Molly Ivins
Here's the deal on Texas. It's big. So big, there's about five distinct and different places here, separated from one another geologically, topographically, botanically, ethnically, culturally, and climatically.
Texas is still resistant to Howard Johnsons, interstate highways and some forms of phoniness. It is the place least likely to become a replica of everyplace else. It's authentically awful, comic, and weirdly charming, all at the same time.
I spent my girlhood as a Clydesdale among thoroughbreds.
Old-fashioned anti-immigrant prejudice always brings out some old-fashioned racists.
Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you. I have been on blind dates better than that.
The trouble with blaming powerless people is that although it's not nearly as scary as blaming the powerful, it does miss the point. Poor people do not shut down factories... Poor people didn't decide to use 'contract employees' because they cost less and don't get any benefits.
Right before the Bush inauguration, many women were greatly reassured when Laura said of Roe v. Wade on the 'Today' show, 'No, I don't think it should be overturned.' Three days later, her husband reimposed the 'global gag rule' on groups abroad that receive U.S. funding for family planning.
The Internet goes doot-doot-doot - it goes sideways. There's nothing hierarchical about it. And the best thing about it is also the worst thing about it, which is there are no gatekeepers on the Internet. Consequently, there's a whole lot of bad information on the Internet. But I think that sorts itself out over time.
The greatest moral leader of my lifetime was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose private life does not bear close examination.
Legislative language is governed by a law of etymology that is also the ancient code of the bureaucracy: It doesn't have to be right, it just has to be close enough for government work. If they understand what you mean, it doesn't matter what you say or how you say it.
I intensely covered Bush when he was Governor of Texas.
Rove, of course, is an exceptionally good, exceptionally skillful campaign guy, and Bush himself is really gifted at the political end of politics. But he's always been, as he says, misunderestimated.
I had sort of given up on conventional journalism. I found it far too restrictive.
I really think the single most important thing to remember about trying to fix the schools is that there is no such thing as an instant result.
Preemptive war is what Israel did in '67 with Arab armies on its borders.
I only aim at the powerful.
The uproar of the late '60s - the antiwar movement, black riots, angry women. It was a wonderful time.
I saw a shrink because I thought I suffered from fear of success.
I spend most of my life feeling like I've been shot out of a cannon.
From orphanages to space colonies, it was all shallow but endearingly enthusiastic futurism. Gingrich was the kind of person who read a book or two on something and would then be quite afire as to how this was going to fit into some shining future.
One of the more urp-making habits of media mavens is presuming to speak for the American people, as in 'The American people won't stand for this!'
If Democrats in Washington haven't got enough sense to own the issue of political reform, I give up on them entirely.
For years, I have been trying to persuade people that George W. Bush, although no Einstein, is not stupid.
The extent to which not just state legislatures but the Congress of the United States are now run by large corporate special interests is beyond mere recognition as fact. The takeover is complete.
Laws were changed and regulations repealed until an Enron can set sail without responsibility, supervision, or accountability.
Public campaign financing isn't perfect and can doubtlessly be improved upon as we go.
In most legislatures, punctilious attention to correct usage is considered elitist. The word 'government,' for example, is normally pronounced 'gummint'; bureaucracy is 'bureaucacy'; fiscal comes out 'physical,' and one moves not to suspend the rules, but to 'suppend.'
Anyone who has ever spent time listening to a legislature knows the astonishing speed at which all presiding officers and reading clerks can spit out the formulaic incantations of parliamentary procedure.
People like to help. They like to be able to do something for you. Let them.
Losing a part of a breast or all of one or both has, obviously, serious psychological consequences.
A teenage foot that never tapped to 'Heartbreak Hotel' in the '50s probably belonged to a hopeless grind.
The idols of one's adolescence tend to endure - you never forget how you worshipped them.
There is never anyone quite so wonderful as the people who were seniors when you were a freshman.
Sometimes misunderstandings between bloggers and the MSM are the result of simple ignorance.
I do object to those who jump from political hackery to flackery and expect respect.
Truly, if you can't cover a five-car pile-up on Route 128, you should not be covering a presidential campaign.
Truth is, I've spent much of my life trying, unsuccessfully, to explode the myths about Texas.
I'm happy to be called a liberal.
People asked me during the Iraq war if I was afraid to speak out. I said no.
I have long argued that no one should be allowed to write opinion without spending years as a reporter - nothing like interviewing all four eyewitnesses to an automobile accident and then trying to write an accurate account of what happened.
Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce.
I couldn't find any way to tell the truth in a regular newspaper.
How come trying to explode myths about Texas always winds up reinforcing them?
You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to.
One of the few things I like about Bill Clinton is that he has very good manners. If his momma were still alive, I would congratulate her.
When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel - it's vulgar.
I don't have any children, so I've decided to claim all the future freedom-fighters and hell-raisers as my kin.
If you grew up white before the civil rights movement anywhere in the South, all grown-ups lied. They'd tell you stuff like, 'Don't drink out of the colored fountain, dear, it's dirty.' In the white part of town, the white fountain was always covered with chewing gum and the marks of grubby kids' paws, and the colored fountain was always clean.
There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.