Andy Borgmann's Blog

I think Capital One just made me the President of the United States. Take that John McCain - it's my week now sucker! I would like to thank my beautiful wife I don't have for her amazing support. My wonderful children I don't have for their letting me ignore them during the campaign. Of course I have to thank the big man, the only one James Dobson listens to, Karl Rove for all the great advice. God bless each of you, and God bless America.

Ok, that might be a bit far, but I seriously think George Washington is pissed.

Think about it. He took on the British. Forged the Patomic in freezing temperatures. Lead a new country in her infancy that in only 200 years grew to the superpower of the world. What is his reward for all this? He gets his face on every $1 bill.

It isn't just Washington though. Through out ages past, the only people that had their face on money were the rulers of the world. Queen Elizabeth. Caesar. Lincoln. And rightfully so.

But then some geniuses (*read self-indulged pricks*) in some (probably) New York marketing firm decided to take George and friend's glory from them when they realized Americans are self-centered and would love the ability to put their face on their money.

So sure enough, I saw an add during the Capital One Game with Michigan & Florida and knew I just had to go for it. After all, I am sure I am exactly the self-centered American those genius pricks were thinking of.

But I have to say I love it. Being the creative, pop-culture (*read loser*) person that I am, it is exactly how I want to pay for my Chick-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich. I don't even sign the back. If anybody questions if it is my card, I am like...uhh look at the front dude!

But what does this say about our culture? Is this just that we are creative people and want to express that when we spend money? Or is it deeper? Does this have larger implications? Does this mean we think we are more important than our leaders? Or maybe that our money (*read economy*), is more important than true leadership.

We want CEOs that make the most money, not lead the best companies. We want Presidents that help our economy the most, not lead our country to greatness. One might argue they are one in the same thing, but when push comes to shove, which do you want? I think Capital One's marketing shows, to quote Jerry McGuire, "show me the money."

While Washington might be pissed I stole his glory, I think he would be saddened to see how his country evolved in her greed.

But I guess the only solace George Washington can take is that even though I am on MY money, I am not on YOUR money. So he still wins. But if you want to kick Washington in the balls, just go ahead and put my face on your new Capital One credit card.

On Friday night we had a "Tiffany turns 27" / "Andy bought a house in November" party. At one point there were about 35 people there. This surprised me because a.) I didn't think 35 people could fit it my tiny townhome, and b.) it took until 10:30 before somebody showed up that I didn't know.

It got me thinking though. It got me thinking about the movie trailer I saw in 2004 for Crash. I loved that movie. It was a movie about LA and racism. It was unique and brilliant. But it is a line from the trailer, which had relatively little to do with race, that had me hooked. The line was, "In LA, nobody touches you...I think we miss that touch so much that we crash into each other just that we can feel something." I lived in LA. I know this to be true. But it isn't just LA - it's everywhere.

In September I downloaded a song called Car Crash by Matt Nathanson out of the iTunes free single of the week section. I don't normally do this because the music usually sucks, but this one sparked my interest for some reason. It's lyrics are thoughtful. The chorus in particular:

I wanna feel the car crash
I wanna feel the capsize
I wanna feel the bomb drop, the earth stop
'Til I'm satisfied
I wanna feel the car crash
'Cause I'm dyin' on the inside
I wanna let go and know
That I'll be alright, alright

I think it is fitting given the recent Duke University study that says we have fewer friends and confidants than Americans did 20-30 years ago. We are wealthier than we have ever been. We are more in control of our lives than we have ever been. We know more than we have ever known. We are more connected then we have ever been. Yet we are lonely. We miss that touch. Why? Why are we lonely?

I am a huge Scrubs fan. I have 134 of the 145 episodes on my DVR. I am not going to go into why I love the show so much. I am just going to show you one scene (it's worth the 2 minutes):

When I first saw this in January, I sent the link to my friend CJ and told him:

I wish you watched Scrubs so you would get this and not think it is weird/gay/ridiculous, but since [my girlfriend at the time] calls you my gay lover and [your wife] calls our friendship "special," I dedicate this video to you

Let's be honest. I would be JD because I am nerdy, quirky, and can't seem to stabilize a relationship. And CJ would be Turk because he's as cool and smooth as a black guy, and married with a kid.

My & CJ's friendship reminds me of David and Jonathan's in the Bible. I would probably be David because I am the one most likely to do something immoral sexually and then murder someone to cover it up. But the Bible says that at the news of Jonathan's death David said, "Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women."

Jonathan died before David had an affair with Bathsheba and then murdered Uriah to cover it up, only to be outed by Nathan. But I have a feeling that if Jonathan was alive, it wouldn't have changed anything. CJ knows I am not perfect. And not just in a generic, "we all sinners" kind of way. He knows I am not perfect. And inversely, I know he isn't perfect. But it doesn't change anything. If anything, it is why I love him more.

David and Jonathan weren't living in a "Crash" world. And as wealthy, and knowledgeable, and connected, and in-control my life gets, it is the guy love and connectedness I find with CJ (and others) that makes this life satisfying and full.

I logged into Facebook the other day and came across an interesting news feed. Apparently, even though my Aunt & Uncle had a wedding more than 20 years ago, it wasn't official until December 26, 2007; at least according to Facebook. I hope their first year of marriage is a good one. Finally their bastard children (Julia you better be laughing) have been vindicated. I think I found this all the more ironic because of what happened to me four days earlier...

My (ex-)girlfriend and I broke up three days or so before Christmas. This is now the 9th time in life I have gone through the infamous "breakup conversation" - it's never fun. But two things happened in this breakup that never happened in any other: she changed her Facebook status in the middle of the (2.5 hour!) conversation¹. The most fascinating thing happened because of this: before she even left my house, I had 13 text messages, phone calls, e-mails, or Facebook messages.

All this got me thinking about communication and how it is changing. Out of the 13 communiques, the best by far was where person A saw on Facebook I was "no longer in a relationship." He proceeded to text message person B, who was driving with her sister to South Carolina. Person B then proceeded to text message person C. Person C then left me a voicemail. I was unable to pick up the call due to the fact that all this happened within 10 minutes of the Facebook "change," and as it turned out, I still had about an hour left to the conversation.

But this isn't about breakups, this is about communication, and how it is changing. I came across an article on Newsvine about how computers are writing financial news stories. Why? Because they can publish within .3 seconds of companies' initial post to NYSE & NASDAQ!! This is a huge advantage to hedge traders.

This also makes me reflect on a conversation I was having with a radio friend the other day about how churches and pastors miss the point in communication. Whether good or bad, Americans have about a 7-minute attention span before it "wants" a break². This is largely due to the fact that most TV shows are 21 minutes long and have 9 minutes of advertising per half hour. Yet pastors wonder why when they get up to speak for 30 minutes (which is actually short for most pastors) people are bored and uninterested.

Communication fails to be communication if it doesn't communicate. I know profound! But seriously, think about that. It's a simple point, but often missed in the communication fields. Pastors fail to communicate by failing to change styles because their arrogance makes them think of course people want to listen to them talk for 45 minutes, they are brilliant. It doesn't take Steve Jobs to tell us that newspapers and book are dying off because people aren't reading. Radio is slowly dying as well.

None of these communication forms will ever die off completely. They will just continue to become less relevant unless they change. The challenge for the next wave of ministers and communicators is to look for ways to communicate in a way that is Facebook official.

When I was a junior in high school, the book "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" came out and was all the rage. I read it, objectively, and grabbed some good principals, but overall "rejected" the basic premise. Sometime later that year, a rebuttal, but less popular book came out called "I Gave Dating a Chance." I liked it better, but still rejected most of the premise, because frankly it was mostly the same as "I Kissed Dating Goodbye." One called dating courtship, and the other called it, well, dating. I'll get back to this later.

If you have read this blog for more than 10 minutes you know I am usually not satisfied with Christian music or books. Why? Because they aren't about life. They aren't real. They give the same cheesy, bullet pointed responses which don't communicate effectively. When done, I always feel like I just drove a Porsche but kept it in 1st gear.

From what I heard from others, Rob Bell's writing promised to be different. So needless to say I was excited to read his new book "Sex God," because we all know the official topic of this blog is sex¹. We also know that my favorite writer is Chuck Klosterman - - sure I might not agree with some of his lifestyle choices, but he is brilliant when it comes to culture. I was expecting Rob Bell to be the "Christian" version of Chuck Klosterman. He's not. If Chuck Klosterman is a Porsche reaching 4th gear², Rob Bell is a Porsche in 2nd gear³

I could probably write a 5,000 word blog on this book. I am going to try not to. Here are my three main issues with the book.

One, he quotes from Song of Solomon (which is good) but fails to acknowledge that a.) Solomon had hundreds of sexual partners, and b.) the Song of Solomon text implies that the "beloved and lover" were not married yet.

Now, I am not looking for a book to justify pre-marital / extra-marital sexual activity. Why? Because I still think a case can be made for sexual "purity". But Bell fails to communicate his point because he refuses to acknowledge, in full disclosure, the entire sexual narrative of the Bible.

Two, he continues the Christian myth that women aren't interested in sex as a pleasurable act, but only use it to attain other relational perks (i.e. feeling love, feeling beautiful, etc...)

I can't speak for generations past, but from my extensive conversation on the topic and cultural insight, I just don't believe that to be true (anymore?). Women are (almost?) just as interested in a sexual relationship as men.

Three, Bell fails to recognize that God is the Creator of sex as something creative and fun.

"Sex God" continues to portray marital sexuality as boring and vanilla. It still makes the ambiguous statement that "sex is good" and leaves it at that. I have written about this before, so I am not going into detail (one | two).

I know this is a shock, but according to research (I can't believe it took research to know this) but the #1 reason people have sex is because it feels good. While there are 237 other reasons, because it feels good is the number one reason we enjoy and/or tempted to have sex. Sex God fails to acknowledge this with any sort of depth or genuineness.

Here is at least what I liked about the book. On page 105 Bell states:

If you have ever given yourself to someone and had your heart broken, you know how God feels.

Bell acknowledges that God never intends for life to be easy. He never intended for life to be pain-free. Which brings me back to I Kissed Dating Goodbye.

My ultimate problem with "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" is that it was a lesson in "avoidance theology." God can't possibly want us to have pain, therefore, we should avoid that which potentially causes pain (in this case: dating). That is a crappy way to live life and I at least respect Bell for standing up against that.

Their is one other reason this brings me back to "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" and "I Gave Dating a Chance". I was hoping when I read this book, it was going to be so good, that I could take writing a sex book off the list of books I am going to write.⁴ That turned out to be false. Now I still feel the Christian arsenal is missing a good book on sexual practical theology, so it looks like I should start working on a rebuttal⁵.

This past weekend my Aunt and Uncle moved my cousin David back to University of Miami (the one in Florida). I was excited because I got to watch my cousin Nick - which is always a lot of fun.

On Saturday, Nick and I were hanging out with my girlfriend Molly and it came time to do the show. So we hopped in my Aunt/Uncle's extra car (a Jeep Wrangler), Molly stole my Cubs hat so her hair didn't go everywhere (which of course made her look even hotter than normal), and we hurried to the station before we got rained on. All and all, a great afternoon...then it got a little weird.

I pull up to the station and Allen is sitting outside in his truck - which is odd. He rolls down the window and informs me that Arum (the show before us) has John Mark Karr in the studio with him. If you don't remember, John Mark Karr is the guy who claimed to kill Jon Bennet Ramnsey and was escorted back from Thailand.

I have to say, I usually try and believe that all people can be loved and all people are not "weird" or "creepy." Why? Because all people make mistakes. All people make stupid decisions. All people are redeemable. Thus all people should be treated as such. But I have to say, John Mark Karr creeped me out. What a great show to bring my 14-year old cousin and my 21-year old girlfriend (who I make fun of all the time for looking 15-years old).

At one point, Molly had to go to the bathroom and asked if I would escort her - to which I didn't blink an eye. While I was standing outside the bathroom, John Mark Karr came down the hallway and entered the Men's bathroom. Right choice to escort: check.

So what is my point? I am not really sure honestly. I don't even know if I have a point. But if I were to sum it up in classic Scrubs fashion, I would have to say that I wish it didn't creep me out. I really wish I could have blogged that it was an experience where I saw a real person that just needed to be loved and a little grace. But I didn't and I think I sort of resent myself for that. Don't get me wrong, there is no way I wouldn't have escorted Molly, or left Nick in the room with Karr by myself. But deep down, I wish I was different than Boortz and everyone else I heard talk about how creepy it was that he was in the same studio; but I am not. And there's the rub. What should be prayed for more: John Mark Karr and his "creepiness" or me and my lack of ability to love as Jesus would want me to.

I have been producing a radio show for two years now. It has been a lot of fun and it has been an eye-opening experience. But up until the past two weeks, I never felt as if I were part of the "media" per se - or maybe better put, the traditional media. I consider myself more of a Newsvine media type - you know, a citizen journalist. That has changed because of three events the past two weeks.

I had another photo I took published a couple of weeks ago in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Sure it was nothing spectacular, but this bring my total of photos published in various newspapers and magazines to four this year (all unfortunately with out accurate attribution, but that's beside the point, I am not trying to be a photojournalist, I don't care).

The second event came this week when Delta exited bankruptcy. I was reading a Press Release because I am an aviation nerd and I get interested in anything that has to do with aviation. But the strangest thing happened. For the first time ever (and I have read a lot of aviation press releases), at the bottom it said only employees and the press are invited to this event and I thought to myself, well I am the press, I wonder if I can go to that. It was too late of notice, but I think for the next Delta event, I will see if I can do that.

The third event is how I know my "Press Membership" has really kicked in. I used to get about one e-mail a week from a publicist of an author trying to get me to get Allen to plug a book on the air. I would then also get about one book a month in the mail sent to me to review. Just this week, I have had six books sent to me directly from the publishers. And not crappy stuff either (which the old stuff was pretty crappy).

I am currently reading a book called My Single Mom Life by Angela Thomas (it came with a new book by John MacArthur on truth that I am also quite excited to read). Yeah it feels a little weird reading a book written by a single mom, for a single mom, but it is actually quite interesting. And for the first time I think I have actually found a book that I will recommend to Allen to get for an interview when we talk about mothers.

I am not really sure what my point is to this blog, but it is nice to feel apart of the media and it really shows you that God knows what He is doing. Even as an "award winning high school journalist", I never thought I would actually be in the media. It goes to show God knows what He is doing if you just trust him (to think, I was going to be a doctor).

It has now been two weeks since the Virginia Tech shooting (I refuse to call it a massacre like the sensationalized press). I, like every other blogger on the web, of course was tempted to blog about this the second after this happened. But I, unlike every other blogger on the web, decided to wait two weeks. Why? Because what I am about to say was probably too emotionally charged to say the minute after it happened, but now seems a little more realistic (although still probably somewhat extreme). The Virginia Tech shooting is a non-event.

WOAH! You have got to be kidding me. You are nuts. You are so insensitive. You are ridiculous! Are those pretty much your thoughts? Well, give me a second and maybe I will make some sense. If I don't, you are welcome to think I am ridiculous.

Before I go further, I do not want to minimize the pain of those that were personally affected by this event. The families, direct friends, and students deserve our prayers and our sympathy. But the sensationalism the media, and if we are honest, ourselves, had/have turned that event into is almost just as much of a tragedy because it lacks perspective. And why do we lack perspective? Because we are self-centered and we all either are going to college, are in college, went to college, or have kids going to college.

Let's take a look at perspective for a second.

• In 2000 there were 850,293 abortions in the US. That's 2,329 deaths each day, or 77x as many deaths per day as the VTech shootings. Ok, so now you think I am a crazy right-wing nut job. Well hold on.
• In 2006, 2.9 million people died of AIDS, which is 7,900 per day (or 264x that of VTech). 1,041 of those 7,900 deaths per day are innocent children.
• Every year 15 million children die of hunger, or 41,095 per day - that's 1370x that of VTech.
• So just out of those three statistics, we see that 51,324 people die per day that are reasonably treatable and I consider a "tragic death."

Now some of you are probably on the same page with me; others still think I am a nut job. One more thing. I think the American culture proves that VTech is a non-event. Why? Because just two weeks later we have pretty much forgotten about this. It no longer graces the front pages of MSNBC.com, FoxNews.com and CNN.com. In addition to that, how many of us remember the Amish School shooting back in November. Or better yet, that there have been 36 school shootings since 1996. In a month, this will be completely a non-event.

So why is this a non-event? Because we are self-centered. We only care about what we think will happen to us or our family. This is why we don't really care about the alarming statistics of unnecessary death around the world. It is also why at first we appear to care about things like VTech more than anything else, but in the end, we retreat back to our realization that we are really quite safe, our college students are safe, and we've got life pretty good. So since our Darwinian instinct of survival is back in tact, we put these memories into our past as tragic, but essentially incurious.

I was watching Carson the other night (ok morning). You ask, why the heck were you doing that? Simple, nothing else is on TV at 2 am.

The other night Carson did the most interesting thing to me. He sat there, and for a good 20 seconds talked about how much he loved the show 24. Now Carson is on NBC, 24 is on Fox. I found it both odd and great at the same time. Why does TV get this and the church does not. Every day you see TV shows that have "guests" on to promote their shows and many time these shows are on the competitions station.

When the radio show I work at was on in Jacksonville we had a section on our website that would "recommend" other churches in the Jax area for our listeners to get plugged into if they didn't have a home church. When we moved the show to Atlanta - our home turf - I figured the same would happen. So I went to add some great Churches here in Atlanta and sure enough I met some resistance. Like I always do, I couldn't keep my mouth shut and I initially expressed my frustration with this decision. I was met with this response from my boss: "Andy, I agree that we want to help folks find their way to churches. Just want to think about the process and how we do that in our hometown. Jacksonville is one thing: Atlanta is another"

The only difference between Jax and Atlanta, is that if someone goes to Northpoint, or Perimeter, or Apostles, or First Baptist of Woodstock, they aren't going to Mount Pisgah. I think this is sad. Why? Because Mount Pisgah isn't the church for everybody (especially our listeners, and especially young people). It doesn't mean that Mount Pisgah is wrong - they have an identity and purpose specially crafted to what God wants then to be; but so does Northpoint, Perimeter, and the others.

As ministers, I think we need to put aside our jealousy and greed as it is not our ratings and revenue that is going to hurt in the end (like it might be for NBC and Fox), it is going to be the eternity of those who we don't even know.

In the end, while we can get ministry degrees from the greatest Christian universities and seminaries in the country, sometimes there is something to learn from a tv show host at 2 am on how to be a great minister. Thank you Carson.

Disclaimer: I should add the disclaimer that the minister in this this post is a man that I respect very much. Nobody is going to agree with even someone they respect 100% of the time. My general distaste for this particular decision was made known directly (and some time ago) and this is in no way a passive-aggressive attempt to make my point known.

I got my first experience of dealing with the politics of the media this past week. Here are the details.

If you live in Atlanta, you have heard of the Sugarloaf Madame case (aka Melissa Wolf case, aka the Lisa Ann Taylor case). Basically what you have here is a millionaire call-girl, who was an ex-Penthouse Pet, who has quite lucrative clients...to which she has kept her mouth shut about. Now, she had received multiple, paying offers from other media outlets, to which she turned down all of them. Now, her friend, and friend of our show, Mike, had called in last weekend and told us she'd be willing to do our show. We arranged everything, and sure enough, at 10:30 pm last Sunday, we had everything worked out.

Now this is a ratings GOLD MINE - like it had potential to be picked up nationally. We got word on Wednesday that the higher ups at Cox (owner of WSB, amongst many, many other communication companies) got word of our interview and said we couldn't have her as a guest on our show because, "Cox doesn't want to get involved in a pending case."

Now you have to ask yourself, why would a company that prides itself on being the primary news source for all of Atlanta, and the South for that matter, want to turn away an interview with a woman who would be a News ratings gold mine?

I can't go into details about my theory on this, but lets just say that I have come to believe that some of her lucrative clients' fear may have played into this. Why do I know this? Simple: because my friend Mike got a call from a friend in a high place that Gwinnett County prosecutor Danny Porter wasn't going to let this interview happen. Now let me ask you this? Why would a prosecuting attorney have any power over a publicly traded corporation or those in the publicly traded company? And don't even try to quote liable or interference with an investigation...you'd be wrong.

Have you ever heard these words, "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free?" No they aren't MLK's words, nor are they our founding fathers, those words belong to Jesus Christ. Jesus wasn't a man who had much respect for political structures and he didn't really play the political game - to which he was ultimately killed for. There are many ways I am not like Jesus, this is not one of those.

What I am really disappointed about isn't the ratings miss, but rather the fact that I think we had a great opportunity to talk about faith and here's why. Melissa has made comments in the news about how even though she is in the sex industry, she is active in her church. You gotta admit that's weird. Imagine the conversation we could have had. Sure, most Americans don't have as "extreme" of a dichotomy as Melissa, but they do one way or another live in the same dichotomy. These actions imply that our jobs, school life, relationships, etc...don't really have anything to do with their beliefs - a point that I just don't get.

Mike informs me that when this is all over, Melissa will still be willing to do the show, and let me tell you, we will be doing that show. But for now, all I gotta say is that is a bunch of cox.

I love Corona commercials. But I have to tell you, they don't make me want to drink a beer. They make me want to travel to a beach, sit in a hammock, with my smoking-hot girlfriend/wife (which I don't have), and forget about all of the worlds problems.

I should state for the record that I am not anti-drinking. I see nothing wrong with adults using alcohol in moderation as long as they don't become addicted to it, and as long as it isn't a coping mechanism to escape the realities of life. Other than that, go to down. But I digress.

I love Brad Paisley's song Alcohol. Part of the chorus includes, "You've had some of the best times, you'll never remember with me...Alcohol." This is one of the most profound statements in all of country music (I know, that's not really saying much).

It is this statement that ultimately brings me to the reason why Corona doesn't make me want to drink but to go sit on a beach. Living life to the fullest takes remembering what you have done and enjoying every second of it in complete enrapture of the moment.

I have sat on many beaches like those in the Corona commercials: Antigua, Honduras, Hawaii, Australia just to name a few. I can still feel the warmth of the setting sun over Honduras. I can still see the blue-ness of the water in Antigua. And it wasn't just nature that makes these memories fond in my heart. It was the state of my being in these memories. I wasn't stressed. I wasn't worried. I was at peace with me in the world. And no buzz or alcohol can create a beach moment better than that.