Bits 'n' Pieces

• I am glad election season will be over soon.  I would like to be the guy on WFAA who does the BS testing for political ads.  Even the politicians I would tend to favor have some of the most asinine radio/TV ads.
• Incumbents take credit for Texas jobs being more stable than in other areas of the country.  But, as the publisher of a small-town Tarrant County newspaper often told me (usually as an argument against prostituting the municipal budget through 'economic development' incentives), Texas has all of the standard business inputs, in spades: location (center of the continent), markets, transportation (ports, rail, major interstates, air), availability of capital, an educated workforce (North Texas anyway - hey, it's my blog, I can throw barbs if I please - besides, it's true), moderate year-round weather, culture & entertainment venues, affordable land and energy costs.  I'm thinking those factors pretty much trump most of what the tin-pot politicians try to take credit for.
• It's funny that the governor-running-for-re-election chides the mayor-running-for-governor for budget deficits, inasmuch as the State has about a $17B budget deficit.  From what I've seen, there's scarcely a midsize or large city in the state that isn't having lean financial times.
• Does anyone know who is running opposite the Lt. Governor?  Because, for all I can tell, the Lt. Governor (Lite Guv, as Molly Ivins used to say - I was not particularly a Molly fan, but it was a useful term) is running against ObamaCare.  Now, I wouldn't be voting for ObamaCare anyway, but I'm not really sure that's on the ballot next month.  So what gives?
• It looks like the North Central Texas I-35W corridor US representative incumbent is vulnerable.  But still I cringe when I hear the childish refrain "Chet Loves Debt" from his challenger.  It's not a race for 6th grade class president.  Edit: The TV is on as I write this - I didn't hear the refrain in the TV ad.
• I was in South Tarrant yesterday, stopped for lunch at a Taco Bueno because I was starved.  My bill came to $5.08, so I handed the cashier a five and a dime, expecting two pennies change.  Instead, the cash register display showed $0.53 change, which is what she handed me.  I politely informed her that I thought she'd given me too much change.  To which she replied "Oh, I gave you the senior discount."
• Sheesh!
• It's been 31 years since I was a senior (26 if you count college).
• I suppose I'd have understood if she was sixteen - after all, everyone over thirty looks OLD.  But this woman was every day of forty (probably was only thirty).
• There was a dead disposable diaper (infant size) next to the passenger side of my car when I left the restaurant.
• Modern society is entropic.
• Took my son's Defensive Driving certificate and driving record to the local PD/court so that his first ticket will go away.  Next time, he will have to hire James Mallory or Jim Lollar.  I have a friend, who, when I inquired a year or so ago about traffic ticket attorneys (never having hired one before),  rattled off the phone number for one of the preceding, from memory.
• Sitting at a side street traffic light this morning, I was bumped from behind by a twit in an Infiniti G-35.  After a few seconds, I got out and determined that there wasn't really any damage (who knows, in a year or so, the rear bumper fascia may crack), and returned to my car.  The twit never even got out.  I was going to include that she was blonde, but I'll refrain since I have one or more blonde readers, and cannot prove that the blonde-ity was a contributing factor.  Texting probably was, though.
• Radio ads, other than the political, that annoy me: Central Market, The Dump, and Children's Hospital.  I loathe the oh-so-cutesy copy and singsong delivery of the first two (plus, The Dump has butt-ugly, damaged furniture that wouldn't sell elsewhere at retail), and the nursery rhyme rap when discussing childhood neuroblastoma just irks me.  Is it wrong to talk about serious issues in a serious way?
• If I were in sales for Citadel, Cumulus or any of the radio network groups, I would love the insurance companies.  Can you turn on the radio without hearing a Geico, Progressive, or Nationwide jingle?
• Yeah, some of those are annoying, too.
• After two Ranger wins this past week, the jocks on the classic rock station did an on-air prank in which some gal originally from Yankee-land calls her dad, who's in the Bronx or Brooklyn or Queens, and says that she's left her husband (and children's father) because she 'hooked-up' with a Texas Rangers player an an after party and now he's her boyfriend and they're *boinking*.   The ruse was designed to get a rise from her die-hard Yankees fan dad, many bleeped 'f-bombs' ensued in his lecture to his daughter about decency and her responsibilities.  But the only thing I found funny in the bit was hearing his genuine New York accent.
• This week, a series I'd been attending on Baptist Faith and Message concluded at a local church of that denomination.  I managed to attend a little more than half of the lectures (starting late, I attended all of the remaining installments from the time I started).  It was very informative about the governance of a local church in the SBC, and the pastor was refreshingly candid.  He tackled a question about alcohol by saying that the only Biblical passage he could find was "Be ye not drunk with wine.." and said that while he'd never tasted alcohol, and has no plans to, and inferred that judicious imbibing was not an egregious activity.  It seemed a good answer, and based on my knowledge of him, not one designed to tack into prevailing winds, but based on thoughtful study.
• BTW, I'm not Baptist, but I do attend several events and studies with friends who are.  The church that I attend weekly has, as best I can tell, Baptist foundations, but not the term in its name.
• Hugh Beaumont, best known as Ward Cleaver, was licensed to preach by the denomination of which I'm still, technically I suppose, a member. 
• I've never been much of a baseball fan, but am enjoying the Rangers finally being a serious pennant contender.