…and this is a 
The restless spirit of Jerry Falwell roams the world, possessing people
Category: Kooks
Posted on: May 29, 2007 11:31 AM, by PZ Myers
Falwell may be dead, but his legacy continues. In fact, if I believed in demonic possession, I'd say his fiendish soul has popped into the body of a Polish woman (Kinky! Perhaps he had sublimated desires which he now indulges), Ewa Sowinska. Sowinska is a "chilren's rights watchdog", and she is concerned about a certain popular children's program.
In comments reminiscent of criticism by the late U.S. evangelist Jerry Falwell, she was quoted as saying: "I noticed (Tinky Winky) has a lady's purse, but I didn't realize he's a boy."
"At first I thought the purse would be a burden for this Teletubby ... Later I learned that this may have a homosexual undertone."
And the government responds!
Polish Education Minister Roman Giertych has proposed laws sacking teachers who promote "homosexual lifestyle" and banning "homo-agitation" in schools.
Hmmm. Giertych, Giertych, Giertych…that name rings a bell. Oh, yeah…he's that Polish creationist!
Isn't it kind of amazing how multiple kinds of ignorance tend to cluster in certain individuals? It's like they're just stupid or something.
Comments
Haha, you should compare their first names, they're brothers. Still, they are both crazy.
Posted by: Wilfred | May 29, 2007 11:37 AM
Should that be "Master Bater"?
Posted by: Martin Wagner | May 29, 2007 11:50 AM
Wow! PZ is responsible for the military-industrial complex? I thought he was only responsible for the moral degradation of Western/Christian Civilization!
Posted by: themann1086 | May 29, 2007 11:53 AM
They never talk about medical research do they. Or agriclutural research. or...
The repetition from these trolls is endless.
Posted by: Steve_C | May 29, 2007 11:54 AM
I always get amused by people who rant against science and universities while using a computer to access the internet.
Master Blaster - most weapon systems are developed by engineers, not scientists. I can tell you from personal experience that engineers, especially those working in defense industries, tend to be overwhelmingly conservative and religious
Posted by: arakasi | May 29, 2007 12:01 PM
Sorry, gang, your comments are dangling. I deleted the post from Master Blaster. It was one of the familiar Kansas trolls -- you know, the high school kids who live in their parents' basements and know how to use a proxy server, and do nothing but troll blogs about evolution and leave comments about how evil science is.
Posted by: PZ Myers | May 29, 2007 12:07 PM
Tinky-Winky is gay?
Next you'll be telling me that LaLa has married Richard Dawkins.
Posted by: MartinC | May 29, 2007 12:10 PM
Science isn't evil? Oh no! I'm in the wrong profession.
Posted by: Christian Burnham | May 29, 2007 12:12 PM
Ms. Sowinska and Mr. Giertych are sure going to be angry when they find out that Bert and Ernie are gay and have been living together since the 70's.
Posted by: commissarjs | May 29, 2007 12:12 PM
That's not a purse Tinky Winky's carrying. That's an itty-bitty messenger bag, and we all know how butch those are.
Posted by: RedMolly | May 29, 2007 12:16 PM
Homoagitation. I love it. A new film developer solution.
Posted by: John Danley | May 29, 2007 12:22 PM
And not a single Polish joke on this thread. How's that for civility?
Posted by: CJColucci | May 29, 2007 12:35 PM
How do you determine the sex of a teletubby anyway?
Nevermind, i'm sure i don't want to know.
Posted by: Brian W. | May 29, 2007 12:44 PM
Not brothers, but father and son. (The grandfather was also a prominent politician.) I like this, from Roman's Wikipedia page:
...he was a young bookworm who devoured dozens of books...
Dozens!
Posted by: Vance Maverick | May 29, 2007 12:53 PM
Calling them stupid gives a bad name to stupid people.
Posted by: Jeff | May 29, 2007 1:21 PM
The females are cable-ready.
Posted by: Kseniya | May 29, 2007 1:46 PM
It's not a purse. It's European.
Posted by: stogoe | May 29, 2007 2:00 PM
How do you determine the sex of a teletubby anyway?
Teletubbies are one of the few, rare species to carry their gonads in a detachable, external sack. Therefore we know Tinky is a male because of his "purse".
This condition is only temporary, though, as Teletubbies also share their sex communaly. The "purse" belongs to each member of the clan and can be traded between members in exchange for certain favors. The troupe as a whole can be thought of as "male", though, as there are in fact no female Teletubbies, it is a distinction of trivial importance. It would be more proper to refer to Tinky as the (currently) "sexed" Teletubby, rather than male or female.
Reproduction only occurs by accident, and at this point in time, neither Teletubbies nor researchers have been able to determine its cause. Therefore, while it is safe to say that Teletubbies are homoscial they are not, by definition, homosexual.
Except for Po. Dirty, dirty Po.
Posted by: mothworm | May 29, 2007 2:35 PM
...Bert and Ernie are gay...
Not as gay as Bernie and Ert!
Posted by: windy | May 29, 2007 2:41 PM
To be fair, those from religious backgrounds do know the most about corrupting the young.
It's unfortunate that they tend to see the entire world in terms of 'good' versus 'bad' propaganda.
Posted by: Brownian | May 29, 2007 2:54 PM
Careful, PZ. If you call them stupid then Chris o-Stuart will get concerned.
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | May 29, 2007 3:32 PM
To me, the amusing thing about the teletubbies is not that some wingnuts insist on attributing a sexual orientation to colored bits of fuzz, but that most people (including non-wingnuts) insist on attributing a sex or gender to colored bits of fuzz. It's SNL's "Pat" all over again.
Posted by: kaw | May 29, 2007 3:39 PM
Now you mention it, a number of things about the Teletubbies are quite suspect. They all sleep together in a grass-covered mound (I don't even know where to begin raising my eyebrows at that one); they spend their days eating "tubby custard", and they they all take turns in wearing La-La's frilly pink tutu. That's a veritable carnival of debauchery already, and I haven't even started on the noo-noo...
Posted by: TheTickingMindbomb | May 29, 2007 3:40 PM
I believe that sexing of teletubbies requires insertion of a finger into the cloaca. If the finger penetrates past the first knuckle, it is is female.
Or do I have them confused with baby aligators...
Posted by: Robster, FCD | May 29, 2007 4:32 PM
For sexing TTs: shouldn't we find out if there are Spanish translations of the show? The translators would have to be experts in this field.
Posted by: frog | May 29, 2007 5:07 PM
Teletubbies. This spanish language web-site seems to have them sexed - but no explanation on method. Haven't found any peer-reviewed paper by the author, but hopefully he'll publish soon.
Posted by: frog | May 29, 2007 5:12 PM
The other blog that I read on a regular basis mentioned this the other day. It's a GLBT blog so they have their own spin on this but take a look at the picture and decide if you agree with the first comment. BTW, there seems to have been a lot of traffic there caused by a troll named Josh who had the audacity to go to a blog run by a black lesbian, which has a large number of transpeople, and where I think that there may be only two or three other straight people, to whine about how persecuted he is as a Christian. I'm getting it from both blogs, oh my! ;^)
Posted by: mena | May 29, 2007 5:48 PM
Thanks for that mena. Josh is an idiot. Note his idictment of 'Islamofascism' (thanks, Rush!) for violent behaviour but nonchalanant dismissal of similar charges against Xianity with 'yawn, more old testament stuff, we've been over this before.'
It makes such perfect sense when you're divinely right!
Posted by: Brownian | May 29, 2007 6:39 PM
Obviously you people have not spent enough time watching Teletubbies. Their genders are quite clear, based on the gendered pronouns used by the all-seeing, all-knowing narrator. The pronouns are not often used, as for some reason pronouns are seen by tv producers as being confusing to toddlers or something, but once you've watched a few dozen hours of it, you find that Tinky Winky and Dipsy are hes, La-La and Po are hers. Additional information: Tinky Winky's signature accessory is a red purse, Dipsy's is a black and white top hat, La-La's is a pink tutu, and Po's is a scooter. The Noo-Noo is the only one of ambiguous gender, and sadly always has to clean up the spilled tubby custard.
Posted by: Carlie | May 29, 2007 7:11 PM
Be sure to read Hellbound Allee's brief post about "An eBay tribute to Jerry Fallwell."
Posted by: Monado | May 29, 2007 8:59 PM
Idiots. Every self-respecting poofter-bashing neo-Nazi skinhead KNOWS that a guy with a handbag is an effem(inate) or a tranny (transvestite), not a poofter.
Jeez, it's getting that you can't even find a half-decent bigot in the world any more!
(* winks ironically *)
Posted by: Justin Moretti | May 30, 2007 12:26 AM
Ah, but they are married. Ever since 1992. Although, it is a surprise to me that Lalla Ward is a Tellitubby...
Posted by: Spook | May 30, 2007 10:50 AM
windy: er, where does that come from? Surely not the German version of Sesame Street.
Posted by: Keith Douglas | June 1, 2007 12:46 PM