5 worst right-wing moments of the week -- Ben Carson is a pathological liar

The neurosurgeon's autobiography looks shakier by the day, while Bill O'Reilly rants and raves over a bad review

Published November 9, 2015 11:29AM (EST)

  (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
(Reuters/Brendan McDermid)

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

AlterNet 1. O'Reilly goes ballistic on George Will.

It’s always super-fun to watch arrogant conservative a**holes fight amongst themselves, and that is just what thoughtful viewers of Fox News (hah! Kidding! We know that’s an oxymoron) got to watch this week, when Bill O'Reilly took on George Will for daring to criticize O’Reilly’s book on Reagan. (Will called it a “no facts zone,” among other insults.) That made O’Reilly hopping mad, so he invited Will on so he could talk over him and berate him. Will was offended that O’Reilly’s book dared criticize Saint Ronnie. O’Reilly denied that he had criticized Reagan, and called Will a hack. Repeatedly. 'Cause that's how you win arguments.

A section of O'Reilly's sputterings:

All of what we write in Killing Reagan is true. We didn’t talk to anybody who had skin in the game or spin in the game, we didn’t talk to anybody who is derogatory toward the Reagans or anyone who is laudatory. We do our own investigation. Killing Reagan is a laudatory book, it praises Ronald Reagan, and you didn’t even mention that. You’re a hack!

Who is the more ridiculous of the two? That is hard to say. O’Reilly is the bigger bully, but he’s also right that Will wants to deify Reagan. Will might be even more conservative when he says O’Reilly is doing the work of the American left by criticizing Reagan at all, or saying that at some point his aides thought he might not be up to the job. To Will, that's pretty much being in league with the devil.

It’s just fun to watch them devour their own.

2. Ben Carson may not be able to discern when he is lying anymore.

Republican frontrunner Ben Carson’s dissociative state appears to be complete.  On Friday, he told Fox News: “Lying, I believe, is a grave sin and there’s just no way that I would be sitting here lying about something like this.”

That statement came on the heels of revelations that Carson lied about having been given a scholarship to West Point, something his campaign admitted never happened, and then retracted its admission. Carson told another whopper in front of the huge national audience for the third Republican debate when he denied any paid association with dubious supplement company Mannatech. His campaign confirmed he’s been a paid spokesman, but still Ben Carson manages to believe himself. It’s possible he just cannot tell the difference between truth, and to put it charitably, untruth, when it emerges from his own mouth.

It’s weird, amirite? Or maybe it isn’t for a man of science, who asserts pyramids were built for grain storage and evolution is wrong.

Among the Carson biographical details that are currently looking pretty shaky (even to the Wall Street Journal) are an anecdote about being the lone Yale student honest enough to take a revised final while classmates walked out; and being featured in the Yale newspaper for his bravery. (No record of this anywhere in the Yale archives. He does know people can look this sh*t up, right?) Even his favorite story of trying to stab a friend, being lucky enough to miss and then successfully praying his anger away, is looking wobbly. Frankly, when a man blames mass shooting victims for just sitting there and letting themselves be shot and proudly recounts a story of being held up in a Popeye’s and directing the gunman to the poor counterguy, we’re a little unconvinced that those anger issues have been completely laid to rest.

Oh, and that unflattering Popeye’s story may not be true either. Has anyone ever talked to the conjoined twins this former neurosurgeon supposedly separated? Just wondering.

3. Ohio Gov. John Kasich tries, fails to defend anti-pot legalization stance to Colbert.

Stephen Colbert basically kicked Ohio’s conservative governor John Kasich’s ass in a debate about pot legalization Friday night. Kasich was a guest on the show and he tried his darndest to seem like a fun chill guy who can joke around with Colbert, but he basically spouted a lot of reefer madness nonsense when it comes to pot.

“Lots of people are going to jail for minor infractions and it ruins their entire life,” Colbert pointed out.

Kasich responded that it was important to be “tough on drugs” because he met someone whose son apparently died from an overdose.

“I want to be clear I’m not arguing for legalizing heroin,” Colbert pointed out.

Kasich continued lumping all drugs together and argued that we don’t want to give kids a mixed message that some drugs are okay. Colbert pointed out that we already do—it’s called alcohol.

Didn’t matter how much sense Colbert made: Kasich’s skull was apparently impervious, failing to register that his own life might have been ruined by the pot laws he advocates, since he gave it a try.

4. Ted Cruz says praying should be pre-requisite for presidency.

Ted Cruz, along with Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal, had absolutely zero qualms about speaking at an event organized by a far-right extremist Christian pastor who advocates the death penalty for homosexuality.

That alone is tremendously f*cked up, but there’s more. When Cruz spoke to the crowd gathered for the National Religious Liberties Festival in Iowa this week, he not only assured the crowd he fears God, but said fearing God is an essential character trait for a president to have. In fact, he asserted that “any president who doesn’t begin every day on his knees isn’t fit to be commander-in-chief.”

Couple of things here: Guess Cruz is in a little bit in denial that the commander-in-chief role might go to a woman. And we’d assume from that statement that the commander-in-chief can face Mecca while in this prostrate praying position.

5. Prominent Trump supporter in Oklahoma has wildly offensive Facebook page.

Unless you are from Oklahoma or are closely reading Donald Trump’s campaign literature in that state, you have probably never heard of Carol Hefner. But let us tell you, you are really missing out. The lady is a charmer! Described as a campaign coordinator and a co-chair of Trump's state campaign, Hefner just loves posting ignorant, vile things about Muslims, blacks and transgender people. Just the sort of person who will make America great again.

Among her “great” ideas, per Talking Points Memo, are the notions that Muslims have infiltrated the Obama administration; that Clinton aide Huma Abedin has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood through her brother; and that Muslims and blacks were responsible for slavery. She is especially offended at the wearing of burquas, loves to point out that blacks owned slaves, calls transgender people mentally ill, and has posted messages suggesting Muslims go back “to the hell they came from.”

Come to think of it, that is pretty close to Trump’s position on immigrants. He recently suggested that Syrian refugees should go back and fight for their country, something we’re sure never occurred to them.

Watch to find out what we know about Carson's alleged violent incidents:
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By Janet Allon

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