Even the Stupid Is Bigger in Texas

A couple of months ago I blogged about the loony godbotherer who started marketing a line of "Christian" salt, as an alternative to kosher salt. Along those same lines, a county in Texas is assaulting the English language in the name of their tender deity (via PZ):

In this friendly little ranching town, 'hello' is wearing out its welcome. And Leonso Canales Jr. is happy as heck.

At his urging, the Kleberg County commissioners on Monday unanimously designated 'heaven-o' as the county's official greeting. The reason: 'hello' contains the word 'hell.'

It's all kind of cute, in a stupid sort of way, but it really isn't. Some religious nut has shanghaied the organs of government to preach his message. Of course, it's pretty stupid for a county to have an "official greeting" in the first place. But if you're going to do it, at least put some brains into it.

Of course, "hello" has nothing to do with the mythological place of torment (citations omitted):

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hello is an alteration of hallo, hollo, which came from Old High German 'halâ, holâ, emphatic imper[ative] of halôn, holôn to fetch, used esp[ecially] in hailing a ferryman.' It also connects the development of hello to the influence of an earlier form, holla, whose origin is in the French holà (roughly, 'whoa there!', from French là 'there').

You know, sometimes I see something like this, which is a complete scam, and feel pity for people gullible enough to fall for it. Then I come across the story of "heaven-o" and it confirms to me that they deserve it.

UPDATE: I should note that this story actually dates back to 1997, so it's not exactly "news". Still, this kind of idiocy is timeless, don't you think?