OK, I Can't Keep Double-Posting Everything

From now on I'll be posting exclusively at Josh Tinley.com (also Corrupt Generation.com).

Reminder: This Site Is Moving

This site has essentially moved to www.joshtinley.com or www.corruptgeneration.com. I'll keep co-posting major posts here for a little while. (Though some posts may not show up until hours or days after they were originally written.) But the other site is my primary blog.

AFA Action Alert Misguided and Misleading

The American Family Association is circulating a petition to "take a stand in defense of two of our most precious freedoms—freedom of speech and freedom of religion." Their goal is to get 1,000,000 signatures, and they already have 300,000. The petition claims that "A California lawsuit which is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court would make the use of the words 'natural family,' 'marriage' and 'union of a man and a woman' a 'hate speech' crime in government workplaces" and that "A bill now before Congress (H.R. 1592 / S. 1105) would criminalize negative comments concerning homosexuality, such as calling the practice of homosexuality a sin from the pulpit, a 'hate crime' punishable by a hefty fine and time in prison." Both of these claims are exaggerations bordering on falsehood.

The California case involves a non-work-related, anti-gay flier that two Oakland city employees posted on a workplace bulletin board that office supervisors removed because it had offended other workers. The employees who posted the flier are not facing criminal charges and no one is suggesting that the use of phrases such as "natural family" or "union of a man and a woman" be a "hate speech" crime. The courts are simply saying that the employer has a right to remove material from a workplace bulletin board that the employer deems detrimental to the working environment.

As for the bill currently before Congress, the proposed legislation in no way suggests that negative comments about homosexuality ("such as calling the practice of homosexuality a sin from the pulpit") should be criminalized. Rather, the bill involves violent crimes against a person because of that person's "actual or perceived" race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and so on. Violent crimes motivated by a person's actual or perceived race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation should be taken very seriously because 1) they are essentially acts of terror, meant to intimidate everyone in the targeted group; and 2) perpetrators who can be motivated to attack someone based on nothing more specific than that person's race, gender, sexual orientation, and so on are especially dangerous and likely to strike again.

Snopes has more details.

Stuff Worth Looking At

• "Rafael Nadal Credits French Open Success To Living In A World Of Clay" (The Onion)


• NBC Courts Jon Stewart (Broadcasting & Cable)


• People in Transformer Costumes That Actually Transform (YouTube)


• "15 (Painfully) Unforgettable Cartoon Theme Songs" (Cracked.com)

I've Discovered That My Old Bands' Albums Are Available for Purchase on iTunes

As I was loading my iPod the other day, I discovered that two albums by my former bands are available for sale on iTunes. I can't imagine many people are downloading tracks by the National Biscuit Company or Three Hit Combo, but if someone is, I don't know where the money is going. Of course, the satisfaction of knowing that anyone in the world could theoretically purchase a song I wrote in the late nineties and load it onto his or her iPod in a matter of seconds is worth far more than the cents I haven't received for sales of said songs.



Click here to preview and/or purchase On the Dance Floor by the National Biscuit Company



Click here to preview and/or purchase Of Pop and Science by Three Hit Combo

Five Years of Josh and Ashlee

Five years ago this afternoon, Ashlee Sullivan and I exchanged our wedding vows at Vanderbilt Divinity School's Benton Chapel. Earlier that day, Ashlee's grandmother, Mattie Lou "Sitty" Resha, died. And I'll always remember the preacher who married us, William Jones (one of my divinity school classmates, who did a great job) darting across the divinity school lawn toward the back door of the chapel five minutes after the ceremony was supposed to have started. The ceremony itself, which Ashlee and I had spent months carefully mapping out, lasted an entire seven minutes. The reception featured a Yoda cake and some spectacular dancing by our friend Phil Wittlief. (And, as Meyer often reminds us, he was not present at his parents' wedding.) It was a day that we will not soon forget.

A lot has happened since 2002. We've adopted a fourth cat, joined a church, found unique jobs that are suited to our gifts and interests, bought a house, and had two children. The good times have certainly overshadowed the bad, and I've never doubted that Ashlee and I are meant to be together. Today will be the first of many Josh-and-Ashlee wedding anniversaries that are deemed milestones by a base ten numeral system.

I Think Someone Owes Me a New Car

Yesterday, recent high school graduates from around Middle Tennessee who had maintained perfect attendance throughout their senior year gathered at the Sommet Center to see if they'd be the recipient of one of five 2007 Chevy Cobalts.

Really? Is perfect attendance for one lousy year reason to give a kid a $16,000 automobile (even if it is a Chevy Cobalt)?

Me? I had perfect attendance from fifth grade through twelfth grade. I went through all of middle school and all of high school without ever missing a single day. No one gave me a new car. In fact, when I graduated in 1995, I was driving a two-tone gray 1986 Ford Escort whose engine would blow up three months later. But, after my parents picked me up off the side of the interstate and AAA towed my dead car halfway across Indianapolis, I could go home and admire the lovely plaque hanging in my room commemorating eight years of perfect attendance.

Sorry, I'm Getting Ready for the Second Task in the TriWizard Tournament

I apologize that lately my blogging hasn't been as thorough as you've come to expect from me. I also regret that I haven't done much lately to help Meyer and Resha Kate update their sites. I've been reading all of the Harry Potter books in preparation for The Deathly Hallows, which comes out on July 21. Right now, I'm in the middle of The Goblet of Fire, so I still have a ways to go (including all 850 pages of The Order of the Phoenix).

Thank you for understanding.

Judge Orders Genarlow Wilson Freed From Prison; State Fights Back

Earlier this year, I mentioned the story of Genarlow Wilson (pictured), a teenage football star and outstanding student whose future looked bright before he was locked up for having consensual oral sex with a fellow high school student. Wilson, who was 17 at the time, got ten years, thanks to an archaic Georgia law.

Yesterday, Monroe County Superior Court Judge Thomas H. Wilson ordered that Wilson be freed, arguing that "Wilson's 10-year prison sentence 'would be viewed by society as "cruel and unusual" in the constitutional sense of disproportionality.' The judge also changed Wilson's felony conviction to a misdemeanor without the requirement that he register as a sex offender." Unfortunately, Wilson remains in jail because Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker has decided to appeal the ruling.

Baker argues that it is his "responsibility to follow the laws of Georgia as they are written, not how some may wish they were written." (You can read Baker's defense of his decision in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.) In this case, however, I tend to agree with civil rights veteran Rev. Joseph Lowery, who says to Baker (as quoted in the AJC), "You are expected to be more than some robot obeying the whims [and errors] of some heartless machine... Where is your conscience, that you would allow this travesty to occur on your watch?"

Hat Tip: My sister, Whitney

Image from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A Big Weekend for Women in Racing

IRL driver Danica Patrick recorded her best ever finish Saturday, coming in third in the Bombardier Learjet 550 at Texas Motor Speedway. The third place finish is a best for Danica and is the second best finish ever by a woman in a major auto racing league. (IRL driver Sarah Fisher finished second at Homestead in 2001 and also has a third-place finish to her credit.) Patrick has finished in the top ten in five of the seven IRL races so far this season and is currently seventh in the overall points standings.

Danica was outdone, however, by Rags to Riches (pictured on the left), who won Saturday's Belmont Stakes, becoming the first filly to win a Triple Crown Race since 1988 and the first to win the Belmont in over a century.

Breaking: Resha Kate Walks!

I'll try to get video this weekend.

Friday Morning Links

• "My Nose—That's Where My Burgers Are" (Meyer's Blog)


• "Edwards Campaign Blog: Bill Richardson Feeds Babies To Wolves" (Wonkette)


• Tigers' Verlander Inadvertently Pays $3000 for Chocolate Milk in High School (Seattle Times citing Sports Illustrated)


• "Tim Duncan Rooting For Cavaliers For Good Of NBA" (Onion Sports)


• Why the Spurs Will Win in Five (ESPN.com Page 2)

NBA Notes: The Ascent of Boobie

• Daniel Gibson, the Cavs' second-round pick in last year's draft, went nuts Saturday night, scoring 31 points (mostly in the second half) to help the Cavs pull away from the Pistons in Game 6. After Gibson had scored about twenty of those points, someone at TNT did some research on the kid and learned that his nickname is "Boobie." Marv Albert and Doug Collins picked up on this and, by the end of the game, were consistently referring to Gibson as Boobie. Ernie Johnson, when awarding the Cavs the Eastern Conference trophy, asked coach Mike Brown about Boobie's performance. (Since when does the NBA have trophy presentations for conference championships?) The Inside the NBA team during the post-game show used Boobie exclusively when talking about Gibson. I had never heard Gibson called Boobie prior to the second half of Saturday's game; basically, TNT went from zero to Boobie in a matter of minutes.


• Speaking of the Cavs-Pistons series, I must confess that I dozed off at the beginning of the fourth quarter of Game 5 Thursday night. (I dozed off because I was really tired, not because the game was boring; I believe the game was tied when I fell asleep.) I awoke right after the final buzzer of the second overtime and had to settle for highlights of LeBron's coming out party. I still haven't fogiven myself.


• The Pacers hired former Sixers and Celtics coach Jim O'Brien. I'm not convinced that O'Brien is a better coach than Rick Carlisle, but the Pacers need a fresh start, and I'm glad that someone actually agreed to take the job (especially somoene with a career winning record).


• I was thinking yesterday about how much I miss Reggie Miller.


• I was going to say something about Billy Donovan taking the Orlando Magic job, but apparently he's changed his mind.