The Justice Department has approved the proposed merger of the two satellite radio companies, Sirius and XM. Each had had adherents among the major auto manufacturers, but neither had made money.

So, they decided to combine.

But, at least originally, the archaic Justice Department, the same entity that has managed to be behind the times on every anti-trust event since it once threatened to break apart General Motors as a monopoly, just as the imported brands began to prove that GM was far from a monopoly, threatened to intervene to block the combination.

Now, they’ve decided not to try.

(more after the jump)

Satellite radio is the latest example of the perfection of a technology that is not really needed. Though the Justice Department debated whether merging the two competing satellite radio companies would mean one had a monopoly, the reality is that iPods and pod casts and other forms of downloading information and programming long ago left both XM and Sirius in the dust.

Combined, the two may survive as one. On the other hand, both have always depended largely on automakers offering their products as an original equipment item on new cars. With the depressing current sales of new cars, and the trend toward integrating external audio devices, the merger of the two companies may only be postponing the inevitable.

Yet another example of why cars should be cars, not sound stations.