a sad day for Texas

A sad day for all the rest of us, too: R.I.P., Molly Ivins. I will miss you.

The thing I appreciate most about Molly Ivins is that she showed me how to be a liberal and a Southerner, too. Not some namby-pamby whiny liberal, but a wickedly funny, sharp-as-a-tack, righteously pissed-off Southern liberal. Without her showing the way, I might not have thought it was even possible to be all those things at once. It may not have occurred to me that it's possible to so clearly love where you're from, but be so angry about the stupidity and weaselliness of the lawmakers there. I'm disheartened that I don't see anyone else doing what she did with anything approaching her style and panache. Her voice was such a crucial one for me to hear in the national debate, and now it's gone. She will forever be in my pantheon of women I aspire to emulate.