This is Absolutely Repugnant

It never occurred to me that there would be a day when a mere emergency dispatch call would cost money up-front. Certainly we all pay a share for the service with our tax dollars, but the cash-strapped Tracy government has the wonderful notion that 911 medical calls should be paid for by residents either via annual subscription or, if they don't want to bother with that, in lump sums of $300 a pop. That's right: if you live in this Central Valley hellhole and you or a loved one are experiencing a medical emergency it is now necessary to consider whether or not you have the cash just to make the ambulance call. MC Hammer lives out there...won't somebody please think of MC Hammer!?

That is an astoundingly repugnant thought to me. Thanks for the fun Prop 13. I am lighting some incense, rubbing a Buddha, muttering some Hail Marys, and generally projecting psychic waves of discontent in the hope this idiotic idea doesn't start the snowball rolling for privatized public services. If none of that works, well, I bid everybody a welcome back to the 19th century. Will you take the financial hit and save your neighbor if their house is ablaze or they're lying still in the street clutching their chest?

--Matt