{"id":408,"date":"2007-02-01T12:56:39","date_gmt":"2007-02-01T18:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/index.php\/2007\/02\/01\/theyre-going-to-need-another-snarky-buffoon\/"},"modified":"2007-02-02T10:57:18","modified_gmt":"2007-02-02T16:57:18","slug":"theyre-going-to-need-another-snarky-buffoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=408","title":{"rendered":"They’re Going To Need Another Snarky Buffoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Molly Ivins dead<\/a> at 62.<\/p>\n

It’s best not to speak ill of the dead.\u00a0 So what I’ll do is display this quote…:<\/p>\n

“She was magical in her writing,” said Mike Blackman, a former Star-Telegram<\/em> executive editor who hired Ms. Ivins at the newspaper\u2019s Austin bureau in 1992, a few months after the Times-Herald<\/em> ceased publication. “She could turn a phrase in such a way that a pretty hard-hitting point didn\u2019t hurt so bad.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…and note that Ms. Ivins’ writing was in fact the exact opposite of what Mr. Blackman wrote.\u00a0 Snarky and cliche-driven enough to make Jeff Fecke blanche (although better than Duncan “Atrios” Black, at least), devoid of logic or, usually, fact, embrace for “plain speaking” that was in fact generally ill-informed babble…<\/p>\n

…well, again, it’s best not to speak ill of the dead and all that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UPDATE:\u00a0 Brian Ward – who notes the second career that Ivins made out of attacking Bush – notes the President’s response<\/a> to Ivins’ death:<\/p>\n

She’s made a second career out of bashing him, attaching her name to no<\/strong><\/a> less<\/strong><\/a> than<\/strong><\/a> four<\/strong><\/a> books on the subject. And the President of the United States, who could have justifiably let her death pass withouth official notice, went out of his way to say this<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Molly Ivins was a Texas original. She was loved by her readers and by her many friends, particularly in Central Texas. I respected her convictions, her passionate belief in the power of words, and her ability to turn a phrase. She fought her illness with that same passion. Her quick wit and commitment to her beliefs will be missed. Laura and I send our condolences to Molly Ivins’ family and friends.<\/em><\/p>\n

A measure of forgiveness, tolerance, and class that we can all aspire too. George Bush took office saying he wanted to improve the tone in DC. Unfortunately, you can’t do that dance with an unwilling partner.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can’t imagine Ivins returning the favor.<\/p>\n

UPDATE 2: Let me be clear about this, since the tone of my post above isn’t; I’m sorry Ivins died.\u00a0 I dont wish cancer on anyone.\u00a0 And Ivins was <\/em>a good writer.\u00a0 One I disagree with on virtually everything, one whose standard of proof and logic were frequently dismal, and one whose public persona irritated me (and did so long before bashing George W. Bush became her meal ticket), but perfectly capable of writing excellent stuff nonetheless.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Molly Ivins dead at 62. It’s best not to speak ill of the dead.\u00a0 So what I’ll do is display this quote…: “She was magical in her writing,” said Mike Blackman, a former Star-Telegram executive editor who hired Ms. Ivins at the newspaper\u2019s Austin bureau in 1992, a few months after the Times-Herald ceased publication. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-memoriam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}