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Texas has a reputation of very harsh criminal punishment for criminal offenses It is one of the 32 states that practice capital punishment and since the US Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976 40% of all US executions have taken place in Texas as of 2008 Texas had the 4th highest incarceration rate in the US. Texas also has strong self defense laws allowing citizens to use lethal force to defend themselves their families or their property. . (39) 103 438 Apache Corporation Geography, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Native Hawaiian and. ! ; ! 3.3 Tornadoes Cimarron Culturally Southeast Texas is more closely akin to the Gulf Coast Louisiana or even Mississippi than it is to West Texas Much of modern Southeast Texas culture has its roots in traditions that go back for generations Southeast Texas is consistent with much of the rest of rural Texas in that it is a part of the Bible Belt an area in which many inhabitants have strongly Fundamentalist Christian beliefs Many of the largest cities in East Texas outside Houston still follow a rural Southern way of life especially in dialect mannerisms religion and cuisine. The Houston area is a leading center for building oilfield equipment. Much of its success as a petrochemical complex is due to its busy ship channel the Port of Houston in the United States the port ranks first in international commerce and 10th among the largest ports in the world. Unlike most places high oil and gasoline prices are beneficial for Houston's economy as many of its residents are employed in the energy industry. Houston is the beginning or end point of numerous oil gas and products pipelines.

. Finnish machine gun nest aimed at Soviet Red Army positions during the Winter War February 1940 In recent years the region has become home to many patent-holding companies due to its legal system being particularly friendly to patent holders and hostile to out-of-state tech defendants. Further information: Music of Texas, The vague unrest erupted into armed conflict on October 2 1835 at the Battle of Gonzales when Texans repelled a Mexican attempt to retake a small cannon. This launched the Texas Revolution and over the next three months the Texian Army successfully defeated all Mexican troops in the region. . Japanese prisoner-of-war camps many of which were used as labour camps also had high death rates the International Military Tribunal for the Far East found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1 per cent (for American POWs 37 per cent) seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians. While 37,583 prisoners from the UK 28,500 from the Netherlands and 14,473 from the United States were released after the surrender of Japan the number of Chinese released was only 56! .