RAINING IN TEXAS...RAINING IN MY HEART

I don't even know where to start...It does seem fitting that yesterday and today ...it's raining in Texas...I think it would be just horrible if the sun was shining and all was right with the world...The world will never be right again...at least for me...
Wed. Molly Ivins, columnist, best-selling author and partisan wit died after a long and recurring battle with breast cancer..She was 62 years old...a year younger than me..
Molly was a liberal in Texas....sometimes think she and I were the only two...She wrote a twice-weekly column that appeared in over 300 newspapers..She lived in Austin, and her commentary appeared in every National magazine from Harper's to Playboy, and you could hear her Texas accent on every TV, radio show from 60 Minutes to The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. She didn't just pick on republicans, she took a poke at anyone she thought was full of crap and wasn't doing the right thing..
When Gore-Bush had their presidential debate in 2000 she said:"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."
She said of ultraconservative U.S.Rep. Jim Collins, R-Dallas, in the early 1980's: "If his IQ slips any lower, we'll have to water him twice a day."
The White House on Wednesday released a statement by President Bush, who she referred to as "Shrub," expressing his condolences to Ms. Ivins' family and friends:"Molly Ivins was a Texas original..I respected her convictions, her passionate belief in the power of words, and her ability to turn a phrase..Her quick wit and commitment to her beliefs will be missed."(everything he lacks..)
Gov. Rick Perry, frequently a target for Ms. Ivins' barbs, said in a statement,"Molly Ivins' clever and colorful perspectives on people and politics gained her national acclaim and admiration that crossed party lines."(she's the one that came up with the 'good hair Perry' line, that I stole)
In Austin recently, former President Bill Clinton took special note of the columnist:"I want to say a special word of appreciation to someone who was good when she praised me and painfully good when she criticized me. Molly Ivins, thank you for being a great journalist and a great lover of Texas and the United States."(as she said about him when he became President...'You gotta dance with the one that brung ya.")
This is a snippet from the 2003 Commencement at the Columbia school of Journalism.
"The right wing nuts-with whom I have always lived in Texas..and if you are, by the way, feeling depressed about the state of the nation, the world and the possibilities of doing honest journalism in this country--I am here to cheer you up.
What you do every morning when you wake up, thinking things are hard--is you say to yourself,thank God, I don't have to do this in Texas. And,for those of you who wind up in Texas, call me, I'll buy you some beers.

You may get fired, you may get in trouble.But have fun anyway, 'cause, as Willie Nelson sings, if we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane. So, as you all go forth unafraid, to raise hell and rock the boat, you keep working at getting some laughter and some fun into the whole deal..Thank you.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999. It came back in 2003 and returned again in November 2005...
She often gave speaches about the First Amendment and surviving breast cancer, bringing grim humor to describe this horrible disease.
"Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they mutilate you; then they burn you. I have been on blind dates better than that."
Last year at a fund raiser for the progressive monthly Texas Observer, she yanked off her wig to reveal her bald head and said she was making a "shameless exploitation" of her cancer to help the cause.."We might as well do something useful because God knows I don't need another casserole," she said.
She was born Mary Tyler Ivins in Monterrey, Calif,. but her family moved to Houston soon after...In the early 1960's she attended Smith College, got involved in the civil rights movement and was struck by the realization that she said creates all Southern liberals:"Once you figure out they are lying to you about race, you start to question everything."
When she went into journalism, female reporters were relegated to the women's pages and she said she knew she'd have to get an advanced degree to break out.
"As a fledgling female reporter I had two splendid models to choose from--Brenda Starr and Poteet Canyon," she joked.
Her first newspaper job was in the complaints department of the Houston Cronicle, where she advanced to eventually write about road closings. She referred to herself as the "sewer reporter."
In Minneapolis, she went on to write about the movements for social change. But in 1970, longing for food with spice in it, she returned to her home state and became co-editor of the Texas Observer. It was there she specialized in covering the sometimes raucous, scandal-laden and colorful Texas Legislature.
She caught the attention of the New York Times, and they hired her in 1976 as a political reporter and sent her out west to cover nine states as the Rocky Mountain bureau chief. She said she was named chief because there was no one else in the bureau.
While at the Times, she wrote the obituary for Elvis Presley, and later described the scene of grieving, swarming fans as part Shriners'
convention and part national cheerleading camp.
She finally parted ways with the Times after she covered a New Mexico community chicken festival and wanted to refer to it as "a gang pluck."
She then wrote for the Dallas Times Herald, and when it shut down, she went to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She later became independent, writing for a syndicate in 2001.
Along the way, she also wrote 6 best selling books, the most recent being "Who Let the Dogs In?"in 2004,and "
Bushwacked:Life in George W. Bush's America."
She wrote about her cancer, and that it forced her to face mortality, but it didn't trick her into becoming a better person.
"I am one of those people who are out of touch with their emotions like unpleasant relatives--a long distance call once or twice a year is more than enough. If I got in touch with them, they might come to stay."
"I believe ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth." she wrote..
Never marrying, she is survived by her sister Sara(Ivins)Maley of Albuquerque,N.M., and brother Andy Ivins of London,Texas: sister-in-law Carla Ivins, nephew Drew and niece Darby; niece Margot Hutchinson and her husband, Neil, and their children Sam, Andy and Charlie of San Diego, Calif. and nephew Paul Maley and his wife Karianna, and their children Marty, Anneli, and Finnbar of Eltham, Victoria, Australia.

Some of my favorite quotes:
On conservative presidential candidate Pat Buchanan:"Many people did not care for Pat Buchanan's speech;it probably sounded better in the original German." published in The Nation, Sept.14,1992
On humor:"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 teh powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel--it's vulgar." published in People, Dec. 9,1991.
On Americans:"I think there's more of us who still believe that Elvis is alive than understand the Theory of Relativity, but that's all right.It's fun to live in a country with some peculiar people. How boring it would be if everybody was quite sane."..from Defining Americans, on NPR, July3,1997.
On vegetarianism:"I know vegetarians don't like to hear this, but God made an awful lot of land that's good for nothing but grazing."published in the Raleigh News and Observer.July 15,2001.
On gun control:"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." published in the Charleston Gazette. July,19,1994
On Texas:"I dearly love the state of Texas, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and discuss it only with consenting adults." on CBS News' Sunday Morning, Jan 5,1992.

But I think my favorite is:Speaking truth to power is the best job in any democracy, she explained. It took her to towns across the great yet battered land to say:"So keep on fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it.Lord, let your laughter ring forth. be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' as and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."

I'll do my best Molly......I'll do my best...