I highly recommend Educated, the memoir about the women raised fundamental Mormon and left the church as she got more and more educated about what the world was actually like. Fascinating, heartbreaking, and a really good look at how sheltered ad blinded a lot of these people are. 

Insanity is actually really hard to prove, and mere mental illness won’t cut it. Most jurisdictions require the defense to prove in some form that the defendant didn’t know right from wrong, or didn’t know that her actions were bad. The fact that she sent a text literally saying “it’s my fault” kind of nixes the…

1) We have a census because voting districts are determined by census data: how many people are living where, and consequently where should the voting district lines be drawn. The reason why state and local governments swung significantly right in the last decade are because the GOP ran an operation to get a majority…

No, Kennedy/O’Connor/Souter were the swings in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Souter and O’Connor were the swings in Stenberg v. Carhart, an opinion that SCOTUS promptly walked all over in the 2007 decision of Gonzales v. Carhart as soon as O’Connor retired and was replaced by Alito. Kennedy was the swing in Whole…

My bet’s on an album with a butterfly theme, representing transformation, growth; destroying the caterpillar of her past self and recreating herself into something more wholesome, positive, and pure. Probably called Metamorphosis or something. 

literally all i have an appetite for right now is chocolate so the anxiety eating is definitely strong right now

When I was in third grade, I got in a fight with my best friend, so during recess I sat under a tree, sulked, and used a twig to write “I have no friends” in the dirt.

“The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.” — P. J. O’Rourke

The difference is that he won on a technicality in the first case. SCOTUS pointedly declined to rule on whether someone can use their religious views as justification for denying services. What SCOTUS *did* rule was that the original court was not thorough enough in its analysis of Phillips’s religious viewpoints and…

Yes. Noses are one of the few body parts that pretty much constantly change. Apparently it’s because gravity continuously pulls the cartilage down, so we go from having perky “ski jump” noses as children to hag-like droopy noses in old age. And in the middle are the noses that point downward.

And if that does happen, they will refuse to recognize him as the true Jesus because TrueJesus would agree with everything they’re saying. So they’d just label him as literally the AntiChrist and say that the end is getting nearer, isn’t their plan working out perfectly?!?!?!!!!1?1

They’ve literally acknowledged this: “‘We’re gonna see if that old adage is true: that the only way he can lose this race is with a live boy or a dead girl. Alabama’s gonna test the specs on that,’ said David Mowery, an Alabama Republican strategist.” https://www.buzzfeed.com/mattberman/republicans-say-theyre-deeply-di…

But the 16 year old’s mother refused to allow him to date her daughter telling him, “Let’s not rob the cradle,” so Alabama 1979 wasn’t exactly full of people who thought this behavior was acceptable, either.

“Last July, the FDA put out a call for public comment on how it should proceed with its blood donation regulations, which seems like an extremely strange way of directing policy.”

Not a lawyer, but a law student. Since the verdict would hit before she turns 18, she enters the mental hospital as a juvenile, even if she was charged as an adult. I *think* that means that the state loses jurisdiction over her once she turns 18. So as soon as that hits, she can pop out of there and the state can’t…

As much as I wish H.W. Bush a speedy recovery, having trump’s presidency start with the flags flying at half-mast would be the best visual to represent how I feel about this shit show.

Law student here. The only justification I could possibly find is that the judge thought the defendant’s definition of negligence liability was overly biased, too broad, or overly complicated. This is complete speculation, since I don’t know exactly what the defendant’s request consisted of and whether or not a…

I was using “someone” to refer to the state governor in his personal, private citizen capacity. Not the government. But you’re right - suing Chris Christie as a private citizen for his actions as the head of the state government is a flimsy case that would probably get thrown out.

There’s the possibility of wrongful death civil suits. Use the outcome of the criminal trial to pin the blame on someone and then argue that, if not for their actions, these people wouldn’t have died. Don’t know how successful it would be, but you can sue anyone for anything.

living in VA now. This decision is making my life-long Republican father (who changed his registration to NPP after the Rise of Trump) even more comfortable with voting for Hillary. 100% ok with this decision