They had certain customers using so much bandwidth, that certain markets, notably New York and San Francisco, ran out of bandwidth.

This resulted in the decision to end the Unlimited Data Plan, with the exception of those who already had it could continue to keep it. However, if you moved away from it, you could not go back.

This past December, my wife decided to surprise me with a new iPhone as a Christmas gift. When she went to the AT&T store, the sales rep offered to upgrade her from the iPhone 3 to the iPhone 4. That was not the purpose of her visit, but like a good salesman, he sold her on the upgrade.

While the sales rep was good, it was his first week on the job and he made a slight error. It seems AT&T’s computer system does not default to the previously selected data plan and the sales rep, being new, didn’t confirm with my wife the plan she was currently using. On her part, my wife incorrectly assumed AT&T was a company with integrity and would not make changes without her approval.

Because we trusted AT&T, we didn’t closely look at every bill, and so did not notice the change. It came to our attention when my wife received a text message informing her she was reaching the end of her data usage for the month. We began to look into why she would receive such a message when she had unlimited data and we discovered what had happened.

So I called their customer service to get the mistake rectified and was denied. It seems it took us too long to discover AT&T’s mistake, so they would not correct it. It seems when AT&T makes a mistake, if you don’t correct it within 90 days, AT&T won’t do the right thing.

So I visited the store where my wife purchased the phone. Certainly they would understand what had happened and make it right. And they did understand. And they tried to make it right. But the bean counters at the corporate headquarters would not do the right thing. I was impressed with the efforts the in-store sales rep went to to try and make this right, but AT&T corporate does not care about customer service.

So, AT&T you will lose my cell phone business. And my home phone business. And my high speed Internet business. And my TV business.

Looking forward to my visit to the Verizon store.

Eisegesis may be defined as interpreting the text to include one’s own ideas into the text, sometimes ignoring context and typically is highly subjective.

Last night as I lay in bed with my 19-month-old and 3-year-old, the 19-month-old decided she was going to “spank” her daddy. When I enquired as to why, the 3-year-old announced it was because I didn’t obey her.

I reminder her the Biblical command requires her obedience to me, not mine to her and quoted Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

She responded, “No daddy, it means you need to [o]bey me, too.”

I fear if I don’t take care of this soon, my little eisegete will become a bishop in a liberal denomination

From a horrifying report in the NY Post, it seems the Christmas Spirit is the spirit of the savage.  The crush to get into a Long Island Wal-Mart was so great, a worker was trampled to death by the mob.  In one report, it also mentioned a pregnant woman was knocked down, trampled and miscarried.

This event sickens and saddens me.  Instead of a celebration of the Advent of our Savior, this time has become an opportunity for gross consumerism and materialism.  The god of getting and having things becomes more important than the God of all, so His 6th and 10th commandments are scoffed at so things may be obtained.

And to those who may wish to argue this is an isolated incident with extenuating circumstances and the death was a very freakish occurrence, I would remind you that the 10th commandment is violated in every store and the majority of purchases being made.  Through the catalogs and commercials bombarding us, we teach our children to violate the 10th commandment.  And we give them an example not better than the savages at the Long Island Wal-Mart.

The day after we should be giving thanks for what we have, a display of greed and cruel avarice reminds us of what we are without Christ.  May we all enter a season where we entreat our God to have mercy upon this nation for what we have become.  Let us confess and repent and pray we may avoid God’s judgement for this awful state in which we find ourselves.

Not the kind that requires a 12 step program.  But a one kick program.  Put one swift kick on my backside, and maybe I’ll get it.

Too easily things that don’t matter crowd out those things that do matter.  And worse, sometimes I forget that the unimportant has supplanted the important.  And worse still, I am unaware of the effects of an earlier stupid act.

Fortunately, God in His graciousness shows me how stupid I can be and allows me to make amends.  Tonight was one of those times.

We’ve had some cool, dry weather blow in.  The kind that begs for an evening walk.  And since we have a couple of good sized dogs (45 pound black lab mix and a 100 pound chocolate lab) a good walk with the dogs sounds like a great idea.

So I ask Sis to take the little dog and join me on the jaunt.  But she’s playing with LiverPie.  So I ask Liv to come along.  And that’s when it hit me.  Liv looks at me with sad tear-filled eyes and said, “I can’t come.  You told me I couldn’t take another walk with you because I can’t keep up”.

And I wanted to deliver the swift kick to myself.  I apologized to Liver, put the dogs on leashes and even loaded up LittleBit in her stroller.  So I took Harley, Liv had Pepper and Sis commanded the stroller.  The walk wasn’t the usual calorie burner I like.  But oh what conversations we had!

Beautiful stars and a shining moon.  A hint at what we would be learning tomorrow during family worship.  And how much I love all my girls.

Please, Lord, help me not be so stupid in the future.  And thank you for reminding me nothing beats a cool evening walk with my girls.

Today, campaigns are sanitized and scripted to portray the message so what is projected is not the candidate, but the message the candidate wants you to hear.  A message more often than not crafted not on prinicple, but on what the candidate thinks you want to hear.

And then occasionally character will break through.  In a recent swing for the McCain-Palin campaign, a family with a Down syndrome child were holding up a sign proclaiming their love for Down syndrome children.

The candidates had one of their Secret Service agents call the family over and they met personally with them.  This kind of personal and heartfelt touch demonstates that for McCain-Palin, the family is not a pawn to be used to win an election.  She truly loves and appreciates special needs children and that love and compassion expressed itself in a kind and gracious moment at a campaign stop.

The story was told on the Rush Linbaugh show and the details, with pictures, may be found here.

I learned the importance of having firm convictions and fighting for those convictions.  President Reagan did and said many things that made the political pundits around him cringe.  The famous “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” line stands out as one of those instances repeated to this day. 

I also saw the need to compromise when necessary. I learned you may still be principled and still work with those with whom you disagree.  I remember everything President Reagan gave away to achieve tax cuts.

And I learned that sometimes your party leaves you and you must go elsewhere.  In those days, many conservative Democrats changed party affiliation and joined the Reagan Revolution.

And as the years went by, I understood why those Democrats switched parties as the Republicans lost their moorings and drifted farther and farther left.  I no longer call myself a Republican.  I’m a conservative Independant.

And I now believe I understand why those Democrats switched parties.  Sarah Palin is having an amazing effect on conservatives in and out of the Republican party.  As I have learned more about her, I have become more excited about the potential future of the Republican party.

She is pricipled.  I have heard that anywhere from 80% to over 90% of Down syndrome babies are aborted.  Priciple won out over convenience in her life.

She is charismatic.  The speech she delivered at the convention was electrifying.  Given with wit and bite, it was devestating to the Democrats and stirred the Republican base.

She has made politics fun again.  It’s the 80′s and conservatism is on the rise again.  I’m hoping the Republicans see where they have erred and will return to their moorings.  In the meantime, though, at least we’ll have a fun election.

Thanks, Sarah, and keep up the good work.

I know very little about her. From the news we know she was governor of Alaska, long ago was a Miss Alaska runner up, she has 5 strangely named children and not much else.

From blogs I have read, I find she is evil and wicked and vile because she is in government. It seems some of the far-right hyper-patriarchal types are upset that a woman is on the ticket. Her place, they claim, is not in the White House, but in her house. She has some small children, including a special needs child, and needs to be at home watching over them.

Th verses most often used to drive the point home are Isaiah 3:12 and 1 Corinthians 14, sometimes citing John Knox’s work The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women where he speaks of the curse of women rulers in England.

While I have seen the Isaiah passasge used, I have never seen it exegeted in context with a proper application based on that exegesis. Just warnings about women rulers. Would this warning apply to Deborah and Esther? If not, why not? Would this mean the administrations of Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meier were evil? And since it is God who raises up leaders and brings them down, and He has done so throughout history, how does that apply to a woman running for office? Until these questions can be answered biblically, I’m afraid I’m going to have to reject the Palin detractors using Isaiah.

The passages from Corinthians are even weaker. The context clearly has to do with authority within the church. The church does not have the authority to dicate requirments for office to the government. We are electing leaders of our government, not the church. These passages that apply to the church cannot be extened to the goverment without damaging the meaning and altering God’s Word.

As for the John Knox argument, it was based upon the fact that the English Monarch was also considered the head of the Church of England. In that case it would not be proper to have a woman as the head of the church.

And finally, along with the weak arguments, I have another issue with these pundits. They need to keep their noses out of somone else’s household. If they can demonstate that Mr. Palin objects to the candidacy of his wife, then I might listen. But it’s his house and his wife and he has the authority and responsibility to run that house according to God’s Word. If he is in error, the missives should be directed to him. The hyper-patriarchs especially should be aware of that.

I’ve had my rant. I’ll disappear into my hole again.

Sure, I learn the lesson. But over time, the importance of the lesson fades, and I return to my folly.

And here I sit, alone and lonely. And it happens every year at this time. What causes this annual angst?

General Motors. My sister-in-law, you see, works at the local GM plant. And every year, they close the plant for re-tooling. And she asks my wife if she wants to go visit their mother in Tennessee. And I say, yes, take the girls and go enjoy yourself.

And about three days into the trip I rue my decision. At the time, it seems clever. MadMomma and the Monk-lets gone and TheMadMonk has peace and quiet.

And outwardly, it appears peaceful and quiet. But inwardly, the restlesness of my lonely heart and the vociferous bellow of my moaning at missing my wife and little girls tells the truth of my plight.

My only respite is the knowledge that tomorrow they will begin the journey back. And the clamor and noise will bring peace and quiet.