Althouse: "'It is ambition,' he had written , 'that makes of a creature a real man.'"

March 6, 2015

"'It is ambition,' he had written , 'that makes of a creature a real man.'"

"Pride, embarrassment, gloating: such emotions could only hinder his progress along the road he saw so clearly before him — the 'vision' he had indeed held for so long. They were luxuries in which he would not indulge himself."

"The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson," Robert A. Caro.

26 comments:

Michael K said...: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”
― Abraham Lincoln; 3/6/15, 8:29 AM
Jaq said...: And here I thought it was a big dick.; 3/6/15, 8:50 AM
rhhardin said...: I stumble into everything that happens.; 3/6/15, 8:50 AM
rhhardin said...: People who walk to work have ambition.; 3/6/15, 8:57 AM
Bob Ellison said...: It is nutrition that makes of a girl a woman.; 3/6/15, 9:12 AM
Steve M. Galbraith said...: Caro's account of Ladybird - Bird as she was called - is heartbreaking.

She was an angel. But he treated her just appallingly.; 3/6/15, 9:12 AM
traditionalguy said...: I would blame the flat lands of Texas with a mixture of Southern Baptist faith, German immigrant intelligence, and Scots-Irish warrior leadership. That is as competitive a combination as it gets in this universe.

Scott Walker seems to have a Northern Mid-western branch of that competitiveness.; 3/6/15, 9:13 AM
traditionalguy said...: Scott Walker = Sam Houston.; 3/6/15, 9:14 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: "It is nutrition that makes of a girl a woman."

Especially 'protein'.

I am Laslo.; 3/6/15, 9:14 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: "It is nutrition that makes of a girl a woman."

Especially 'protein'.

See, that was a blow-job joke. There is protein in semen, and women can ingest semen.

Note that I am not making the argument that a woman who does not ingest semen is still a girl, nor am I arguing that she is particularly malnourished.

But one COULD make that argument.

Perhaps a research study where two groups of women give blowjobs: Group A swallows, while Group B does not. Then we could check their relative health.

When checking their relative health we would also keep precise measurements of their breasts, because wouldn't it be great if it was scientifically proven that women who routinely ingested semen saw increases in breast size?

Flat-chested women would be SO easy. I reckon.

I am Laslo.; 3/6/15, 9:20 AM
m stone said...: I had it backwards. I thought it was emotion that makes a real man.

It must be my feminine part thinking.; 3/6/15, 9:22 AM
rhhardin said...: A sense of humor should drive people towards the Presidency.

Talk about a glass ceiling.; 3/6/15, 9:27 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: "Flat-chested women would be SO easy. I reckon."

Indeed, flat-chested women would become, over time, the desirous standard for men.

Big-breasted women would be perceived as those who have ingested way too much semen already.

At which point we would need a new study refuting the semen-ingestion/breast-enhancement study, where it would be postulated that big-breasted women just have big tits.

But in-between the studies: a Golden Era.

I am Laslo.; 3/6/15, 9:47 AM
JSD said...: LBJ rise to power was facilitated by the stealing the democratic nomination for the senate in 1948. One week after the primary election, George Parr, the “Duke of Duval County “, delivered the necessary votes. Without Parr’s help at that point in history, LBJ might have lumbered on as a minor Texas politician. The Parr political machine ruled for six decades until the 1970’s. More than a half century of stolen elections, stolen money and missing bodies would make a great story, but no written account remains.; 3/6/15, 9:58 AM
RJ said...: Personally, I regard the LBJ presidency as the point in time where the real rot set in for this society.; 3/6/15, 10:01 AM
virgil xenophon said...: Caro was the toast of the upper west side crowd when he wrote his best-selling negative profile of Jewish Robert Moses ("The Power Broker") but when he gave the same in-depth treatment to lefty icon LBJ suddenly the knives came out (from some of the same people who had lionized him for his Moses study) and he stopped being invited to all those ultra-chic upper west-side cocktail parties and gallery openings and became almost a non-person to the so-called "intellectual" NYC "opinion-makers", lol.; 3/6/15, 10:39 AM
David said...: LBJ was short on embarrassment, until he actually became president, and then he got so embarrassed that he did not run for reelection.

Rarely is this event presented as an act of devotion to the country, but that might actually have been an element of it too.; 3/6/15, 11:01 AM
David said...: Lazlo, for your study to work scientifically, it seems that the women would have to be giving blow jobs to the same men. But then the study would be suspect because very few men get that many blow jobs. Just what happens to their semen production with all that 24/7 activity? Then you have selection bias in the group studied, and the imposter problem when word gets out. It will be a tough study to get funded and peer reviewed, unless you can tie it to Climate Change.; 3/6/15, 11:08 AM
Sebastian said...: "Pride, embarrassment, gloating: such emotions could only hinder his progress along the road he saw so clearly before him — the 'vision' he had indeed held for so long. They were luxuries in which he would not indulge himself."

Wrath, lust, malice, lying: those could only help progress along the road he saw so clearly before him. They were necessities in which he indulged to amass power for himself and the federal government.

LBJ was a theological genius, outwitting St. Paul and Thomas Aquinas, showing how sin is essential in building the Great Society.; 3/6/15, 11:15 AM
Henry said...: Roger Stone quoted his boss Richard Nixon as saying that he (Nixon) really, really wanted to be President, but that he wan't willing to kill for such. Not so with LBJ: there's good evidence that he had at least six people killed on his way up—including his sister!; 3/6/15, 12:16 PM
Steve M. Galbraith said...: "... the same in-depth treatment to lefty icon LBJ"

Lefty icon LBJ?

The liberal/left loathed LBJ. Especially back then.

LBJ, for all of his terrible, terrible faults, has never received enough credit for his civil rights agenda.

Liberals didn't - and don't - want to do it because it takes away from JFK, who failed miserably with his own more limited agenda.

LBJ was a Shakespearean type character. All of those men were: JFK, RFK, King, LBJ.

Men befelled by great tragedies; some of it their own making.; 3/6/15, 12:21 PM
Bob Boyd said...: "It will be a tough study to get funded and peer reviewed, unless you can tie it to Climate Change."

Big breasts throw more shade.
Its cooler in the shade.
The earth is down there under those breasts, in that shade.

Happy to help.; 3/6/15, 12:47 PM
rhhardin said...: Breast shading makes it possible to identify a female at a huge distance, meaning as to male or female.

The top is a little brighter and the bottom is a little darker, and that's enough.

Hips are another clue at great distances.

You know that you don't need to have your sword ready, if it's a female.

That's the evolutionary advantage.; 3/6/15, 1:01 PM
Michael K said...: "Personally, I regard the LBJ presidency as the point in time where the real rot set in for this society."

Nixon was an honest man compared to Johnson.; 3/6/15, 5:58 PM
Laura said...: Laslo, this is the front office. You have a call waiting on line one from a William J. Eagle. He says he's from a major foundation with international donors. He's interested in funding the study and being a research subject.

He can't leave a number right now. It's funny, he sounds just like President . . . never mind. Shall I put him through?; 3/6/15, 8:17 PM
ken in tx said...: Check out 'A Texan Looks at Lyndon: J. Evetts Haley'. It documents LBJ's crookedness throughout his pre-presidential career. The book is available through Ann's Amazon link. It is well documented. Haley is a historian, not an amataur, political writer, or journalist.; 3/7/15, 1:02 PM