Ben Carson on "volatile" past, trying to stab a friend

[IDemo]

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, in defending against criticisms of his relaxed demeanor on the campaign trail, opened up about his past "volatile" behavior during an interview that aired Sunday.

"I have plenty of energy. But, you know, I am soft-spoken. I do have a tendency to be relaxed. I wasn't always like that. There was a time when I was, you know, very volatile," Carson told NBC News. "But, you know, I changed."

The retired neurosurgeon went on to explain that "as a teenager, I would go after people with rocks, and bricks, and baseball bats, and hammers." He also spoke about the time, at 14 years old, when he "tried to stab someone" -- a well-known story of Carson attacking a friend during an argument over preferred radio stations. He missed: the knife hit the teenager's belt buckle and snapped.

"Fortunately, you know, my life has been changed," Carson added. "And I'm a very different person now."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/carson-volatile-past-trying-to-stab-friend/

[RKP5637]

1. He really unnerves me. Behind all of those smiles and calming ways there is to me

something really unsettling going on. I've often remarked he well may have the qualities of a dictator.

[Generic Other]

2. He wasn't stabbing someone

he was practicing medicine without a license.

[virtualobserver]

4. that's when he realized that it might be easier to stab people with the help of an anesthesiologist

[uawchild]

10. Shades of Dexter! n/t

[Generic Other]

11. Hammers and rocks just are a bit too iffy

The patients tend to come to during the surgery.

I bet he tortured animals too!

[Katashi_itto]

24. The person was possessed

[valerief]

3. "I was a vicious asshole before I discovered opiates. Now I'm just an asshole." nt

[Paladin]

6. That's my strong suspicion---I think the guy is self-medicating. (nt)

[valerief]

9. Took the words right out of my mouth from this post.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7247982

He sounds as fucked up as Laura Bush always looked.

[Paladin]

16. Apt comparison. (nt)

[emulatorloo]

25. Lol beautiful!

[pinboy3niner]

5. Who among us doesn't have a funny story about trying to stab a friend and being foiled?

Yuk yuk yuk.

[Rex]

18. Yeah....erm...wtf!?

What else does Dexter want to tell us?

[emulatorloo]

26. I remember so many knife battles with my friends over which radio station to listen to.

[Agschmid]

38. I still have the pencil lead scar...

Apparently I knocked over his block tower?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/pencil-stabbers#.xd4dQbp6v

[bemildred]

7. How about "erratic past"? nt

[IDemo]

8. "I'm asking America to put me in charge of the nukulars". n/t

[packman]

12. You can take the man out of the past

but never the past out of the man. Ben is flawed and dangerous.

[shenmue]

13. Attempted murder is funny ha ha ha ha

[pinboy3niner]

14. The candidate's defense used to be "But I didn't inhale," not "But my blade didn't penetrate"

[MoonchildCA]

15. The fact that he has that story alone, is pretty creepy.

The fact that he would put it out there during a presidential run thinking it would somehow make people understand and admire him, really shows how bonkers this guy is.

[smirkymonkey]

29. Exactly. He tells the story with this attitude of "Oh well, you know, kids!"

It's like he doesn't even realize how insane it sounds and how volatile it makes him look. I'm sorry, but most normal people don't behave like this in their youth and if they did, certainly wouldn't bring it up later as though it was nothing more than a funny story, showing how he "has changed". He's a dangerous guy now, just as sure as he was back then, although now I think his dangerousness might be a little harder to detect.

[kimbutgar]

17. He might even have some kinky s & m skeletons in his closet

I wouldn't put it past this creepy man.

[Quixote1818]

19. Trump will have a field day with this. nt

[Eugene]

20. This GOP primary is an arms race of craziness.

And his poll numbers will probably go up among his unhinged base.

[Skittles]

36. I am guessing they will be disappointed the weapon of choice wasnt a gun

[0rganism]

21. yep, another latent psychopath GOPer ready to rule us all

his candidacy is a goddam menace on a planetary scale

or perhaps i'm overreacting
i mean who among us hasn't had at least one episode of chasing people around "with rocks, and bricks, and baseball bats, and hammers"? you haven't really lived until you've tried to stab someone in the abdomen, right?

[IDemo]

23. I look at it as a rite of passage

to the correctional system, that is.

[DirkGently]

22. Wow. Ben Carson really IS psychologically disturbed.

Someone suggested on these pages recently that Carson is a "psychopath," clearly under the cultural, as opposed to clinical understanding of that term. Someone else took issue with using the term that way as being too cavalier.

I don't think it was. The more this man talks about himself and things he has done outside of his apparently brilliant career as a pediatric neurosurgeon, the more unbalanced he appears.

He also seems TOO relaxed in public. Almost doped up. His voice never rises above a sleepy monotone. Taken in combination with his truly disconnected-from-reality views of everything from evolution to gun violence to healthcare, and these really disturbing stories he is telling about himself, I think the man is ill.

Donald Trump would make a horrific President. He doesn't know a treaty from a trout, and doesn't seem to have a single idea in his head that isn't just a way to gain attention from the worst possible people.

But Ben Carson increasingly sounds like a dangerously deranged man.

It's almost got me thinking someone needs to carry Jeb or Rubio or one of the other corporate robots a few rounds to make sure neither Trump nor Carson gets the nomination. I joked yesterday that it would be fun for Carson to get the nomination, so he should stop worrying about the "secularists" being out to get him.

Now it doesn't seem so funny.

[XemaSab]

40. It takes balls of steel to cut two conjoined babies apart

Most people would worry about hurting or killing them...

...but Ben Carson isn't most people.

[Octafish]

27. Stick a fork in him.

The brain surgeon is done.

[eShirl]

28. holy crap

I had no idea

[struggle4progress]

30. He could become my favorite Republican candidate!

... Guy comes in, put the gun in my ribs. And I just said, ‘I believe that you want the guy behind the counter’ ...

... I just lunged at his abdomen with the knife. Probably would have seriously injured or killed him, but he happened to have on a large metal belt buckle under his clothing ...

[bbgrunt]

31. this is seriously deranged and creepy

[Runningdawg]

32. A wish that won't come true

I am a retired OR nurse and I want to hear what the nurses POV who have worked with him in the OR.
Dr's in general have to have a bit of the God complex or they would never be able to make tough calls.
But after 25 years in the OR I can tell you Neurosurgeons run neck and neck with Cardiac surgeons for biggest jerks.
I would bet soft-spoken Ben can make a sailor blush with his language and that he has been on hospital probation, or possibly sued in the past, for his treatment of staff.

[Matariki]

33. Is the the Twenty-teens version of the 90's "I smoked pot once"

required for Presidential candidates?

Between him and Jim Webb's - "I killed a man once" ...

[NightWatcher]

34. It happened at the same Popeyes where he never got robbed

He's just making up stuff to counter his flat demeanor.

[crazylikafox]

35. If this fight had happened to him as a 14 year old today, he most likely would have used a gun

instead of a knife. And probably would be facing a life in prison for murder. I don't think he sees the irony in that.

[Catherine Vincent]

37. So he was a thug. nt

[JI7]

39. i think he is lying about this just like the story about the gun

[Bucky]

41. GOP frontrunner in Iowa

smh