Things and Stuff...and Things

• OK, I'm a believer. The Horns put up 82 points, the most the Aggies have given up this year...and still lose by 18 points. After wins over Kansas and Texas, it's clear who the best team in the Big 12 is this year. I still can't believe A&M is higher ranked than Duke.
• Gov. Perry wants to sell the Texas Lottery and live off the lump sum. OK, whatever - I don't really have any big opinion on the lottery either way - I don't care if we have gambling in Texas, it's just an idiot tax - but there are a couple of bad points here. First, Perry apparently wants to use part of the money to set up another welfare program.
  I'm against that in general, partly because I'm an eeeeeeee-vil conservative, but also because whenever money shows up in the coffers, the first thing politicians want to do is set up a new program. The problem is, the program then has to be funded in perpetuity, because no welfare program ever goes away.
  Second, Perry is apparently planning on getting a nine-percent return on investment of the proceeds, indefinitely. If that is truly available, why aren't we using it for all kinds of things? Why aren't we investing Social Security funds there? Hell, nine percent return is probably twelve percent better than I can expect to see on the money flushed down that black hole.
  Combine unreasonable expectations with a new funding mandate, and I can shenanigans on the whole thing. Here's an idea: sell the lottery and return the money to the taxpayers.