#ThursdayThoughts

I have a very strong sense of justice. The fires of this characteristic have been stoked by the cases of wrongful convictions I have learned about - people who have been incarcerated for years due to police misconduct, false witness testimony, racial bias, and more.

So for today's #ThursdayThoughts here are some about the problem of wrongful convictions in the United States (I don't know what the stats are for other countries):
The number of wrongfully convicted prisoners being exonerated is skyrocketing
Innocence is not enough to get you out of prison

Organizations dedicated to helping the wrongfully convicted:
Prison Fellowship
The Innocence Project
See if your state has an Innocent Project Center

Comments

Call it a Day

The literal use of this phrase hails from 1838 when the phrase originally was "call it half a day" to mean leaving work early. (source) The modern use of the phrase is to indicate ending something due to false sense of accomplishment.

Butter someone up

There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.

More bang for your buck

This phrase was used a lot in 1953 but an earlier citation puts it at 1940 in a Metals and Plastics Publications advertisement. Read about it here . The phrase means you get more for your money.

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