Today, I am no longer a subscriber to Sirius Satellite Radio. After two years of loyal subscribership, the company tossed me away like I was nothing. I loved it, wanted to keep it, but they feel like I owe them more that I should and I have to draw the line somewhere. Let me explain.

Two weeks ago, I noticed my radios stopped working. I tried to log into my account, no dice. I was baffled, but didn’t have time to call until today. After 15 minutes of frustratingly yelling instructions to the automated teller I finally got to a real person.

Paul seemed like a nice guy. He quickly pulled up my account and informed my that my account had been closed. “What”? I asked, immediately confused. “You were canceled for non-payment” he said. I replied that I had been on auto bill from my debit card and his reply was, “Yes, I see that but the last transaction didn’t go through, you’ll have to call the bank to find out why”. “Oh, well” I said… “Not sure what happened, but let me take care of it right now.” This is when the hammer fell. Paul informed me that I needed to pay the past due ammout (a whopping $12), and then pay a whole new setup, and activation fee to start a new account.

So, after two years, something happened, the bill wasn’t paid, and they just cut me off? No calls, no emails, nothing. They must not want me as a customer. Listen, I’m not sure how his happened, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to give them more money just because of some bank issue. The account has been fully funded since I opened it.

So, after that long conversation on the phone and several angry emails, I give up. Sorry Howard, I will miss you. I pulled the radio out of my car and threw it in the trash. I don’t need it that bad. Besides, there’s always bittorrent.

Apparently, the five-o in Chattanooga, Tennessee have a new nemesis. College student Clay Palmer decided he would honk his horn in protest when he witnessed a police car moving through a red light with it’s flashers on and no obvious emergency. For this admirable stand in the face of injustice, he received a nice, shiny ticket for a noise violation.

Now, I never claimed to be the brightest crayon in the tool shed, but I know enough about real life to know when to shut the #$@% up! Obviously, Clay is not from the Chris Rock school of police interaction. Still, we’ve all seen this happen. Traffic is awful and some cop comes along with his lights on long enough to make through the intersection. What gives him the right? Unless there is some pressing emergency, he should have to wait there obeying this electronic demigod like the rest of us. No one is above the law… right?

The best part of this case was the judge’s comment “The horn blowing is not the real problem here, it’s that you were trying to correct the police and they didn’t need correcting”. Wait, wasn’t Clay in court for a noise violation? Never mind…

The real point here is if you have a flashing light, a badge, and a gun, you can pretty much do whatever you want, and all of your friends will back you. Luckily for Clay, his charge was reduced to a warning.