Molly

I miss the great Molly Ivins -- and wish I could write just half as well as she did.

The Inimitable Molly Ivins

I really miss the wonderful Molly Ivins. I believe she really did have fun taking on the enemies of justice, equality, and freedom -- and she made it fun for the rest of us. And that's the way it should be. We should always have a good time fighting the entrenched power mongers and greedy corporate interests. If what you're doing isn't fun, doesn't make you happy, then you're probably not doing the right thing.

Molly

This is an excellent way to look at American history. This nation has always had a dream of freedom protected by constitutional rights. We have never fully lived up to that dream, but the struggle continues to make it a reality -- and we get closer all the time.

A Molly Ivins Story

Regular readers of this blog will probably know that I am a great fan of the inimitable writer and political humorist Molly Ivins. I truly believe that if there was a political satirist hall of fame, she would definitely belong there (alongside Mark Twain, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, and others), as the above cartoon by Jen Sorensen shows.

A fellow blogger, vorjack at Unreasonable Faith, just passed along a great story by Molly (taken from her book Nothin' But Good Times Ahead). I simply could not resist the impulse to repost the story here, especially since it concerned a particularly bad elected official from my own part of Texas (the Panhandle). Here is how Molly wrote it:

The seventy-third session (1993) of the Texas Legislature is pretty much typified by the following Warren Chisum story, Representative Chisum being the Bible-thumping dwarf from Pampa who has added such “je ne sais quoi” to the proceedings this year.

The Texas Senate had a rare moment of courage early in the session when it voted to remove homosexual sodomy from the revised version of the penal code. All were astonished.

Their vision made its way over to the House, where Chisum promptly rose and introduced an amendment to reinstate the damn thing. The Housies were afraid everyone would think they were queer if they didn’t vote for Chisum’s amendment, so they did.

Then some scholar explained to Chisum that unless he reinstated the ban on heterosexual sodomy as well, the law would be declared unconstitutional. So Chisum promptly got up and did just that.

Whereupon we had one of the more bizarre debates in the history of the Lege, with assorted avant garde members rising at the back mike to say, approximately, “Uh, Warren, uh, suppose I am in bed with my lawfully wedded spouse and I, like, kind of misaim and wind up in the wrong hole. You don’t want to send me to prison for that, do you?”

Chisum would stoutly reply, “Yes, I do. It’s against nature and The Bible.”

So the Housies were afraid everyone would think they were perverts if they didn’t vote for it, and they did. Chisum then shook hands with his ally, Talmadge Heflin of Houston, in celebration of this double triumph, and the Speaker had to send the Sergeant-at-arms over to reprimand them both.

Because under Chisum’s own amendments, it’s illegal for a prick to touch an asshole in this state. 

Molly Said. . .

As usual, Molly was right on target. I sure do miss her.

One-Woman Show Honors Molly Ivins

If you're planning a trip to the East Coast this Spring, you might want to consider going to Philadelphia around the last part of March or the first part of April. That's when the Philadelphia Theater Company will be featuring the new "one-woman" play entitled Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins.

The play, based on the writings and witticisms of legendary Texas journalist and author Molly Ivins, was written by twin sisters and journalists Margaret and Allison Engel. It will be directed by David Esbjornson, and will run from March 19th through April 18th of 2010.

The title role will be played by Tony and Golden Globe award-winning actress Kathleen Turner. I think that is an inspired bit of casting. In addition to being a great actress, Ms. Turner has that self-possessed and irreverent air that was the trademark of the great Molly Ivins (and she sort of looks like Molly). The pictures above are of Ivins (left) and Turner (right).

This is the world premier of the new play, and so far, there are no plans for taking the play to other cities. I suspect though if it is successful in Philadelphia, it may soon find its way to Broadway. And being based on the wonderful wit of Molly Ivins, how could it not be great?

As much as I want to see this play, my current situation (poverty) will not allow me to do so. I guess I just have to hope it is so wildly successful that it's eventually taken on the road and comes to Texas. Either that, or someone films it and that film becomes widely available.

Damn! Being poor is no fun at all sometimes.

(Thanks goes to Thorne Dreyer of The Rag Blog for notifying me of this.)

Texas Loses Two Geat Ladies In 2007

To many outside our state, Texas carries a macho image of cowboys, oil-field workers and dog-eat-dog right-wing politicians. But Texas has produced some great progressive political figures, and many of them were women.

Even the legendary figures cannot live forever. In 1996, Texas mourned the loss of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. Ten years later, Governor Ann Richards left us. Both were giants on the political stage.

In 2007, Texas lost two more of these female political giants. These two never ran for political office, but still had an enormous effect on Texas and national politics.

The first left us early in 2007. Molly Ivins died on January 31st. Ivins was a writer and columnist who possessed a quick wit and mastery of the art of biting political satire. She was the person who dubbed George Bush as "shrub", a nickname that sticks with him to this day (she didn't believe he had the political stature of a full-grown bush). Many politicians regretted their inane actions once they were exposed by Ivin's wit.

The other giant left us on July 11th. She was the wonderful Lady Bird Johnson. While she had a keen intelligence like Molly, her leadership skills were different. She led by example, using grace, manners and kindness. She was best known for her support of civil rights, the underprivileged and our natural environment.

Texas and America are better places because of the contributions of these two ladies.