Rachel Maddow is sitting in her New York MSNBC studio doing her show as she usually does.
Coming up, my exclusive interview with Matt Taibbi. He will talk to us about Rolling Stone's lawsuit against Rolling Stone, the Ugandan newspaper that printed the names and addresses of several gay men, many of whom were subsequently killed. That is coming up, but first many states have a wide variety of state emblems. Montana, for instance, has deemed the Grizzly Bear to be it's official animal. Oklahoma has the festive Mistletoe as it's state flower. And New York has decreed that the cute as a bug Ladybug it the state insect. Utah has many state emblems. Ranging from it's state fossil being the Allosaurus, the state folk dance being the square dance, and the state cooking pot being the dutch oven. Dutch oven cooking has a unique place in Utah history, calling back to Utah's pioneer roots. Explorers like Jim Bridger and Peter Skene Ogden would often cook up delicious stews and tasty fruit cobblers while they were out on their trapping excursions.
Now the state of Utah is set to decree another state emblem. A gun. The Browning M1911 semiautomatic pistol, invented by Utah native Jim Browning, yes that Browning, is set to be decreed the official state firearm of the state of Utah. This move is considered to be quite peculiar after the shootings in Tucson, as well as increasing amounts of gun crime in Mexico being linked to firearms purchased in the states surrounding the US/Mexico border.
Hunter Red, pictured above, joins Rachel Maddow at her New York studio, sitting camera left.
Rachel Maddow- Here to try to make sense of it is Hunter Red, writer and blogger for The Four Stars Blog. Hunter, thank you being here.
Hunter Red- Thanks for having me.
Rachel Maddow- I heard about this story a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't believe that I saw. No state in the nation has an official state gun, Utah would be the first. Why do you think they would do this?
Hunter Red- Well, you touched on it in your intro. The Browning M1911 was invented by Jim Browning, who was born in Ogden, Utah. Much of his life's work was done in Utah, and the Browning Arms Company continues to be headquartered in Mountain Green, Utah.
Rachel Maddow- But why now? Why is the Utah state legislature moving to honor a gun?
Hunter Red- They aren't trying to honor a gun, they're trying to honor the man, Jim Browning. They tried honoring Jim Browning last year and was unsuccessful in doing so.
Rachel Maddow- How so?
Hunter Red- Well, last year, the state legislature proposed giving Jim Browning his own holiday. Now, they didn't want to give him his own day. Instead, they wanted to combine it with an already established holiday.
Rachel Maddow- What holiday was that?
Hunter Red- Martin Luther King Day.
Rachel Maddow is shocked by this.
Rachel Maddow- Martin Luther King Day?
Hunter Red- Yes.
Rachel Maddow- The civil rights leader?
Hunter Red- Yes.
Rachel Maddow- The man who was shot with a gun?
Hunter Red- Yes.
Rachel Maddow- Wow. That is really messed up.
Hunter Red- It didn't take you long to come to that conclusion, did it?
Rachel Maddow- No it did not. I also wanted to talk to you about Curtis Oda's bill-
Hunter Red- The feral animal bill?
Rachel Maddow- Yes. Now, on the face of it, this seems totally repugnant.
Hunter Red- Yes, it does. Fortunately, when the bill was put through committee, the bill was softened a bit. Now the bill says that you can only kill an animal that you think is ferall and is attacking you.
Rachel Maddow- That's good to hear, but why was this law proposed in the first place?
Hunter Red- The issue of feral animals, particularly in rural areas, is something that was brought up when a law criminalizing animal cruelty was passed two years ago. In fact, this issue is why the same bill was tabled the year before it was passed.
Rachel Maddow- So, they are just concerned with untamed animals in rural areas?
Hunter Red- Not all untamed animals. Just things like cats. dogs, and rodents.
Rachel Maddow- This- this is just a little to much for me to comprehend. I wonder why Utah, particularly it's state legislature, is acting, what seems to me, to be a little bit crazy this year.
Hunter Red- This year?
Rachel Maddow- Yes, this year.
Hunter Red- Rachel, it was worse last year.
Rachel Maddow- How so?
Hunter Red- Well, in addition to the proposed Jim Browning holiday, there was a law, actually passed, that decrees that the state of Utah has jurisdiction over the population of wolves within it's borders. Now there are two distinct problems with this.
Rachel Maddow- Is the first that wolves are an endangered species, and therefore it's population is under the control of the federal government?
Hunter Red- Yes, that is the first problem. The second is that there are no wolves in the state of Utah.
Rachel Maddow- None?
Hunter Red- None.
Rachel Maddow- But, how can you control a population that does not exist in your state? That would be like me saying that I have control of all of the dutch oven cooking pots in this studio, despite the fact that there are no dutch oven cooking pots in this studio.
Hunter Red- Exactly. There is also the dual resignations that bookended the last legislative session.
Rachel Maddow- You are referring to the resignation of former governor John Huntsman?
Hunter Red- No. I am referring to the resignations of Sheldon Killpack and Kevin Garn.
Rachel Maddow- What happened there?
Hunter Red- I could tell you, but I think this segment is about over-
Rachel Maddow- We can go long if you like.
Hunter Red- I don't want to obstruct with the flow of the show, or take any time away from the Rolling Stone story. But, what I would like to touch upon is the interview given last year by state senator Chris Buttars.
Rachel Maddow- Chris Buttars. Who is that?
Hunter Red- Chris Buttars is senator who's legislative efforts work to, in my opinion, make the state of Utah a more inhospitable place to homosexuals and liberals in general.
Rachel Maddow- That can be debated, but go on.
Hunter Red- Last year, Buttars gave an interview to Reed Cowen, former Utah news reporter who was working in a documentary.
Rachel Maddow- Which documentary was that?
Hunter Red- 8: The Mormon Proposition. As a part of this documentary, Chris gave an interview where he said several inflammatory things towards homosexuals. These are comments that I thought, given your championing of gay issues, would have just run with.
Rachel Maddow- Which comments are those?
Hunter Red- First, Chris said that all homosexuals engage in pig sex.
Rachel Maddow- Pig sex? What is that?
Hunter Red- I don't know, and neither did Reed Cowen, who asked Buttars to elaborate on what pig sex was. Chris wouldn't explain, since he was in a public place and didn't want to describe behavior like that in public. But, Buttars said that all gay people know what pig sex is. Buttars was saying this to Mr. Cowen, who had no idea what he was talking about and is gay.
Rachel Maddow- I'm getting the wrap it up signal from my producer.
Hunter Red- Okay, the second thing Buttars said in that interview was "Homosexuality is the greatest threat is America going down today."
Rachel is stunned by this.
Rachel Maddow- What?
Hunter Red is smiling.
Hunter Red- Yes.
Rachel Maddow- Chris Buttars said that, in that way, with that exact vocabulary?
Hunter Red- Yes, he said exactly that.
Rachel Maddow- Wow. Looks like we may be paying more attention to the goings on in the Utah state legislature in the future.
Hunter Red- About damn time.
Rachel Maddow- Thanks you, Hunter, for being here.
Hunter Red- My pleasure.
Rachel Maddow- Up next, my interview with Matt Taibbi about the Ugandan Rolling Stone situation. Stay tuned.
END SCENE
Red Impressions: Hulu Plus
On Monday I started fooling around with Hulu Plus. I wanted to watch Fringe and was tired of watching it on my laptop. As it turns out, Hulu Plus doesn't offer Fringe, The Simpsons, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, or the shows on G4 that I watch on Hulu because I have DirecTV.
However, many of the shows that I currently watch on Hulu are on Hulu Plus. House, 30 Rock, and The Office are prime examples. I recently caught up on Parks And Rec. I also caught up on Family Guy, which looks remarkable in high definition. There's also one show recently added to Hulu Plus that I can't function without.
The Colbert Report, with The Rev. Sir Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A.. Before viewing the Colbert Report on Hulu Plus, I had never seen the great The Rev. Sir Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A. in high definition before, and I never want to go back. As mesmerized as I was by his image before, I am even more enticed by The Rev. Sir Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A. now. Sure, The Daily Show is also on Hulu Plus, but all high def does for that show is make Jon Stewart look even older than he does in standard def.
The biggest complaint I have in relation to this service has nothing to do with Hulu Plus. Rather, it has to do with the online architecture that I dues to connect to Hulu Plus. You see, I watched Hulu Plus on my Playstation 3, which is connected to the internet via the Playstation Network, and PSN sucks. This is a chronic problem I've had with PSN. I've tried diagnosing it on my end. My ISP isn't to blame, my modem isn't to blame, my wireless router isn't to blame, the wireless connector inside the PS3 isn't to blame, I can't find anything on my end that would prevent me from getting connected, staying connected, and maintaining a decent speed on PSN.
Overall, Hulu Plus is a nice service. It's not a replacement for my DirecTV, but is a great way to see television shows in HD anytime I want. The connectivity problems are a drawback, but hopefully will be solved when the Xbox 360 Hulu Plus service is rolled out. Here's hoping they work out a deal so I can finally experience Fringe in the high definition awesomeness I've been hearing about.
Hulu Plus: A
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment