BETTER YOUR BRAIN

things that shouldn’t be under my pillow when I try to nap: 

1. horseshoes

thanks, texas.

I’m in Texas visiting some old friends and as we were hanging out in Austin we remembered that Friday Night Lights (2nd best show of all time) was filmed around here. Turns out someone had made a Google map route of some of the main locations, so we went and checked a few out. Besides everything pictured here we drove past The Landing Strip which looked very much like a Riggin’s hang out and surprisingly nice for a strip club, the “Alamo Freeze” aka Dairy Queen, and the restaurant they always hung out in that’s actually an EZ-E (and pretty good at that, we ate there).

It’s weird to feel nostalgic for a fictional body of work, but I definitely do after driving through “Dillon”. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.

A Day in the Life of the Death Penalty: July 18, 2012

kohenari:

This is your death penalty, America:

Next Wednesday, July 18, reckons to be another banner day in the history of capital punishment in America. Sometime between 6 p.m. and midnight, the state of Texas is scheduled to execute a convicted murderer named Yokamon Hearn, a man who has, since early childhood, shown clear and consistent evidence of brain damage. And at 7 p.m., the state of Georgia plans to execute a convicted murderer named Warren Hill, who years ago was deemed by a veteran state judge to be mentally retarded.

These executions will take place, absent extraordinary Supreme Court or gubernatorial intervention, because federal and state judges at lower levels of our nation’s justice system have perversely interpreted recent United States Supreme Court decisions. Whereas the Justices have tried in the past few years to give men like Hearn and Hill more access to meaningful appellate review, judicial obstructionists down below have refused to apply either the letter or the spirit of the new procedural rules.

In Texas, the perpetually rogue Fifth Circuit, in an opinion dripping with disdain for the justices in Washington, has just refused to apply the precedent established in Martinez v. Ryan, a Supreme Court decision issued in March that sought to expand appellate rights for defendants like Hearn. In Georgia, meanwhile, the state supreme court has refused to designate Hill as mentally retarded, scoffing at the mandate of Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court’s ruling banning the execution of the mentally retarded.

ShortFormBlog: Judge says anti-Planned Parenthood law is unconstitutional

shortformblog:

• february On February 24th, the Texas health services department decided to turn down millions of dollars in grant money, in an effort to defund the then-heavy-in-the-news Planned Parenthood.
• march Planned Parenthood of West Texas announced its Odessa clinic would close on March 9. The…

oh, so you can’t arbitrarily take women’s rights away from them? huh.

ShortFormBlog: US Supreme Court issues stay in execution of Texas inmate

shortformblog:

• NO Duane Buck won’t be executed tonight source

» What happened: In 1995, Buck was convicted of double-murder in Houston, Texas, and sentenced to death. Buck’s guilt is not being disputed; however, during the sentencing phase, a psychologist testified that black criminals are more…