[Utah Girl]

The Moab mayor is whining in this SL Trib article, big time about the Air Force naming this bomb MOAB. (I love the area around Moab.) Weapon's Name Bombs in Utah City

[Reverend Bob]

Thanks for the link. Sakrison oversees a very liberal "city" government (only about half of Moab is actually within the city limits). His City Manager even signed the "Not In Our Name" petition last fall. Langianese is one of the old County Council holdovers (only 3 of 7 were up in the last election) and is now voting in the minority.

As to Moab's name: No one is really sure of it's true historic derivation. I still think it was the result of someone with a wicked sense of humor.

"Let's call it Moab, it's Biblical!"

"Uh, OK"

Later, when they figured out that Moab was the illegitimate son of Lot and one of his daughters, and the patriarch of a race that were perpetual enemies of the Israelites, some killjoy tried to change the name. Luckily, by then, inertia had set in and the name stuck.

Personally I quite like the place and spent ten days there earlier this month. I was psyched to freep an anti-war rally while I was there, but I couldn't find one, so I went hiking and rock climbing instead. The town's biggest weakness is that it's two bookstores are both HARD left. You can get THE NATION and MOTHER JONES, but not NR and THE WEEKLY STANDARD.