People asked me during the Iraq war if I was afraid to speak out. I said no.
Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful.
One nice thing about the benefit of long experience with la frontera is that we in Texas don't have to run around getting all hysterical about immigrants. The border is porous. When you want cheap labor, you open it up; when you don't, you shut it down. It works to our benefit - it always has.
One thing I have learned from Johnny Faulk, Texas, and life, is that since you don't always win, you got to learn to enjoy just fightin' the good fight.
Here's the deal on Texas. It's big. So big, there's about five distinct and different places here, separated from one another geologically, topographically, botanically, ethnically, culturally, and climatically.
Don't get me started about the media double standard.
There's been a lot of experience with torture in history. It doesn't work.
The greatest moral leader of my lifetime was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose private life does not bear close examination.
To mistake Midland for the volk heartland is the West Texas equivalent of assuming that Greenwich, Connecticut, is Levittown.
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.
On a personal note: I have contracted an outstanding case of breast cancer, from which I intend to recover. I don't need get-well cards, but I would like the beloved women readers to do something for me: Go. Get. The. Damn. Mammogram. Done.
We should all laugh more at our elected officials - it's good for us and good for them.
We liberals do sometimes forsake our vows of compassion for all mankind.
I worked through cancer twice. I probably worked through it too much the last time. This time, I found myself saying, 'Well, I don't feel well. I think I'll take the day off.' I think I did that even a little bit more than I needed to.
People in Midland are real nice folks: I can't prove that with statistics, but I know West Texas, and it's just a fact.
The idols of one's adolescence tend to endure - you never forget how you worshipped them.
I have always been a left-winger and an outsider. I loved being that. I was perfectly cheerful with that role. Then suddenly, you're one of the talking heads on 'Nightline,' and you think you must have sold out.
Sometimes misunderstandings between bloggers and the MSM are the result of simple ignorance.
The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.
Being slightly paranoid is like being slightly pregnant - it tends to get worse.
There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.
I don't think I've decided much in my life. Don't you think life just happens?
The only reason to have a positive mental attitude is that it makes life better. It doesn't cure cancer.
The reason I take Rush Limbaugh seriously is not because he's offensive or right-wing, but because he is one of the few people addressing a large group of disaffected people in this country. And despite his frequent denials, Limbaugh does indeed have a somewhat cult-like effect on his ditto heads.
The Kurds will not be allowed to have an independent country because Turkey wouldn't stand for it; they have their own Kurdish population.
I've always found it easier to be funny than to be serious.
I do object to those who jump from political hackery to flackery and expect respect.
A teenage foot that never tapped to 'Heartbreak Hotel' in the '50s probably belonged to a hopeless grind.
Laws were changed and regulations repealed until an Enron can set sail without responsibility, supervision, or accountability.
What I've been telling people is that the doctors are gaining on cancer very rapidly. It's almost become a chronic disease, like diabetes - something you can treat. It doesn't go away, and you're not well in the sense of being over it, but you go on and live your life.
Jimmy Carter was unquestionably the most moral president of my lifetime, but he wasn't much of a president.
I spent my girlhood as a Clydesdale among thoroughbreds.
Even for southerners, Arkansans are amazingly friendly and extend hospitality to all strangers with astonishing openness. You couldn't find a pretension in that state if you hunted from Jonesboro to El Dorado.
I'm sorry to say cancer can kill you, but it doesn't make you a better person.
I have long argued that no one should be allowed to write opinion without spending years as a reporter - nothing like interviewing all four eyewitnesses to an automobile accident and then trying to write an accurate account of what happened.
All anyone needs to enjoy the state legislature is a strong stomach and a complete insensitivity to the needs of the people. As long as you don't think about what that peculiar body should be doing and what it actually is doing to the quality of life in Texas, then it's all marvelous fun.
Losing a part of a breast or all of one or both has, obviously, serious psychological consequences.
I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth.
In all my fantasies, I always assumed I would get married and have six children along the way with the greatest of ease.
Old-fashioned anti-immigrant prejudice always brings out some old-fashioned racists.
You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to.
Racists seem obsessed by the idea that illegal workers - the hardest-working, poorest people in America - are somehow getting away with something, sneaking goodies that should be for Americans. You can always avoid this problem by having no social services. This is the refreshing Texas model, and it works a treat.
I'm happy to be called a liberal.
I think one can easily make a case for taking out Saddam Hussein. In fact, one could probably be made on humanitarian grounds alone. But just as there's a downside risk to doing nothing about this man, there is a very serious downside risk to invading the country.
If you really wanted to settle down the Middle East, if what you wanted was change in the Middle East, it is perfectly obvious that the first step is resolving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
There was really quite a remarkable level of sexism on newspapers when I started.
Anyone who has ever spent time listening to a legislature knows the astonishing speed at which all presiding officers and reading clerks can spit out the formulaic incantations of parliamentary procedure.
I believe in practicing prudence at least once every two or three years.
'The New York Times' is a great newspaper: it is also No Fun.
