Intermission

I was planning to continue the fiction non-stop over the next few days, without boorish distractions from Real Life (tm). However, I have to post today.

Molly Ivins is dead.

Now, I'm probably more of a conservative liberal than anything else. I rarely talk politics here, mostly because I'm not really into arguing. I think that freely expressing our opinions is one of the greatest boons of living in the United States, and anything that threatens freedom of speech is a cause for concern.

It's not like I knew Molly Ivins, except through her editorials. I started reading her Creator's Syndicate column regularly about a year or two ago. I may not have agreed with everything she wrote (albeit, I did agree with most of it), but she was funny and insightful and scathing. It was love at first read. On more than a couple of occasions, I considered writing to her just to give a thumb's up, but I never did work up the nerve. Today, I wish I would have written to her, because now I'll never have that chance.

More about Molly can be read here, her last column can be found here, and a tribute to Molly can be read here.

So I'm somewhat bummed by the news. No, I didn't know her, but she certainly made me think on more than one occasion.

Why Am I Not Surprised?

I don't often bring up politics here, but today is different. From CNN:

President Bush, facing opposition from both parties over his plan to send more troops to Iraq, said he has the authority to act no matter what Congress wants. "I've made my decision, and we're going forward," Bush told CBS' 60 Minutes.

Emphasis is mine.

A typical response from this power-hungry administration. So much for democracy or public opinion. I continually get the feeling that this country is being run with a "father knows best" mentality.

I, for one, am not a child, and the way that the Bush administration operates continues to be incredibly insulting to the citizens of this nation.