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.
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You are reading I Blame The Patriarchy, the patriarchy-blaming blog that advances the radical feminist views of Twisty Faster, a gentleman farmer and spinster aunt eating dinner in Austin, Texas.
I Blame The Patriarchy is intended for advanced patriarchy-blamers. It is not a feminist primer. See Patriarchy-Blaming the Twisty Way for details.
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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.
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.
When someone great like that goes I then wish for reincarnation, wish it were real and immediate.
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.
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.
Twisty, you’ve got some big shoes to fill now.
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.
Fuck. Speaking truth to power, as deja pseu said, was just one of her many gifts to us.
‘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?
I’ll miss her strength, her humor, and the light she’s brought with her columns.
We’ve lost a great one.
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…
smelmoth, thank you for the link.
Ms. Ivins sure knew bullshit when she smelled it.
smelmoth, that is just classic.
“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?
She was a truly great arthur, Molly.
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.
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.
May They find her terrible in death.
Molly at her best in “Dildo Diaries”
RIP from all of us hobbyists
Twisty, keep raising more hell.
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.
Damn. Yes.
(silence)
She seemed like quite the pleasant person!
Fist Anne Richards now this.
God has it out for brassy Texan women.
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.
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).
This is a fucking tragedy.
Raise more hell indeed. And read Cancerland again.
Keep on keepin’ on, Twisty. The writing and the fighting of the patriarchal breast cancer.
Friends, the Berkeley Daily Planet is accepting tributes to Molly, which will be published at berkeleydailyplanet.com as they roll in. Details here.
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
A great activist, gone too soon. But didn’t she have a good time! Rest in peace, Molly.
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
Our world is diminished by her passing.
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.
Fuckall, indeed.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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
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.
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.