Raise Hell! In Memory of Molly Ivins

Molly Ivins is dead.

She was merely 62 years old.

From her obituary at The Texas Observer...

Syndicated political columnist Molly Ivins died of breast cancer Wednesday evening at her home in Austin. She was 62 yearsold, and had much,much more to give this world.

She remained cheerful despite Texas politics. She emphasized the more hilarious aspects of both state and national government,and consequently never had to write fiction. She said,“Good thing we’ve stillgot politics—finest form of free entertainment ever invented.”

Molly Ivins was one colorful Texan. Eloquent, witty, and one heckuva writer.

Below are a handful of my favorite Molly Ivins quotes. I saved the best for last...

“You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to.”

“I dearly love the state of Texas, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and discuss it only with consenting adults.”

I know vegetarians don't like to hear this, but God made an awful lot of land that's good for nothing but grazing.

In Texas, we do not hold high expectations for the governor's office; it's mostly been occupied by crooks, dorks and the comatose.

I am not anti-gun. I'm pro-knife. Consider the merits of the knife. In the first place, you have to catch up with someone in order to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don't ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives.

“The entire state now stands as proxy for W. Bush, under attack for political reasons, ... The rest of the country likes to look down on Texas as a nest of yahoos, racists and rednecks.”

I still believe in Hope - mostly because there's no such place as Fingers Crossed, Arkansas.

“The entire state now stands as proxy for W. Bush, under attack for political reasons, ... The rest of the country likes to look down on Texas as a nest of yahoos, racists and rednecks.”

I still believe in Hope - mostly because there's no such place as Fingers Crossed, Arkansas.

“Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention.”

On a more serious note, here is a snippet from Molly's last column dated January 11, 2007:

We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there.

People are dying.

Our President is determined to escalate this nightmare of a mistake. We're living a bad dream and our elected officials can't seem to wake up.

Congress is playing politics on Capitol Hill. Republicans are trying to save their jobs and Democrats are too scared to lead. The Senate is fighting over which friggin non-binding resolution to support, if any. Grow some, fellas.

Meanwhile, another 100 American Troops were killed this past month.

Just how many more of God's Children must die before this bad dream ends? Seriously.

Do your part. Remember the words of Molly Ivins and Raise Hell!