There are few issues about which I’m passionate – my family,

religious beliefs and television. Mess with any of those and you’ll get me fired up.

Charter Communications did that Tuesday morning. When I switched on the box at 6 a.m. today to watch Imus on MSNBC, it wasn’t there. I punched &uot;62&uot; into the remote several times but the channel stayed on some animated kids’ show. I then went searching through the channels and finally landed on 43, where Imus was in the process of interviewing Patrick Buchanan.

I didn’t have time this morning to get to the bottom of what Charter was doing – did we get more channels? Did they take some away? Are they just trying to confuse us?

These are questions I’ve assigned a News-Herald reporter to tackle in Wednesday’s paper.

I received a call this morning from Sam Callis. Mr. Callis, as you may recall, was the subject of a News-Herald feature last spring when his driver’s license was revoked by the DMV, revoked with no small amount of attitude on the part of the bureaucrat who yanked them from his hands.

&uot;It’s been real hard on me,&uot; he said.

Mr. Callis reports that he passed his written test yesterday and has only to pass the driving test to regain his privilege to operate an automobile, as he did for 70 years before this incident without ever being involved in accident.

I think Sam got a bit of a raw deal. Don’t get me wrong, I think people as they get older should have to retest from time to time to make sure they are competent to operate a vehicle, but just the way it was done to Mr. Callis seemed a bit weasily. He does drive slow and that can lead to dangerous situations, particularly when road ragers like me are behind them.

Just this morning, I had to drive my wife’s car to Dale’s garage in Chuckatuck. She followed in my car. On our way back home on Crittenden Road, we got behind an elderly woman in pickup truck who did not exceed 30 for the entire length of the road. When I started to complain, Cathy chastised me.

&uot;She old and probably scared of going fast,&uot; she said. &uot;Where’s your compassion?&uot;

I don’t like being wrong, but I hate being wrong and be called on it by someone.

Whether Mr. Callis getting his license back is good or bad news, I’ll leave that for you to decide. I promised my wife I’ll try to be patient.