Molly Ivins - Columnist/Commentator/ Best-Selling, Award-Winning Author - has died of breast cancer at the age of 62 (01-31-07)
Celeb Atheists:
Ivins described herself as a Freethinker.
In her November 24, 1999 syndicated column, Ivins discusses Wendy Kaminer's new book Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety. Ivins talks about the book, mentioning pseudoscience, the recovered memory movement, criticizing religious leaders who seem to be above rebuke, ritual satanic abuse, etc.
Ivins then says: "I do think it would help if we had a public voice attacking the excesses of religion equivalent to the great 19th-century atheist Robert Ingersoll (who was once the Republican vice presidential candidate; try to think of a prominent atheist politician today)."
"What you need is sustained outrage... there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority."
Molly Ivins was a best-selling author and widely read political columnist who won many journalism awards. She is known for her sense of humor, and unlike many people, thought that politics is entertaining. She went to Smith, an all-female college, and wrote about women's issues in addition to media and political issues.
Although Ivins had been exposed to things that would make many people feel hostile, like sexism among her co-workers, and unjust laws being passed by politicians, she thought the key is to laugh about it. She said that by getting people to laugh when they read her columns, she could provoke them to think about issues and hopefully work to change them. Her unique writing style was known for its feistiness, and sometimes her choice of words offended people. She was definitely an independent spirit, and loved humorously attacking politicians in her columns.
She coined the name "Shrub" for George W. Bush in two best selling books on the president and his legacy family.
Labor
“Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.”
Truth
“I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth.”
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