The Great Molly Ivins

As you may have heard columnist Molly Ivins passed away this week. Ivins was a great fighter for progressive politics and witty author. I enjoyed reading her columns and books.

She wasn't afraid to write about anyone, even calling out corporate Democrats when they neglected core Democratic values. She wrote this scathing article against the DLC in March of 2006 and recently explained why she would not be supporting Hillary for President.

In her last column, Ivins called for Americans to take a stand and force our elected officials to stop the war now. Ivins said...

We are the people who run this country. 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. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on January 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it, now!"

Here is a collection of quotes from Ivins over the years...

• "Many people did not care for Pat Buchanan's speech; it probably sounded better in the original German", Ivins in September 1992, commenting on the one-time presidential hopeful's speech to the Republican National Convention.

• It's like, duh. Just when you thought there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between the two parties, the Republicans go and prove you're wrong.

• 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.

• Naturally, when it comes to voting, we in Texas are accustomed to discerning that fine hair's-breadth worth of difference that makes one hopeless dipstick slightly less awful than the other. But it does raise the question: Why bother?

Oh, it's just that your life is at stake.

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

• Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.

•(About the aftermath of Katrina) Some Christians seem to me inclined to lose track of love, compassion and mercy. I don't think I have any special brief to go around judging them, but when the stink of hypocrisy becomes so foul in the nostrils it makes you start to puke it becomes necessary to point out there is one more good reason to observe the separation of church and state: If God keeps hanging out with politicians, it's gonna hurt his reputation.

• You want moral leadership? Try the clergy. It's their job.

• I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle.

• Last week, I began a sentence by saying, "If Bush had any imagination ..." and then I hit myself. Silly me.

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

• Let me say for the umpteenth time, George W. is not a stupid man. The IQ of his gut, however, is open to debate. In Texas, his gut led him to believe the death penalty has a deterrent effect, even though he acknowledged there was no evidence to support his gut's feeling. When his gut, or something, causes him to announce that he does not believe in global warming -- as though it were a theological proposition -- we once again find his gut ruling that evidence is irrelevant.

In my opinion, Bush's gut should not be entrusted with making peace in the Middle East.