Molly Ivins, amended and expurgated.

If you get your Molly Ivins fix by visiting the Startlegram's website, as I do, you might want to rethink that strategy. They edit out the stuff they don't like, without so much as a howdy-do. Consider her August 26th column, about the impact of real politics on real people and the nice thought that if Arnold wants a life in elective politics, maybe he could learn something about it by running for school board first. Pretty good column, with a good dig at the Texas state legislature for kissing away millions and millions in federal funds for children's health care because they (the Lege) didn't want to come up with the 20% copay (noted in this space the other day). You can read it here.

If you check it out, you will see that it is lacking the original first paragraph, which you can find on the Molly site at Creators Syndicate's web page where the 1st para. is included in all its glory:

"One problem I have with Arnold Schwarzenegger is that he looks like a condom stuffed with walnuts. I realize that is superficial, shallow and unbecoming to a semi-serious-minded liberal like myself, but there it is. The other is that he doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to public policy."

It's the best part of the whole danged column and those morons in Ft. Worth cut it. Guess they didn't want their readers seeing the word "condom" whilst savoring the morning's first cuppa joe. At least the Dallas Morning News is honest enough to not carry her column at all.

By the way, her Labor Day column is a humdinger. Go Molly!