I took advantage of a special offer over Christmas to upgrade the cell phones (or, as J and I tend to use them, walkie-talkies) and, by doing so, ended up the owner of a new credit card from Radio Shack, which I discovered from the statement was actually administered by MBNA America. We don't keep credit card balances, so the first thing I did was pay off what I had put on the card, then today I called up MBNA to cancel the card.

I anticipated the question regarding my reason for cancelling the card, and had my response ready, "I recently learned that MBNA America was a big contributor to the Republican party and I do not want to support businesses that contribute to the Republicans."

Following her script, the next question was, "Could you suggest what we could change to get you back as a customer?"

"Simple," I said, "Change your giving. You don't have to give to the Democrats, but get out of political giving altogether. Good day."

I usually hate having to make these kinds of phone calls, but I quite enjoyed this one.