Long time SEB favorite whipping boy “Dr.” Kent Hovind has been on trial for tax fraud over the past few weeks, which most of you probably already know if you’ve been following along on Pharyngula. Well the trial is finally over and the good “Dr.” and his wife have been found guilty of tax fraud that could land them in prison for a very long time:
Kent Hovind is charged with 58 federal counts, including failure to pay $845,000 in employee-related taxes and withholdings.
If found guilty, he faces a maximum of 288 years in prison. His wife, Jo Hovind, faces up to 225 years. Her charges include aiding and abetting her husband with 44 counts of evading bank-reporting requirements.
Doh! Seems the good “Dr.” would’ve benefited from less time studying the Bible and more time studying up on U.S. tax laws.
I’ve written many times in the past about what a total whack job the good “Dr.” is and my utter amazement that anyone actually takes anything he says seriously because it’s obvious after only a few minutes of listening to him that he’s more than a few cards short of a full deck. This became even more apparent during the course of his trial when he made all sorts of idiotic claims in an attempt to justify years of not paying taxes of any kind. A small sample follows:
In closing arguments this morning, Alan Richey, Kent Hovind’s defense attorney, said the Pensacola evangelist was never notified by the IRS that he was violating a specific law by not withholding and paying employment taxes on workers at the Dinosaur Adventure Land and Creative Science Evangelism, both of which he founded and operates.
Hovind also believes that as workers of God, he and all employees of the theme park and his ministry are exempt from paying taxes.
It’s a shame when reality conflicts with one’s beliefs. All too often, as “Dr.” Kent Hovind has just discovered, reality wins. On the plus side for Hovind it’s looking like we won’t have the good “Dr.” to kick around much longer. Of the bat shit crazy evangelists he was definitely my favorite.
The Lord will judge all of us. With out Jesus Christ as your Lord, you have no one to pay for your wrong doings. Even if we may be good men in our society, we all fall short of what God expects from us. I will pray for all of you that you will open your hearts to the love and understanding that the Lord has for us. Even the devil believes in God, but God wants us to know, and have a relationship with Him.
You go ahead and pray, Daniel. If nothing else it keeps you off the streets at night.
The rest of us will find more productive ways to spend our time.
You know les, what separates you and people like you from those that follow God, is that you refuse to look at reality with an objective mind and ask yourself, Why? and How? Instead you take what you are told by the “Majority” and people who are rich or considered “intelligent” and assume it is fact. As with those of us who follow God, we ask the questions, and challenge the credentials of those who claim fact, INCLUDING those who might support us. There isn’t a single fact that Hovind gives that is not documented and proven. Evolution however, is ALL theories with no proof. And it says something about people who can look at your blog, your life, and your words of hate, and say, “I will still pray for you.” If everyone on the planet was as self centered as you, the human race would be extinct in a matter of a few years. And then you would stand before God and wish you had made a different opinion. God bless you my friend. Just for the record however, I also DO NOT agree with what he did in evading taxes. God says to obey the laws of the land, and that is a mistake that Hovind made, sort of like the mistakes that every person who draws breath make.
Brad decides he wants to join in the fun…
Well, you certainly don’t waste any time in making amazing assumptions about how I look at reality. On what do you base your assertion that I “refuse” to look at reality with an objective mind? You know me so well already that you can say definitively that I refuse to do anything in particular? Or are you just making statements based on your own preexisting prejudices?
If that were true then I’d be religious seeing as how the “Majority” of people are believers of one sort or another. I can only assume you’ve never studied how to make a simple logical argument. I also find it odd that you equate being rich with being Godless. If that’s true then where the hell is all my money?
However I am most impressed with how you, again, have the arrogance to tell me how I think with no real basis for making that claim.
In my experiences, the exact opposite of what you claim tends to be the case for far too many believers. I know of many believers in general, and Christians in particular, who do a good job of asking questions, but the vast majority really don’t do that.
Thanks, I needed a good laugh today and this did the trick just fine. Clearly you do not understand the definition of the word “fact.”
And now you have revealed that you are also scientifically illiterate. Hate to break it to you, but everything in science is ALL theories. Some are just more accepted than others. Among the better supported theories is Evolution, which has a stunning amount of evidence backing it up over 150 years or so.
Yes, it says those people are clearly delusional to think praying will accomplish anything. As for my words being “hateful”, I don’t hate Hovind. How could I when he’s a source of such endless amusement?
Again you assume to know me well enough to declare that I am terribly self-centered. Your arrogance is, alas, not surprising. It seems to be fairly common among the True Believers.
Perhaps, but seeing as how apparently not everyone is as self-centered as I supposedly am, according to you, I guess we’ll never know for sure.
Yep, everyone makes mistakes. The better people own up to those mistakes and take accountability for them whereas Hovind tried to declare himself as being not subject to the same rules as everyone else. (That made for some hilarious court testimony.) That means he compounded his mistake. Which I would’ve thought would make people less willing to support him seeing as he’s clearly at least as self-centered as you claim me to be.
But apparently you guys are willing to overlook that because you look at reality with an objective mind and question even the people who support you even if they are rich like Hovind was.
I wish you people would get together and make a decision.
With the magic of religion you can be rich and poor at the same time. Also, Jesus is giving out Unicorns to people who come here and tell Les he’s self-centered and arrogant this week.