"Living in Texas feels like being in a big prison"

This is what I used to say when I lived in Austin, Texas. And here is a proof:


Do you see the blue spec in the middle called Austin? It's sunk in a sea of reactionary red. (Just as a few other places.) You venture outside it and you're in the land of intolerance, the land of people whose law is based on guns and the Bible, the land of those who voted for McCain (and Dubya and his father in the past). Try to speak and you fear for your life. Despite appearances, this land is one of the most fundamentalist places in the world. There is no freedom of speech, no freedom of expression. Waco and Huntsville (were people get executed all the time) are typical of Texas. If you are different you can't stay. You may be killed. So you end up spending all the time in Austin, feeling, exactly, like being in a huge prison. This is why I used to use this phrase.