I have an admission to make. I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and lived there until my parents packed up and moved to California when I was 5 years old. Life can be merciful, folks. I still have family there and it’s actually a physically gorgeous place but when it comes to politics, oy vey. Yeah, Louisiana politics are reactionary but our assorted rogues and rascals make it highly entertaining.Here’s the latest example of Beehive state wingnuttery:

A state senator voted against a bill Monday that would make cockfighting a felony in Utah because abortion is legal.

“In a state where we can still allow people to kill
their babies, we want to make it a felony to let chickens fight for the
purpose of which they were raised,” said Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North
Ogden.

Christensen said cockfighting is not “beautiful” or
“wonderful.” But the birds “naturally want to do this thing in their
lives and we’re going to send their owners to prison for this, yet we
allow people to go ahead and murder their unborn babies.”

SB52
would make it a third-degree felony to own or train game fowl for
fighting, and attending a cockfight would be a class B misdemeanor.

Utah is the only state in the West in which
cockfighting is a misdemeanor, said Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake, the
bill’s sponsor. The proposed law would mirror the state’s dog fighting
statute.

“This is horrendous activity that goes on. It’s blood sport,” Davis said.

Cockfights typically bring gambling as well as illegal drug and alcohol use, he said.

Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Wood Cross, said because
cockfighting is a misdemeanor in Utah, it attracts people involved in it
from outside the state.

“This is a problem,” he said. “Utah is running the
risk of becoming an underground gambling circuit for this horrendous
activity.”

The Senate preliminarily approved the bill 17-11. It will be up for a final vote later this week.

The only thing surprising about this episode is that this bozo’s argument didn’t carry the day. I suspect he hoped to activate the beehive mind and get everyone thinking about fetuses instead of roosters. Louisiana only made cockfighting illegal in 2007 but this argument was never made in our lege. Instead, we heard a great deal about how blood sports were an essential part of Cajun culture, which had worked for many years but was undermined by then Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco’s support of the bill. It doesn’t get much more Cajun than a name ending in eaux.

I’m surprised that State Senator Christensen didn’t use the google to try and find a picture of Louisiana wingnutWoody Jenkins waving a plastic fetus doll about on the floor of the State House of Representatives in 1991.The emphasis is on the word *try* I wasn’t able to find a snap of the Woodman waving the doll but it was not for wont of trying. It actually happened, and every time I curse Mary Landrieu for doing something shitty, I remind myself that she voted for the ACA and that Woody Jenkins lost to her by a mere 5,788 votes in 1996.

That brings to an end this week’s edition of specious argument theatre.