State Starts Fiscal Year with A Budget in Place — For a Change

On the last day of the fiscal year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a $120 billion spending plan that he and his fellow Democrats say reduced the state’s chronic ongoing gap between revenues and spending commitments by 75 percent.

The spending blueprint also largely holds state spending on public schools at last year’s levels although some $2.1  billion in payments from the state are deferred.    Read more »

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Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, Page 557

(Discussing Thomas Hobbes, 1588 – 1679, and his theory of government)

“Another point in which Hobbes’ doctrine is unduly limited is in regard to their relations between different states. There is not a word in leviathan to suggest any relation between them except war and conquest, with occasional interludes.

“This follows, on his principles, from the absence of an international government, for the relations of states are still in a state of nature, which is that of a war of all against all.    Read more »

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Why Cut Vehicle License Fees? At Least They’re a Tax Write-Off

The budget deal between Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democratic majority Legislature being approved by lawmakers beginning June 28 includes a $12 increase in the registration fees paid on the state’s nearly 32 million vehicles.

The current registration fee is $31.

California drivers – the Department of Motor Vehicles says there are almost 24 million — pay annual registration fees that vary based on the age and purchase price of the vehicle.    Read more »

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Just One of the Great Lines in This Movie

“In a world where carpenters are resurrected, anything is possible.”

— Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine to Peter O’Toole’s Henry II in The Lion in Winter    Read more »

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Gov. Brown and Democratic Legislative Leaders Announce Budget Deal

Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders announced a budget plan June 27 that assumes the state will collect $4 billion more in revenues this year than expected, averting sharp cuts.

A key part of the deal includes keeping state support for public schools at $49.7 billion rather than increasing funding by $3 billion as the Democratic governor proposed in the revised budget he submitted to lawmakers in May.    Read more »

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Excerpts from the US Supreme Court’s June 27 Ruling on Banning Minors From Buying Violent Video Games

In declaring California’s law prohibiting the sale or rental of “violent video games’ to minors violates the First Amendment right to free speech, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority of the US Supreme Court, says the following:

(Citations have been removed and paragraphs shortened to ease reading.)

California’s argument would fare better if there were a longstanding tradition in this country of specially restricting children’s access to depictions of violence but there is none.    Read more »

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Another At Least Quasi-Biblical California Place Name: San Joaquin

At a population of just over 4,000, San Joaquin is Fresno County’s smallest city. Created in 1850, San Joaquin County, with a population of some 650,000 is one of California’s original counties.

Both are named after Saint Joachim, supposedly the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Neither Joachim nor his wife Anne  — also a saint — are mentioned in the Bible.    Read more »

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Bumpersticker…

“Born to Rock, Forced to Work”    Read more »

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Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, Page 631

On John Locke:

“The civil compact which institutes government binds only those who made it; the son must consent afresh to a compact made by his father. (It is clear how this follows from Locke’s principles but it is not very realistic. A young American who, on attaining the age of 21, announces ‘I refuse to be bound by the contract which inaugurated the United States’ will find himself in difficulties.)”    Read more »

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One of the More Memorable Routines of one of the More Memorable Members of the Masthead of California’s Capitol    Read more »

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