it up, and see that there's not a lot of credibility given to his claim. (sorry if this has already been posted)

http://m.snopes.com/2015/10/09/ben-carson-popeyes/ (link not broken because it is a news outlet)

Ben Carson’s Popeye’s Robbery Claim Questioned

On 9 October 2015, Carson defended his account to SiriusXM “POTUS†host Jared Rizzi when the latter asked if Carson could corroborate his story:

I don’t know. To me it wasn’t that big of deal, to be honest with you … Really, what you’re saying is ‘are you lying about that? Is that something that you’re making up?’ And why would I be doing that? As a God-fearing Christian, it’s something that happened. It’s not something I made up.

Read more at http://m.snopes.com/2015/10/09/ben-cars ... 5dQfLfS.99

[guitar_villain]

The most infuriating part of his comment was that they did fight back once it became known that they weren't going to work camps.

Look up the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Then see what happens when people armed with basic hand weapons go up against an organized army.

[artdecades]

Unfortunately, I see this argument a lot. I guess its easier to blame the victims than to condemn the entire international community for sitting by while Jews were being systematically slaughtered.

[2xx1xy1JD]

You know what you call the guy who graduates at the bottom of his med school class?

Doctor!

Jokes aside, I sometimes wonder how Carson got through medical school. Or college in general. It wouldn't surprise me if there was cheating going on somewhere. The guy really just does not seem smart enough to be a physician.

You can't cheat your way through separating conjoined twins.

I don't question for a moment that he's intelligent and gifted as a neurosurgeon. The things is that being a neurosurgeon doesn't mean that you are necessarily an expert in a completely unrelated area. In fact, if you dedicate your life to being educated in a really demanding and really narrow field, you often lose the opportunity to have a broad education and experience in other areas. I see with some of my husband's friends quite often.

[lilah]

Exactly. It's like expecting Serena Williams to win a gold medal in figure skating because she's an amazing athlete.

In Carson's case being a gray surgeon can work against learning how to be a great leader since the operating room is tiny dictatorship run by the surgeon. It's not a great arena to learn how be a politician.

[nastyhobbitses]

You can't cheat your way through separating conjoined twins.

I don't question for a moment that he's intelligent and gifted as a neurosurgeon. The things is that being a neurosurgeon doesn't mean that you are necessarily an expert in a completely unrelated area. In fact, if you dedicate your life to being educated in a really demanding and really narrow field, you often lose the opportunity to have a broad education and experience in other areas. I see with some of my husband's friends quite often.

Exactly. He can't fake being a neurosurgeon who has pioneered quite a few pretty huge techniques in the discipline, but it does seem that neurosurgery is the one thing he's really good at (and it's a fine, fine thing to be really good at). And being able to take out half of someone's brain to stop seizures or separate conjoined twins doesn't mean you'll be good at running a country or at picking up a fucking book about the Holocaust before you run your mouth about it.

[doggie]

well you thought ben carson was bad this asshat took it to a new level it is not victim blaming it is victim shaming.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fox ... _hp_ref=tw

A Fox News contributor has offered a bizarre defense of Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s assertion that the Holocaust was the result of Nazi gun control.

Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist and member of Fox News’ “Medical A-Team,†wrote in a Friday op-ed column that Ben Carson is "right" and the Anti-Defamation League -- an anti-Semitism watchdog that called Carson’s claims “historically inaccurate†-- is "wrong."

Ablow does not dispute the fact -- pointed out by the ADL -- that the guns potentially available to European Jews during the Holocaust, even if they could legally own them, would not have been enough to overtake the Nazis. He instead argues that fiercer Jewish resistance to the Nazis, while futile in itself, would have preserved in Jews a more courageous “mindset.â€

“The mindset that Jews surrendered with their guns is far more important than the hardware they turned over: They surrendered the demonstrated intention, at all costs, to resist being deprived of liberty,†he wrote. “If Jews in Germany had more actively resisted the Nazi party or the Nazi regime and had diagnosed it as a malignant and deadly cancer from the start, there would, indeed, have been a chance for the people of that country and the world to be moved to action by their bold refusal to be enslaved.â€

Ablow’s column is filled with caveats. He discloses that he has held a fundraiser for Carson. And he acknowledges that he was “not there†during the Holocaust and “hindsight is 20/20.â€

But because he was “born a Jew,†studied the Holocaust and has spoken in front of the Anti-Defamation League, he deems himself qualified to weigh in on the matter.

[sawasdee]

Did I really just read that? That this man is a supporter of Carson and a member of his 'crew' is enough to disqualify the latter from serious consideration.....please d-g, forever. I've heard of the G-d complex of surgeons, but this is ridiculous!

[Dandruff]

I think Carson is making the rest of the Republican field look good better. He's seeming more and more like a distraction to me. Can only hope that sanity will prevail.

Have been checking around on the Web to see whether Carson has made analogies between the Holocaust and slavery, especially any that would imply that if slaves were armed things would have turned out differently. Haven't found any...yet.

[Cartmann99]

Did I really just read that? That this man is a supporter of Carson and a member of his 'crew' is enough to disqualify the latter from serious consideration.....please d-g, forever. I've heard of the G-d complex of surgeons, but this is ridiculous!

If Dr. Ablow told me the sky was blue, I'd go outside and check for myself. The article below is from 2014, but it could have been written yesterday:

Medical experts contacted by the Associated Press condemned Fox News contributor Dr. Keith Ablow for his ongoing cable news psychoanalysis of President Obama, his wife, and other figures.

Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, the chairman of psychiatry at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons and past president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), told the AP that "it is shameful and unfortunate that he is given a platform by Fox News or any other media organization," adding that "he is a narcissistic self-promoter of limited and dubious expertise."

Ford Vox, a staff psychiatrist at the Shepherd Brain Injury Rehabilitation Center in Atlanta, said that Ablow's medical analysis "is really just irresponsible and it's embarrassing for physicians in general."

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/11/06 ... mef/201486

[PregnantPornStar]

Ben Carson is a dipshit when it comes to politicking, but he isn't the first person to use this argument in gun politics. When Nazi Germany came into power, one of the first things they did was to disarm Jews. In fact, prior to Nazi control, gun laws were stricter. They were loosened to allow better access for citizens (namely military and Nazi party members) while disarming those who were "untrustworthy". Jews and occupied countries couldn't bear arms.

I don't know that it is fair to say it would have been completely avoided, but I also don't think it is fair to say, without question, that it wouldn't have been diminished. I don't know to what level, but I think it is a question worth asking.

[Peas n carrots]

Hmmm I think Ben Carson and Dr. Ablow took Inglorious Basterds too seriously.

[Alicja]

wow I didn't know piles of trash could talk.

[doggie]

wow I didn't know piles of trash could talk.

You must have missed the whole Republican presidential race.