Coulter on Falwell & Tinky Winky

Ann Coulter does some research in Nexis, finding pre-Falwell references to gay Tinky Winky:

Beginning in early 1998, the news was bristling with stories about a children's cartoon PBS was importing from Britain that featured a gay cartoon character, Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubbie with a male voice and a red handbag.

People magazine gleefully reported that Teletubbies was "aimed at Telebabies as young as 1 year. But teenage club kids love the products' kitsch value, and gay men have made the purse-toting Tinky Winky a camp icon."

In the Nexis archives for 1998 alone, there are dozens and dozens of mentions of Tinky Winky being gay — in periodicals such as Newsweek, The Toronto Star, The Washington Post (twice!), The New York Times and Time magazine (also twice).

In its Jan. 8, 1999, issue, USA Today accused The Washington Post of "outing" Tinky Winky, with a "recent Washington Post In/Out list putting T.W. opposite Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche, essentially 'outing' the kids' show character."

Michael Musto of The Village Voice boasted that Tinky Winky was "out and proud," noting that it was "a great message to kids — not only that it's OK to be gay, but the importance of being well accessorized."

All this appeared before Falwell made his first mention of Tinky Winky.

After one year of the mainstream media laughing at having put one over on stupid bourgeois Americans by promoting a gay cartoon character in a TV show for children, when Falwell criticized the cartoon in February 1999, that same mainstream media howled with derision that Falwell thought a cartoon character could be gay. (Jewish World Review)

Unfortunately, she didn't do enough research to discover that Teletubbies is not a cartoon.

US muslims & suicide bombings

If you read a story that said 25% of younger and 13% of all US Muslims think suicide bombings are justified in some circumstances and that 5% have a favorable view of al-Qaida, what headline would you pick?

Most U.S. Muslims reject suicide bombings (AP) *

Oh. Well. That's a relief!

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* Disclaimer: Headline may have changed since I posted this. Let me know!

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Update Already happened! It's now "Some US Muslims justify suicide attacks".

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Update And this regarding how many Muslims view al-Qaida favorably:

a significant number of Muslims -- 19 percent of 18-29s, 29 percent of over 30s -- declined to answer that question one way or the other; if you held an unfavorable opinion of al-Qaeda, why wouldn't you say so? (Rod Dreher)

I'm thinking the number of Muslims who view al-Qaida favorably is somewhat higher than 5%.

Gay Tinky Winky

What am I reminded of today, the day Jerry Falwell died? His unfairly being "ridiculed for pointing out what is common knowledge in the gay community".

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who has been ridiculed by some in the establishment press for saying one of the "Teletubbies" is meant to depict a homosexual toddler, appears to have found some unlikely corroborators among the gay media.

Falwell caught his share of flack for suggesting that Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubby who carries a purse and has a triangle protruding from his head, is homosexual.

In telling his supporters about his concerns regarding the Teletubbies, Falwell warned that Tinky Winky promoted homosexual messages, making note of the triangle – a common gay-pride symbol – and the purse the character carries.

However, in a number of media outlets, there is no doubt about the "gayness" of Tinky Winky, one of four fuzzy Teletubbies in a TV show for toddlers. "Tinky Winky is the unofficial gay Teletubby, in the opinion of myself and many others," reads the Gay Teletubby page on the Internet web site LesBiGay, Etc, a web site that calls itself "the place for youth-friendly gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight sexual orientation information and resources."

Read more about it. The only thing I'd add is that the gay press aren't merely "corroborators" -- they're the ones that pointed out the "gayness" of Tinky Winky in the first place. But it's the fundamentalist that is accused of having a sick mind, attributing sexuality to a children's show.

Street smart tour

Speaking of smarts, the "street smart" tour schedule has been posted!

Filing electronically

A record 77 million taxpayers have filed their tax returns electronically this year, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday.

Can someone tell me why anyone does this?  If it's free (through your tax preparer, because your income qualifies, etc.), sure.  But why does everyone else have to pay $15 or $20 for the privilege of saving the IRS money?

New Lupo?

Two items about VW's next generation of the Lupo: a rendering of what the 2010 model might look like and the rumor that

the new entry level car VW is working on may be more like the original Beetle than the Lupo that it was supposed to replace. The baby VeeDub could turn out to have it's engine sitting on top of the rear axle much like the Smart ForTwo and come in Beetle-esque and sedan body styles.

Yeah, a bit contradictory, but they're both fun.

Down with cliffhangers

OK, almost to the end of season 1 and I'm still watching Heroes. Here's one reason I know I'll be happy with the season closing episode:

A modern TV creator like Kring can't think about just the next episode. He has to think about a world audience and plan several seasons out. "A big complaint for Lost was that you had to wade through too many shows before something happened," Kring says. He is committed to wrapping up story lines each season instead of sinking too deeply into a meandering mythology. "The apocalyptic event in Heroes will be resolved in season one, and we'll move on to something else in season two." (Wired)

Yes! This is exactly what I've been telling people I wish TV shows would start doing. What I like about shorter-run British shows vs. American series, the latter which feel the need to draw major plot lines out over years. (Never mind if you really know how long the American show will last or whether it'll be cancelled before the plot lines are wrapped up.)

I don't need everything wrapped up each season. But don't end a season mid-episode. Take a lesson from book serials, like Harry Potter.

Promoting killers

In an interview last night on MSNBC, Mr. Williams said NBC had been concerned about the sensitivities of broadcasting as much of the material as it did.

“This was a sick business tonight, going on the air with this,” he said. (NY Times)

Why did you do it then? What was the news value in seeing photos and videos of the killer?

Is this going to be a regular thing now? Mass murderers write up essays, take some photo and video, knowing they will be broadcast nationally after their crime?

How is this any different than Al Jazeera broadcasting Al Qaeda propaganda?

It doesn't seem too long ago that media outlets didn't give murderous wackos a forum in which to spew their bile. I guess those days are over.

Update:

You know, there will always be people who go crazy and kill a couple of people around them. But one reason why a guy like this decides he’s going to go somewhere and kill dozens of people is because he knows that he can then access a national stage, and an international stage. He’s on the front page of newspapers all over the world. And I think in a sense, to make a crazy guy, to upgrade him from kind of small town burlesque to planetary wide superstar, which is what NBC is colluding in here, I think is terrible. I mean, in a sense, they’ve upgraded the show business aspect of the crime, and that is disgraceful. (Mark Steyn)

Scion xB

News about the next generation Scion xB comes from the New York auto show.

At the request of current xB owners, the next generation xB dimensions grow significantly in comparison to the current model. [...] xB owners asked for a more powerful engine. (Autoblog)

My question is, who are these owners? If they wanted a bigger car with a more powerful engine, why didn't they avail themselves of other cars on the market that fit the bill? Silly me, I thought the smallness of the first generation model was part of its charm.

Ah well, at least there's the smart in 2008.

Satellite imagery

With all this talk about Google maps updating its New Orleans imagery, why is the picture of my house more than 5 years old? (It's right there, just to the left of the arrow.)