My last rant (Time Warner Sucks), I felt, was pretty good. It pretty much summed up in conclusive fashion how Time Warner abuses its power as the only possible provider of cable service to your home. However, they've failed me as a customer YET AGAIN.

  We are moving out of this house on the 15th of June, and called TWC to get it canceled that day. So what happens? A truck arrives at our house early this morning (June 7) and shuts off our cable and internet. The one time they're not late is when they shut us down a full week early. So I call, and the lady on the phone says "hmm, how odd, it's in here for the 15th, we don't know why they came out." We have to wait a whole day for the tech to get his happy ass back out here again and turn it back on. FUCK CABLE.

  This is why deregulation of cable failed. When the conservatives pushed deregulation of the cable industries through in 1996, they ended capitalism and instituted monopolies. Time Warner is my ONLY choice for cable here, and I can deal with that, get satellite (I'll deal with that in a minute) and DSL (we don't have a phone line to our house, not an option) or go without. Tell me, next time you argue with a conservative about capitalism or socialism, what they say to the idea that only one company is allowed to deliver a service to your home and they have 100% control of the price and options you get. Capitalism, the "Survival of the fittest" of the economic policies, gives way to "survival of the most prominent lobbyists."

  Case in point, when we move to Virginia, the cable provider we're assigned to is Comcast. We have 4 tv's; did you know that as part of their own internal rollout of digital services called "project Cavalry," you must have a box on top of every TV you want to watch on. A box you rent for $7 a month. I suggest you read this: "How the Unknown Digital TV Transition Could Screw You" We want the digital package where I can order my MMA Pay Per Views on the main TV, but to have that service on one TV you must have it on all.

  So get Satellite and DSL you say? Oops, where we're moving, the homeowner's association (you know, that loveable institution where people who can only get what they want by complaining to a bureaucracy get to fuck with their neighbors) has decided that having options for what you want to watch is too ugly. So we have no fucking options, except good old fashioned, monopolized, deregulated comcast.

  If you have the option to get satellite, I strongly suggest you exercise it. I would have had I know how effed up the whole cable industry was, and when I get to a place where I can have sat tv I will, but for now I will have to suck it up with this.