Renegade Utahn Maddox fires a salvo against Taterland.

Not only is Idaho a ho-hum state, Idahoans (their word, not mine) are gullible. Idaho was named in 1860 by George M. Willing, a mining lobbyist who pulled the name out of his ass (look it up). He picked the name "idaho" and told congress that it was a Shoshone Indian word that meant "Gem of the Mountains." Most westerners in the United States are completely devoid of any cultural heritage, so it has always been popular out here to latch onto American Indian monikers. When people finally caught on that "Idaho" was a made up name, it was too late. The name caught on and the morons who live there have called themselves "Idahoans" ever since.

I propose that we give Idaho back to the British, since that's who we got it from in the first place. I don't think it'll be too much of a problem because there aren't a lot of people in Idaho. According to the 2004 Census report, Idaho's population is 1,393,262. Just for comparison, there are 1,970,000 cows in Idaho. New rule: if your state has more cows than people, you don't get to be a state anymore.

I actually consider Utahns to be worse drivers than Idahoans. Utah and Idaho tend to have little use for one another. I guess it's like a Wisconsin/Minnesota thing where it's a too-alike thing rather than a too-different one. Utah is majority Mormon and in Idaho they are a plurality - a majority in eastern Idaho, with which Utah gets the most exposure. Utah is the most conservative Republican state in the country, Idaho is #2. But few of the people up here - including Mormons - seem to care much for Utah and the feeling among Utahns seem to be similar about Idaho.

Of course, Maddox is completely non-representative of Utah In fact, you coulda knocked me over with a feather when I discovered that was his base of operations, though it does partly explain his bitterness.

His history of the name of Idaho is a bit off, though, from what I understand. It was Colorado that was taken in by the scam. Colorado was originally slated to be named Idaho after a made-up Indian word. Shortly before it became a state, it was discovered that it wasn't a real word and they went back to the name of Colorado. In the meantime, though, there was a ferry that was named Idaho after the proposed name of Colorado. The ferry lead to what is current day Idaho and so people who went from Colorado to the unnamed land did so by the Idaho and began to use that as the name of the unnamed land. And this time it stuck.

And he should lay off Idaho's potatoes. They are that good up here.