Molly Ivins, Texas patriot

For these past few years, since, oh, around the turn of the century, whenever people have learned I'm from Texas I've been likely to add, "But I left." Molly Ivins never did, at least not for long--until today. Till the end, she was calling her former governor to account. In her last column she wrote,

We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge.

"When she unleashed the full force of her writing style and her big heart, she could make a statue weep," writes Siva Vaidhyanathan, who was lucky enough to be her friend.

Links via Feminist Law Professors.

UPDATE: Mark Kleinshmidt points to the tribute pages at the Texas Observer. The Observer's obit may not have been written by Molly, but it's strongly under the influence: "Her father, James Ivins, was a corporate lawyer and a Republican, which meant she always had someone to disagree with over the dinner table. . . . Molly, being practical, used many of her most prestigious awards as trivets while serving exquisite French dishes at her dinner parties." Even in death, she leaves us laughing.