What had started as an uninspired day took a turn for the annoying and frustrating this afternoon. While I was out running some errands I got a parking ticket in the City of Brookline, MA for an "upaid meter."

Now I am willing to pay my dues when I make a mistake, but in this case it is hard to understand how I could get a ticket for an upaid meter when there wasn't a meter for the spot I was parked in. Granted, there was a meter for the spot ahead of me and one for the one behind me, so I should have been suspicious. I have no objections to paying the meter - in fact, I have a pocket full of change that I would have been delighted to put into a meter, HAD THERE BEEN A METER to put it in!

The ticket is for $25, hardly a fortune nor worth fighting for, but I am irritated and I am going to fight this all the way to city hall! (I always wanted to say that!)

This case illustrates why I find many of provisions of the Patriot Act troubling. If local meter maids are overzealous in dispatching their "justice", how can we trust higher authorities to act judiciously when our civil rights and freedoms are at stake? Especially if there are few avenues of recourse, unlike this case where I can challenge the ticket.

More of an update later when my irritation disipates some...