More Crazy Cartoon Hijinks

While it's always fun to snark on the Religious Right, lately it's just been too darn easy. After taking on Sponge Bob and "No Name Calling Week," those whacky Bible-thumpers are at it again, this time with yet another cartoon (do they watch anything else?) In this case, the upsetting thing is a cartoon airing on PBS, a cartoon about a cute little bunny named Buster. Postcards From Buster is about Buster's adventures travelling to real places and meeting real people. And no, we don't think it's because he should have made a left at Albuquerque, it's because he's trying to show all the kiddies out there all the different types of people and religions out there. Let's see Pokemon try and do that!

So, in this particular episode, Buster goes to Vermont to meet a sweet little girl named Emma and learn about making maple syrup. Funny little thing about, Emma, however: she has two mommies. R'uh oh! This, of course, is bad because it might expose children to the fact that lesbians exist. Leading the charge against PBS is the brand new Education Secretary, Margaret Spellings, and no, we don't think she’s aware of the irony. Due to her criticism, PBS, which recently edited out a bare breast in a HBO produced movie they recently aired for fear of the FCC (and is sort of a shame in that SFist distinctly remembers that the only reason we watched “Masterpiece Theater” as a kid was because in a pre-cable universe, it was the only place to see naked breasts), has pulled the cartoon out of its rotation. Affiliate stations now have the choice as to whether or not they will air it. You can guess which states PBS stations are airing it and which aren’t. Said a programming director at a PBS station in Okalahoma City (wait, there’s public broadcasting in Oklahoma?):

"Oklahoma is very conservative. We've had off-the-wall phone calls when nothing was happening." She added that one viewer complained about an episode of ''Teletubbies" in which the characters were dancing. ''They thought that was too much" .

One has to wonder that now that the Religious Right groups are basically telling Bush that they’ll support any cockamamie idea (cough* Social Security privatization *cough) just as long as Bush sticks it to gay people, if this is W’s little sop up to them. We also have to wonder what with all this attention focused on gay cartoon characters, what sort of brouhaha will come with the impending un-closeting and lesbian marriage of Patty Bouvier on the Simpsons?