Panhandling in Cali

California is proof. When the money runs out, folks don’t want to cough up more. “Beyond Draconian” is the term being bandied about to describe the proposed cuts. Some 235,000 state workers will have to take a 5 percent pay cut. Of the state’s 279 state parks, 200 will be closed. Schwarzenegger’s plan to dismantle the Cal Grant program — considered one of the nation’s best programs to help poorer students cover full fees or tuition at public colleges — would make California the first US state to eliminate student financial aid while raising tuition. A massive plan to overhaul healthcare in state prisons will be scaled back. A Senate bill which would have created a state-run system to provide healthcare to every Californian has been scrapped. A CalWorks program providing medical, dental, and vision care to 90,000 children will be eliminated. Hundreds of new spending programs have been sidelined, and the local budgets of cities and counties have been raided to make ends meet. California loves it’s wonderful programs, but turned down 5 measures in a recent election to actually pay for them. Oops.

Broken Rule

I’ve had a computer or two in my hands for a *very* long time. Let’sjust  say that I still have a TRS80 Model II (with cassette drive) in a well-padded and sealed box in storage… I manage to make my computers last, though. I try to buy toward the top of the heap when it is time for a new one and take care of the thing. That has usually meant an outlay of $2,000-3,000. The uber geeks always said that the computer you want costs at leat $2,000. It would appear to be no longer true.

• Intel Core2 Quad Q8200
• 4G of RAM
• 640G SATA Hard Drive
• 512M Dual DVI Output GeForce Video Card (have my own flat panels)
• 16X Optical Drive Burner (adding my own second)
• Integrated 7.1 Audio (have my own speakers)

Under $700. I’m not too thrilled about having to use Vista64 to take true advantage of the Quad and the RAM…