Texas or New York

It all started with these two blog posts, Lucky Stars and Four More Good Things, in which I listed some of the good things about the criminal "justice" system in Texas. These posts weren't really about New York (actually, they weren't really about why lawyers have it better here, or I would have listed "good crime" and "low cost of living" as well as "more beautiful women" and "colder beer"), but Scott Greenfield of New York called on his fellow New York lawyers to tell why New York Lawyers have it better than Texans: Unsurprisingly, Scott got no response. Now he has posted a poll on whether people would rather practice in Texas or New York. Here's the text of the poll: Where would you rather practice criminal defense?

-New York -Texas -Anywhere but Texas -Could I practice in Texas but live in NY? -Would I have to dress funny if I practiced in Texas?

A California lawyer, transplanted from Texas, wrote to me, saying:

There's a movie from the 80's called True Stories where a character talks about how God made Texas. In the beginning, God went around the world making mankind's new home beautiful, creating rivers, mountains, canyons, forests. But by the time he got to Texas, it was late and he decided to rest. When he came back, much of the land was baked and dry, the water was gone, and nothing would grow. At first he didn't know what to do but then thought of a solution: I'll make people who like it that way. Guess I'm one of those people.

Davy Crockett said, "You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas.” General Philip Henry Sheridan, on the other hand, said, "If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell.” Vote here.