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. Molly Ivins Read Quote
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. Molly Ivins Read Quote
One seldom expects the country’s president to adequately note the passing of a rocker, but Jimmy Carter’s assessment of Elvis Presley’s appeal – ‘energy, rebelliousness and good humor’ – is remarkably close to the mark. Molly Ivins Read Quote
So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. Molly Ivins Read Quote
I’ve said it before: War brings out the patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds on the grounds that dachshunds were ‘German dogs.’ They did not, however, go around kicking German shepherds. Molly Ivins Read Quote
Naturally, when it comes to voting, we in Texas are accustomed to discerning that fine hair’s-breadth worth of difference that makes one hopeless dipstick slightly less awful than the other. But it does raise the question: Why bother? Molly Ivins Read Quote
Havin’ fun while freedom fightin’ must be one of those lunatic Texas traits we get from the water – which is known to have lithium in it – because it goes all the way back to Sam Houston, surely the most lovable, the most human, and the funniest of all the great men this country has ever produced. Molly Ivins Read Quote
I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel – it’s vulgar. Molly Ivins Read Quote
