One of the great things about living in America is having the opportunity to interact with great societal institutions that are dedicated to the educational advancement, cultural enrichment and spiritual enlightenment of the human race.

Such as the cable company.

The specific cable company to which I refer is Comcast, but I hold a similar level of admiration for all cable companies. Frankly, they are marvels of organization, competence and genuine concern for the welfare of the various population bases that they serve.

It was thus with great reluctance that we recently parted company with Comcast, at least in regard to its provision of cable television service to our domicile. We still get their Internet service. At least as of this morning.

For those of you not familiar with Comcast, it is a 47-year-old company headquartered in Philadelphia. It is the largest provider of cable television and home Internet service, and the third-largest provider of home telephone service, in the known galaxy.

In 2010, Comcast was honored by The Consumerist a sub-subsidiary of Consumer Reports as the worst company in America. In 2011, it lost the Golden Poo Award to oil giant BP, and this year to EA, the video game maker. I for one believe it is quite possible the 2011 and 2012 results were rigged.

The reason my wife and I decided to cancel our cable TV service from Comcast, and replace its entertainment amenities with a used Scrabble game and some postcards of the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wis., was what in divorce cases they delicately call "irreconcilable differences."

These differences centered on Comcast insisting that in return for more money every month, it would provide us with less product. For approximately $100 a month, we had a choice of entertainment venues that included a "travel" channel in which various people travel around for no apparent reason other than to eat fried insects; a food channel in which people who look suspiciously like the people on the travel channel share recipes for fried insects; and 135 channels imploring us to buy sequined luggage sets or faux topaz bowling balls.

I actually don't know what we paid for cable, because it was "bundled" with our Internet service. "Bundling" is a cable company term meaning "mind your own business." There were also charges for "modem rental," "digital box interface" and "oxygen molecule tax."

Now, you would think that a company with billions of customers wouldn't care if a lowly Sacramento couple wanted to drop its service. You would be wrong. Comcast clearly did not want us to leave. I think it was a pride thing. I think that Consumerist Golden Poo Award really stung. I practically had to beg.

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On the Lighter Side: Comcast worth its weight in Golden Poo