UPDATED AT BOTTOM

Now, I am no fan of Teletubbies. I find it very creepy...surreal even. Maybe this is partly du to the fact that the first time I saw it was in Tel Aviv, in Hebrew, mere days after barely missing the big Turkish quake of 1999. At one point it was either braving the intense, humid heat outside, watching more depressing footage of the rescue efforts in Istanbul (a city we had just fallen in love with) or...Teletubbies in Hebrew. Well, we had also seen Rugrats in Turkish, so it was part of a theme.

Very strange.

But babies love it. That and Boo-bah are incomprehensible to adults but suck babies and toddlers into a wonderful world of smiles and colors. I admit I have a gut-level fear of these shows. There is something just disturbing about them. But I am willing to overcome my fear for the sake of a few peaceful moments as my baby grocks with people in giant, brightly colored costumes. Let's face it. These are just kid's shows!

But some have a Teletubby fear so irrational it borders on the patholgical. We all know about perhaps the most embarassing moment in the life of the recently departed Jerry Fallwell when he decided Tinky-Winky was an evil plot to turn our children gay. The absurdity of this completely dumb claim masked his deadly serious craziness as he turned his mighty media money-making empire to encouraging fear of Tinky-Winky. Somehow, Boo-Bah escaped his twisted mind's wrath. But he tried to smite Tinky-Winky, and from what I can tell, Falwell's sick, sadistic vision of the divinity lost its power struggle with the vapid purple alien...or whatever the hell it is.

(This image of the victorious Tinky-Winky from BBC news)

Well now that Jerry Fallwell is dead, many thought the moral crusade against Tinky-Winky had been lost. But now there is a new crusader against Tinky-Winky...from BBC news:

The spokesperson for children's rights in Poland, Ewa Sowinska, singled out Tinky Winky, the purple character with a triangular aerial on his head.

"I noticed he was carrying a woman's handbag," she told a magazine. "At first, I didn't realise he was a boy."

EU officials have criticised Polish government policy towards homosexuals.

Ms Sowinska wants the psychologists to make a recommendation about whether the children's show should be broadcast on public television.

What the HELL is wrong with these people???? With global warming, the collapse of a large portion of the earth's fisheries WELL under way, the rapid die off of the honeybee (threatening 1/3 of our food supply), terrorism, hunger, torture and all that jazz, why the HELL would anyone spend so much time and effort worrying about some children's show where someone walks aruond in brightly colored outfits making our babies smile. Get a fucking LIFE people! Do something USEFUL with your sad wasted lives rather than waste people's time with this crap!

Now BARNEY is another thing altogether. Barney must die!

Meanwhile, let's not forget that homophobia is no joke, no matter how absurd anti-gay fanatics get. In Moscow an gay rights march was attacked by religious-minded hoodlums, and in Israel the annual gay rights march is once again creating that rare thing: cooperation among the most religious fanatics of Israel's Christian, Muslim and Jewish populations (via email from Guysen.Isra×›el.News.)

UPDATE: Well, the Poles are showing more sense than Jerry Fallwell and his followers: Unlike Falwell, who went to his grave afraid of Tinky-Winky, the Polish government is backing off from its investigation of Tinky-Winky's sexuality. From Salon.com:

On Tuesday, Sowinska's spokeswoman Wieslawa Lipinska told The Associated Press that Sowinska "hasn't asked and won't ask" psychologists to investigate whether "Teletubbies" promote homosexuality.

"They are fictional characters, they have nothing to do with reality, and the bag and scissors and other props the fictional characters use are there to create a fictional world that speaks to children," Lipinska said. "We are not going to deal with this issue any more."

Sanity wins out in Poland. At least when it comes to Teletubbies.