Few writers made me laugh as often as you did. Many will miss you, a few will not and one thing is certain; America will be a far less colorful place without you.

 

She was definitely a charactor.
Never backed down.
R.I.P.

 

Respectfully, won't be missed here.

 

I'm sorry she's dead, but I can't remember the last time I read anything she wrote.

 

...that said, it is sad when someone dies too young, far too young from such a disease.

Nonetheless, I never read anything she wrote I could agree with. That's sad as well. She, and a number of columnists and editorialists and everyday plain writers of her ilk, are the very singular reason I haven't bought a newspaper in years, literally.

The American newspaper is dying as well and those kinds of writers are the cancer killing them (the newspapers), in my (never-to-be) humble opinion.

 

muddyaxles, I agree with you. I have not bought a newspaper in years, because of all the media bias.

 

After reading a couple of the posts here I decided to post here what I stated in the FTE forum. I am a big fan of the written word laced with humor and no one was better at it than Mollie Ivins who died Wednesday. Though I often disagreed with her politics, I was always entertained by her skill. Two typical quotes(referring to the Gore-Bush presidential race), "It's like having Ted Baxter of the old Mary Tyler Moore show running for president: Gore has Ted's manner and Bush has his brain" and (referring to ultraconservative Jim Collins, R-Dallas), "If his IQ slips any lower, we'll have to water him twice a day".
Mollie Ivins quotes:

• The first rule of holes: when you're in one, stop digging.

• What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority.

• The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.

• Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful.

• There are two kinds of humor. One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity -- like what Garrison Keillor does. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule -- that's what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel -- it's vulgar.

• I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth.

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

• It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America.

• What stuns me most about contemporary politics is not even that the system has been so badly corrupted by money. It is that so few people get the connection between their lives and what the bozos do in Washington and our state capitols.

Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television sitcom that you can decide you don't much care for.

• There's never been a law yet that didn't have a ridiculous consequence in some unusual situation; there's probably never been a government program that didn't accidentally benefit someone it wasn't intended to. Most people who work in government understand that what you do about it is fix the problem -- you don't just attack the whole government.

• It's hard to argue against cynics -- they always sound smarter than optimists because they have so much evidence on their side.

• Being slightly paranoid is like being slightly pregnant - it tends to get worse.

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

• One function of the income gap is that the people at the top of the heap have a hard time even seeing those at the bottom. They practically need a telescope. The pharaohs of ancient Egypt probably didn't waste a lot of time thinking about the people who built their pyramids, either. OK, so it's not that bad yet -- but it's getting that bad.

• Any nation that can survive what we have lately in the way of government, is on the high road to permanent glory.

• During a recent panel on the numerous failures of American journalism, I proposed that almost all stories about government should begin: "Look out! They're about to smack you around again!"

• The United States of America is still run by its citizens. The government works for us. Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values. We do not need to dominate the world. We want and need to work with other nations. We want to find solutions other than killing people. Not in our name, not with our money, not with our children's blood

She did not confine her her humor to skewering Republicans, but aimed it at wherever she perceived pomposity or wrongdoing. We have lost her and the great Art Buchwald in recent days .... big shoes to fill.

 

Kudos, Dono. And shame to those who cannot for an instant stop partisan jibes, especailly in a RIP thread.

She will be greatly missed here.

 

What exactly counts as a partisan jibe in your view? Did somebody call her a hack? Or is it a jibe to simply say that you didn't enjoy her politics. She was entertaining to some and to others she wasn't. That can be said of any columnist.

 

Thanks Dono & Smokin for your posts to great American writer. I would have never touched the subject of a person who has kept me reading newspapers for years.

She had the distinct ability to point out quite accurately when the Emperor had no clothes in a humerous way that could also chill you in the end when you realized the repercussions of that "nudity".

She was so unlike the vitriolic, hate-filled, so called journalists who paint all of a certain belife system with the same all-encompasing brush. She never wrote in a "Belive as we belive or be damned" way.

I will be greatly saddened when I open up the editorial page & know she won't be there.

 

Me too. You could see it coming for the last few months.

 

I read her columns regularly for years, years ago. Never once did I see anything close to humor. I'm sorry, it wasn't there for me. But then again, I suppose many here think the tripe we get on the nightly sit-coms represents humor as well.

It must be the age difference thing.

Also, I beleive Ms. Ivins would have been proud of her part in helping bring a timeless institution to its knees....she often took the side of the renegade. Sometimes these things have a way of turning around on ya.

Sad to see Ms. Ivins gone, will never miss her viewpoint.

Art Buchwald was another matter entirely.

 

Pity to those who see all life through partisan glasses and all encompassing statements.

Some of the things Molly wont be writing about this week. Sadly....

>>Senator Cornyn voted to abolish the minimum wage, then proposed that wealthy people should be able to deduct the cost of their health spas. Eccentric millionaire James Leininger of San Antonio announced a new publicity campaign to undermine the public schools. Progressive Democrats have infuriated the powers-that-be in the Lege by voting to uphold the constitution. TXU, the giant utility, says that Texans should believe them, just one more time, when they say their 11 new coal-fired plants won’t increase pollution. Some of the Methodists are calling the other Methodists names because they don’t want Shrub’s presidential library (and reactionary think tank) ensconced on the campus at Southern Methodist University. The Baptists fired their Hebrew teacher because they found an obscure biblical warning against having women teach men. Hungry Texans are terrified that the Baptists will also find the injunction (Leviticus 11:10) against eating catfish.

 

When you look up Partisan in the dictionary, you see a picture of M. Ivans as the example. It was who she was and she played it to the hilt. It's only proper to remember her that way.

One less poison pen's worth of ink in the well of political discussion.

 

Ironic or just hypocritical? Complain about partisanship with one line and then go after "Shrub".

Do you think Ivins would have had anything to say about Pelosi and her support for raising the minimum wage, except of course for her good friends at Starkist?