I Blame the Patriarchy will be observing an Interim of Silence in memory of journalist, provocateur, character, and consummate Texan Molly Ivins, who died today of breast cancer.
Hell-raising will recommence shortly.
Jan 31 2007
Raise More Hell
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41 comments
CafeSiren
January 31, 2007 at 7:24 pm (UTC -6)
I just heard about this on the news… details to follow. Crap. Normally I blame the patriarchy; this time, I blame (as she called him) Shrub, and 6 years of this crap.
Condolences to you, Twisty, as well as to myself, and to all who will miss this fine, ass-kickin’ woman.
kathy a
January 31, 2007 at 7:31 pm (UTC -6)
you want silence? when molly died? i’m so freaking ass-kicking that i’m sitting here in a puddle, weeping over someone i never met, but dearly wish i had. we are all poorer without her.
kate
January 31, 2007 at 7:46 pm (UTC -6)
When someone great like that goes I then wish for reincarnation, wish it were real and immediate.
zz
January 31, 2007 at 7:46 pm (UTC -6)
As if I needed another reason to hate goddamn breast cancer.
Molly, you rocked my world more than once. I hope somewhere; somehow, you’re still raising hell.
norbizness
January 31, 2007 at 8:03 pm (UTC -6)
Hopefully her legacy will be reincarnated again and again as her words, wit, and life inspire others. She inspired me back in the day when I met her at my little podunk liberal arts university in Georgetown, TX as a 19-year-old.
bitchphd
January 31, 2007 at 8:12 pm (UTC -6)
Twisty, you’ve got some big shoes to fill now.
deja pseu
January 31, 2007 at 8:39 pm (UTC -6)
She will be missed. She was one of my heroes, speaking truth to power, and with great natural wit. In a just world, she would still be here stompin’ and kickin’ and some other (unnamed) prominent Texans would have died choking on their own vomit years ago.
smmo
January 31, 2007 at 9:06 pm (UTC -6)
Fuck. Speaking truth to power, as deja pseu said, was just one of her many gifts to us.
GraceD
January 31, 2007 at 9:14 pm (UTC -6)
‘Named my kiddo after Ms. Ivins (and Ms. Molly Yard, President of NOW when the kiddo was born in 1991). In honor of both Mollys, I’m raising my girl to be badass and shit kicking.
Fucking breast cancer. You hang tough, Twisty, y’hear?
Esme
January 31, 2007 at 9:14 pm (UTC -6)
I’ll miss her strength, her humor, and the light she’s brought with her columns.
We’ve lost a great one.
smelmoth
January 31, 2007 at 9:18 pm (UTC -6)
Thanks for this posting Twisty, did the torch get passed?
For those jonesin’ for a heapin’ helpin’ of kick ass Mollythrottling, check out her take down of Camille Paglia, just for old time’s sake. It has everything, everything you loved about her…
Clio Bluestocking
January 31, 2007 at 9:30 pm (UTC -6)
smelmoth, thank you for the link.
Ms. Ivins sure knew bullshit when she smelled it.
kathy a
January 31, 2007 at 9:36 pm (UTC -6)
smelmoth, that is just classic.
octopod
January 31, 2007 at 9:42 pm (UTC -6)
“I always thought the world was divided into only two kinds of people — those who think the world is divided into only two kinds of people, and those who don’t.” A wonderful statement. If I ever say something that clever, mark it down for my epitaph ’cause it won’t happen again. Of course, Ivins turned out those gems every article.
Damn, she’ll be missed.
Now I suppose I’m off to tell the forum from which I know the other Caltech person on whose webspace that column is hosted in the above link. How about that for strange social connections?
Spinning Liz
January 31, 2007 at 10:15 pm (UTC -6)
She was a truly great arthur, Molly.
arse poetica
January 31, 2007 at 10:49 pm (UTC -6)
Fucking hell. This makes me so sad. Molly was one of the few writers who, without fail, made me feel like I wasn’t crazy.
smelmoth, thanks for the link. I’d forgotten about that one. I laughed out loud three times in the “Norman Podhoretz of our gender” (HA!) paragraph alone.
Aw, hell.
Antelope
January 31, 2007 at 10:55 pm (UTC -6)
Thank you Smelmoth, that link was just what I needed.
May Molly be like a hydra and 10 brilliant, funny, liberal female pundits sprout up to take her place.
Mandos
January 31, 2007 at 10:59 pm (UTC -6)
May They find her terrible in death.
virgotex
January 31, 2007 at 11:26 pm (UTC -6)
Molly at her best in “Dildo Diaries”
RIP from all of us hobbyists
Twisty, keep raising more hell.
cycles
February 1, 2007 at 12:04 am (UTC -6)
She’s the person I wish I could have grown into if I hadn’t toned down the hellraising a few years back. Fuck that noise. Consider the flames duly rekindled.
Molly, we’ll miss the living shit out of ya.
Ron Sullivan
February 1, 2007 at 12:42 am (UTC -6)
Damn. Yes.
(silence)
Scratchy888
February 1, 2007 at 12:43 am (UTC -6)
She seemed like quite the pleasant person!
Carpenter
February 1, 2007 at 1:17 am (UTC -6)
Fist Anne Richards now this.
God has it out for brassy Texan women.
MzNicky
February 1, 2007 at 2:25 am (UTC -6)
I had the privilege of hearing Molly Ivins speak in Nashville a few years ago. She told a joke about the Texas legislature passing an anti-gay ordinance, then observed that two members in the back of the room were already violating their own statute: “Looky there — a prick touching an asshole!”
Molly was a prophet, a lone voice crying in the wilderness, trying to warn the populace of what would befall the nation if you-know-who should for crissake become Pretendizent. I can hardly bear that this great woman is gone, and from the BrCa scourge to boot. Fuckall.
Christopher
February 1, 2007 at 4:07 am (UTC -6)
Well, Fuck.
Ms. Ivins was one of the best, if not the best, pundits working in modern America (Not to mention the ONLY reson to read your paper’s opinion page).
curiousgyrl
February 1, 2007 at 8:11 am (UTC -6)
This is a fucking tragedy.
Raise more hell indeed. And read Cancerland again.
yankee transplant
February 1, 2007 at 10:01 am (UTC -6)
Keep on keepin’ on, Twisty. The writing and the fighting of the patriarchal breast cancer.
arse poetica
February 1, 2007 at 10:28 am (UTC -6)
Friends, the Berkeley Daily Planet is accepting tributes to Molly, which will be published at berkeleydailyplanet.com as they roll in. Details here.
SusanM
February 1, 2007 at 10:38 am (UTC -6)
Pharyngula has some classic Molly up, a sort of jumpy home video of her speaking last year at a rally in Austen. She did a great Preacher imitation!
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/02/remembering_molly.php
Hattie
February 1, 2007 at 11:00 am (UTC -6)
A great activist, gone too soon. But didn’t she have a good time! Rest in peace, Molly.
B. Dagger Lee
February 1, 2007 at 11:25 am (UTC -6)
Death Tanka for Molly Ivins
Raise your ruckus high!
Above the bossman’s big head;
all the good people
see the words hang there and laugh.
Maybe he will think better!
yrs, B. Dagger Lee
Antoinette Niebieszczanski
February 1, 2007 at 11:26 am (UTC -6)
Our world is diminished by her passing.
Mamasquab
February 1, 2007 at 11:43 am (UTC -6)
Spinster Aunt, I don’t see you filling Molly’s shoes exactly, but now more than ever we need your own brand of ass-kicking goodness.
Shannon
February 1, 2007 at 11:53 am (UTC -6)
Fuckall, indeed.
BubbasNightmare
February 1, 2007 at 3:00 pm (UTC -6)
I get busy with a project for three days, and this shit happens.
Being a native, rational Texan (and thus in an endangered minority), I can say that Ms. Ivins was a large shot in the arm of the fair state of Texas with her columns and commentary. Gadflies are necessary.
Bless ya, darlin’. You were sharper’n bob wor, and you will be missed sorely. Hope the brisket ‘n ribs up there’s good.
Sara
February 1, 2007 at 3:54 pm (UTC -6)
Oh no! I didn’t know, because I’ve been avoiding news.
I loved her sharp eyes and genius wit. I’m unspeakably sorry to hear she’s gone.
Still, I won’t be silent. I can’t believe silence is anything she’d want.
I think something along the lines of a Klingon death ritual (the howling to let the afterlife know a warrior is coming, for you non-nerds) followed by a rowdy wake might be more in order.
Damn.
Tasha
February 1, 2007 at 4:59 pm (UTC -6)
Why is it that I didn’t know about this until I read the news here? Shouldn’t there be a collective wailing heard nationwide?
I guess it’s up to the rest of us to pick up where she left off, and raise enough hell for all of us.
stekatz
February 1, 2007 at 7:17 pm (UTC -6)
“Hell-raising will recommence shortly.”
Just as Molly would have wanted it.
A great woman has passed. We were lucky to have her while we did.
Minerva
February 1, 2007 at 8:21 pm (UTC -6)
Molly Ivins was an intellectual in a state that deplores intellectualism–particularly in women. She referred to her love of Texas as a “harmless perversion” and I will always relate to her for that alone.
You can read her obit at the Texas Observer here:
http://www.texasobserver.org/molly_obituary.html
femhist
February 1, 2007 at 10:12 pm (UTC -6)
As a Texas expat in more northely climes, I clipped, saved, and treasured (read: put on my college door) the column she once did about the mayoral race in my hometown. It made me so happy that my town was graced by Her mocking presence. This was 8 years ago, but I still have the clipping somewhere.
Sniff. Dammit, she can’t leave *now*. We still NEED her.
Twiss
February 14, 2007 at 11:01 pm (UTC -6)
Well Twiss doesn’t feel so welcome back after trying several times to persuade the spamulator to accept my little critical comment about Molly Ivins’s jeering rave about people who don’t agree with her view that pornography is just harmless funnin’ for good ol’boys (who in fact wouldn’t ever let her really join the club no matter how many worms she ate).
All I want is for Twisty to tell us people who know nothing but Internet Explorer how to communicate with her matchless blog.