Will Jerry Falwell never die?

I don't mean that question literally, obviously. But will one of the lies about him never rest -- namely that stupid meme about Tinky-Winky, which is now finding its way elsewhere and has the usual suspects sniggering up their sleeves.

A Polish cabinet office official, whose party recently called for laws against the propagation of homosexuality in the schools, said the office of children's rights was investigating "The Teletubbies" and Tinky-Winky. And, sure enough there was even "background matter" on Falwell at the end of this Agence France-Presse article, the top of which read:

Poland's child rights ombudsman said on Monday she was investigating whether "The Teletubbies," the British television show for infants, promotes homosexuality.
"It would be good for a group of psychologists to talk to children about this. We need to examine this. If inappropriate attitudes have been promoted, we need to react," said Ewa Sowinska. ... "I have heard that this could be a hidden homosexual insinuation."

Sowinska later backed off the comments, but not before it was noted in the world press. And set off the predictable reaction in those quarters of the gay blogosphere to notice it were predictable (as were the repetitions of the smear against Falwell)

The late Jerry Falwell would be thrilled to know that his suspicions about the gay leanings of Tinky Winky of Teletubbies fame, are now shared by some concerned Poles. ... A spokesperson for children's rights, Ewa Sowinska, has finally cottoned onto the fact that Tinky Winky is a boy, but horror-of-horrors ... a boy who carries a handbag. Technically you could argue that Tinky Winky is an "it", but such fine distinctions are liable to escape Ms Sowinska.

Oh those wacky Polish children's rights watchers .... always a day behind and a dollar short. Remeber back in 1999 when Jerry Falwell deemed Teletubbie Tinky Winky a homo because he carried a purse (TW is the purple one)? Now Ewa Sowinski [sic] is on the same bandwagon.

Maybe Ewa Sowinska, Poland’s children’s rights watchdog, was tipped off by all the Jerry Falwell eulogies when she announced that she was going to see what exactly was in Tinky Winky’s purse. I’d caution Ms. Sowinska however that if she’s not careful, she may single-handedly revive the whole 1970’s-era genre of Polish jokes, something none of us around here would like to see anytime soon.

If there was one thing I hated reading in all the Falwell obits, it was the snickering references to the Tinky-Winky episode, which has falsified by revisionist repetition of lies worthy of 1984's Ministry of Truth. But Ann Coulter once said that liberals do not realize the problems that Lexis-Nexis poses to their incessant lying.

It is a documentable fact that long before Jerry Falwell breathed his first word about Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubbie was being appropriated as a gay icon, by people who thought that this was a good thing ("teach kids about tolerance, respecting difference, celebrating diversity and all that") or a good leering joke. I will turn you over to La Ann, in her column about Falwell. It doesn't matter who she is, "faggot" and rehab, or anything else. She is citing documented fact for anyone with a Lexis-Nexis account.

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.