The Republicans, who can muster enough votes to block the governor's budget, refuse to consider tax increases unless they are accompanied by a root-and-branch overhaul of state finances and a mass sell-off of state assets.

ECONOMIST: California's budget

Mass media conditioning has made nonconformity or eccentricity more glaring and thus less likely to flourish or take root in the first place.

FORBES: Does Your Life Seem Like A Charles Dickens Novel?