Public records reveal the Noah’s Ark "replica" has missed attendance projections year after year, leaving Kentucky taxpayers and local officials in the dust
I got blocked by Ken Ham on Twitter a decade ago. He had all these people bad-mouthing him and his organization... that was all fine.
But I posted their claimed high turnout numbers alongside a near empty image of their parking lot from a busy tourist day, and I was blocked inside 5-min.
What else can one expect from a man who believes the Earth is only 6.000 years old. Not to mention one who believes in his god's "perfect design" despite the fact that he wears glasses.
How does How does intelligent design explain schizophrenia, heart disease, and muscular dystrophy just to name a few things. If we’re intelligently designed, then why do we get sick at all?
This is nothing but a gigantic con and grift perpetrated on the City and County and State. It is the triumph of wishful thinking over cold and calculated thought - which is pretty much the definition of religion...
I want to know who that never-named person was who was writing the creation story down, and knew what God thought. For the Biblical account of creation to be right, everything we think we know about the life sciences, geology, and cosmology have to be wrong while a group of bronze age goat herders who didn't know where the sun went at night, . . . got things just exactly right.
The Jewish priests in Babylonian Captivity that heard and read the Epic of Gilgamesh and was so intrigued by it that decided to use it as a model for their own version of the Creation, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel stories as told in Genesis 1-11.
Never been to it, though I"m relatively close (maybe 250 or so miles), and never intend to go. Wouldn't waste my money, even if it were with a bunch of other atheists, to go and laugh at it. Frankly, I am astonished that it gets the attendance that it does, though granted, there are a lot of gullible Christian fools out there who are more than happy to sign up for Ham's BS.
Maybe when that sales tax rebate expires, we can hope that this stupid indulgence can collapse of its own weight. One can hope.
I think you are being optimistic. The local city board or state legislative session in which it's due to expire, Ham will donate thousands or even tens of thousands on campaign contributions to keep it going.
Money is merely free speech, don'cha know, and not at all corruption unless you can show a written quid pro quo agreement. So sayeth SCOTUS.
I shudder to think what Ham's books look like, what his P&L margins are, particularly. I'd bet you a cuppa that he's skating on very thin ice and has been for a while.
One wonders if that ark has a boat anchor. Whether it does or not, that stupid chunk of egotism might as well be one around the individual and collective ankles of the denizens of Williamstown.
And I'd be willing to bet that there are at least a few of the townsfolk who are at least beginning to wake up to the fact that they were PLAYED.
The local politicians HATE Ken Ham and hate that they bought a hamm in a poke. I doubt they'll do anything to save him money. They were the same politicians that started the safety fee.
"[E]ven if it were with a bunch of other atheists, to go and laugh at it." Actually, I have seen several YouTube videos of atheists going to visit and mock it. First one that comes to mind is when Seth Andrews and Matt Dillahunty went there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ln2epbcEao
Every time I see pictures of the "Ark" at Ark Encounter I am amazed at Noah's shipbuilding acumen. He even included that bulbous bow that naval architecture describes this way:
"Large ships have a bulbous bow primarily to improve fuel efficiency and reduce drag. By protruding just below the waterline, the bulb alters how water flows around the hull, which can lower a ship's fuel consumption by 12 to 15 percent."
Makes me wonder what sort of engine and fuel Noah used? And although the Ark Encounter version has the hydrodynamic bow, it does not appear to have any propulsion mechanism at the stern.
Meh, I need to go worry about important stuff. Did Alice really meet the Red Queen and have tea with the Mad Hatter? What kind of tea was it? English Breakfast? Earl Grey?
Propulsion? That thing (were it real) didn't even have a sail.
Never let an ancient vintner and his equally ancient sons build a boat for you. Particularly if their building materials are limited to gopherwood and tar.
All the animal feces onboard was collected and went through a ferment/ collection unit to fire a methane propulsion system- an engine made of bronze…
The engine was likely machined by a Utnapishtim - who isn't mentioned in Genesis, but who was the ferryman who saved a few folk and farm animals during the Flood written of in the Epic of Gilgamesh…
And gee, to get out billed by the young upstart Noah, over a millennium later just ain't fair.
But this is what happens when the same Creation stories get borrowed and recrafted by later writers.
34 years ago, my husband and I went to Hawaii for our honeymoon. We were staying on the North Shore of Kaua’i at a lovely hotel/condominium. The hotel was selling timeshares. I told my husband that I really wanted to attend the timeshare presentation, not because I wanted to buy one, but because I wanted to see what real hard-core sales was like and my business was taking off by beaps and lounds. Also, they were offering all kinds of goodies that seemed like it would be fun to us. A boat cruise along the Nepali coast, for example. I had hiked there as a boy several times. But there was a lot of stuff they were offering. And all we had to do was sit through the timeshare presentation.
It was a lesson in everything that one should not do if one wanted to be an honest businessman and a decent human being. The lie started right from the beginning about how much vacations cost, how much they went up every year, how expensive it was to stay in blah blah, and more blah blah. I was frankly amazed at the sheer artistry of it all. I don’t remember much of it now, but one thing stuck in my mind: the cost for a vacation went up something like 8% every year, so this was a real bargain.
Except that the cost of a vacation didn’t go up 8% every year. That was something like three or four times above the official rate of inflation. There were a whole bunch of other lies, easily contradicted by facts, logic, and experience. But it all sounded like a luxury cruise on the ark encounter.
We reached the end of the presentation/sales pitch/threat of hell, and said we would have to think about it, which was the lie that we told. You don’t do the back stroke in mendacity and come out smelling like a rose. They were very upset that we didn’t buy into the scheme. There were so upset that we didn’t even get all the things that they promised us, not one. Apparently, you had to actually buy into it to get all the goodies they promised. They had lied about attendance being all you had to do.
They wanted your soul as well. Just sign here on the dotted line.
So, the conclusion that I make is that the Ark encounter people are like timeshare salesman, except that the time is eternity and the men are only half men, and they don’t share anything.
What’s funny is, the whole scheme sounds just like fundamentalist Christianity. Collect money, get someone else to pay for it all, make promises you can’t fulfill, and have no means of verifying fulfillment, but the payoff will always come later, later, until you are ‘late” in the obituary sense.
And someone else pays for it. Meanwhile, the pope gets to live in his palace, mike HuxterbeE gets a $6 million house on the beach in Florida, Creflo dollar changes his name to Letflo de megadollar—it’sfrench—and the taxpayers pay for it all.
And the baby Jesus cries tears of joy.
You couldn’t sell a project like this in California, unless it was a major league sportsball park. But the scheme is the same. People with money get government with money to pay for their Ponzi schemes, and the taxpayers get left holding the bag— the one without any money in it. paraphrasing Ben Franklin, a good business ought to be able to survive and thrive on its own. If it needs taxpayer dollars to accomplish it, then perhaps it really isn’t a good business.
I’ve been saying for a while that religion is an MLM scheme. Timeshares are a different type of MLM scheme but they’re still schemes.
I was on vacation with my then boyfriend (now someone I look back on as a semi-pleasant mistake) in the Army and he thought it would be a good idea to attend one of the timeshare presentations to get tickets to sea world. The presentation took all day and the tickets were only good for the day, or we only had the day to go, I don’t remember which, so we only had like an hour or two to visit sea world. We did get the tickets without buying the scam. The whole idea of a timeshare is astounding. Buy a condo that you can only access two weeks a year, and have to schedule around six other people (at least) for your access to it, spend a monthly rent all year to cover maintenance (that is also being paid by the six other people), have to deal with weird rules and regulations and still pay when you stay, all for the price of your very own condo that you can live in the whole year long. Sounds like a bargain.
My wife and I sat through a 3 hr one, got a $100 gift certificate which we used to buy a pretty nifty souvenir. Love the souvenir, still not sure 3 hrs of my life was worth it.
My parents went to one and got a free diamond. It was in a folded piece of paper inside a small envelope. They opened it, I think everyone saw it, then it got dropped and nobody could find it on the hardwood floor. It was probably 0.01 carats.
Ha, I was wondering as I started reading the comments if anyone would make the connection with professional sports stadiums. A scheme repeated over and over and still people fall for it. I remembered being flabbergasted when Trump was asked during the Trump University case, “wasn’t the advertising full of lies” and largely got away with shrugging his shoulders and replying, “it’s marketing “ and further claiming during that campaign that marketing was his real talent. And still his supporters would be livid when his lies were pointed out. We (the generic we, humans) fall for the conman repeatedly whether it be a millionaire owner of a sports team, a politician, or a pastor despite all the warning signs.
For myself, it’s one thing to purchase goods or services from a private company. It’s quite another thing to give the private company—-let’s call it WimpyCo — a bunch of money today, and they promised they will pay you back on Tuesday. I’m very much against corporate welfare, especially helping out people who have more money already than they could ever possibly spend.
You can't even sell sportsball parks in northern California -- notice how a baseball team and a football team left for the griftier pastures of Vegas? Because people made it clear they weren't going to pick up the costs.
Yes, but not as much or indefinitely. Most people think it was worth it; the facilities are still there. Nearby cities noped out with quickness. The traffic alone would have been bad enough for them.
I’m not sure what the situation is anymore. It was still an issue a couple of years ago, but that was the last I paid attention to it. I think that there was another stadium building issue on the ballot, and I voted no.
The Ark Encounter was and is a monument to ignorance. I never pictured many fundy kids bugging their parents for a return visit. As for the communities getting screwed by this fiasco, they're getting what they deserve for having supported this monstrosity in the first place. At least Ken Ham gets to go on pretending he’s a poor persecuted victim of the godless left.
Had the city engaged outside financial experts to give an objective assessment of expected receipts, and proceeded with a reasonable business venture based on their assessment, well I would've grumped about Ark Park misleading the public but acknowledged that cities have a right to make money off amusement parks.
But it appears the city didn't just support ignorance, but shafted their citizens and taxpayers by relying on the self-interested estimates of the people who wanted to build the park. That's corrupt and unforgiveable, asking the fox what he thinks of coop security. I'd say "throw them all out of office" but chances are, now that we are 10 years gone, most of the elected officials that approved this are already gone for unrelated reasons.
At this point, the folks of Williamstown pretty well have to acknowledge that they are STUCK with this boondoggle. They fell for the sales pitch, and now they get to live with it and the fact that it'll NEVER live up to Ham's overblown projections.
It was probably more Christian Fucking Privilege than corruption. I'm not saying corruption wasn't involved, just that they were more inclined to believe Ham was presenting his proposal in good faith, when they should have been twice as skeptical.
Notice Ham never prayed to his god through Jesus' name like (Jesus said to) to get the money to build his monument to ignorance? Nope. Prayers are for others, not him He wanted taxpayer $$$ (while simultaneously discriminating in his hiring policies).
It’s kinda ironic that the good people of Williamstown were fleeced by someone named Ham, also the son of Noah who was cursed by his father. Perhaps that was a sign from God not to invest in his scheme.
This morning’s outrage: “ President Trump announced on Tuesday that he was naming Bill Pulte, a home-building heir who runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be the acting director of national intelligence, replacing Tulsi Gabbard. The move has drawn criticism as Mr. Pulte has no known experience for a national security role.” (Quoting NYT).
“ Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that President Trump had chosen an official with a demonstrated “eagerness to use the authorities of government to pursue political retribution” to be the acting director of national intelligence. Warner said that Pulte lacked the national security experience that is legally required for the post.” NYT again.
Pulte is the one who rifled thru mortgage applications of a Fed governor and Adam Schiff (?) to allege mortgage fraud.
Meanwhile, Trump is awash in so many vanity projects, I'm not certain I could count them all. I have to ask: has there been ANY legislation that has made it through Congress and gotten to his desk for a signature? If there is, there has been NO reportage about it!
If Warner is right that there is some legal requirement he doesn't meet, this will be a very short-lived nomination.
I'm guessing this was some spontaneous Presidential decision with zero consultation involved. Can't imagine Security Council, Senate or House GOPers ignoring that; it's just a stink bomb waiting to happen.
It must be really bad if it's only worth visiting once. I tend to visit museums on a regular basis. I'm happy to look at things I've looked at before but they often change their displays as well. Obviously these guys don't, because ... Bible?
When I lived in north suburban Chicago, I used to LOVE visiting the Museum of Science and Industry. There was a time when I knew that place, backwards and forwards, and I STILL loved walking through its exhibits. It was a place of fun and discovery.
When I originally went to college in NYC, I had hours between classes so I would hop on the subway and go uptown a few stops to the American Museum of Natural History. I grew so familiar with it that years later I took my future wife and another couple there on a double date and they all wanted to know if I had worked there because I still knew where most of the exhibits were.
My bride and I went to the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art over the weekend to look at haute couture as art. My fave parts were less haute couture and more utilitarian. One section was dedicated to “fashion” for the physically disabled. Another section showed fashion for the very pregnant. Another section focused on the term ‘nude”. Which varies dramatically upon how one’s skin looks.
I've watched that scene with the air traffic controllers more times than I care to count. There is reality there I genuine sense of veritas, mostly because the people you're looking at are actual air traffic controllers! Steven Spielberg was going for reality there, and he succeeded.
I got blocked by Ken Ham on Twitter a decade ago. He had all these people bad-mouthing him and his organization... that was all fine.
But I posted their claimed high turnout numbers alongside a near empty image of their parking lot from a busy tourist day, and I was blocked inside 5-min.
Trash talking him is "persecution", therefore good. Demonstrating his lies with hard data is bad.
Faith can survive mockery, but not a denominator.
Excellent Steven.
What else can one expect from a man who believes the Earth is only 6.000 years old. Not to mention one who believes in his god's "perfect design" despite the fact that he wears glasses.
He claims to not be related to apes, but is the spitting image of Dr Zaius.
I always think of him as Amish Wolverine.
That's insulting to the Amish and to Wolverine. Remember, Dr Zaius was also a religious lying grifter.
As it comes to "perfect design," one wonders how many medical procedures Ham has undergone. Human "design" just ain't that perfect, it seems.
Why else put the pleasure center amidst the trash disposal.
How does How does intelligent design explain schizophrenia, heart disease, and muscular dystrophy just to name a few things. If we’re intelligently designed, then why do we get sick at all?
Haven't you heard? "It's a fallen world." And we all fell along with it! 😝😝😝
ha ha ha
ha ha ha
This is nothing but a gigantic con and grift perpetrated on the City and County and State. It is the triumph of wishful thinking over cold and calculated thought - which is pretty much the definition of religion...
I want to know who that never-named person was who was writing the creation story down, and knew what God thought. For the Biblical account of creation to be right, everything we think we know about the life sciences, geology, and cosmology have to be wrong while a group of bronze age goat herders who didn't know where the sun went at night, . . . got things just exactly right.
The Jewish priests in Babylonian Captivity that heard and read the Epic of Gilgamesh and was so intrigued by it that decided to use it as a model for their own version of the Creation, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel stories as told in Genesis 1-11.
Mysterious ways ™
Delirious ways.
With everything that's gone wrong with me -- much of it before puberty or even in single digits -- I ALWAYS thought that was really stupid.
I still find it hilarious that this ark sustained water damage (mainly because Ham played it cheap on its constuction).
What makes it funnier is the fact that the flood insurance refused to cover it.
I so hope they told him it fell under "Act of God." :D
Sorry, Ken, we can't help it if your god doesn't like you or your glorified rowboat!
Rowboat-shaped building. It was never intended to actually float.
Not even financially.
A rowboat shaped like an oil tanker.
Do da name, "Exxon Valdez" strike a familiar note?!?
yup,and its revolutionary 'dinosaur poop removal system" is simply amazing (not)..yeah that ham is def 'half-baked'
https://youtu.be/97l3HJCEANs
You guys just don't understand. It's Biden's fault nobody is going to the park.
Something tells me it's because of a black guy who wore a tan suit.
Never been to it, though I"m relatively close (maybe 250 or so miles), and never intend to go. Wouldn't waste my money, even if it were with a bunch of other atheists, to go and laugh at it. Frankly, I am astonished that it gets the attendance that it does, though granted, there are a lot of gullible Christian fools out there who are more than happy to sign up for Ham's BS.
Maybe when that sales tax rebate expires, we can hope that this stupid indulgence can collapse of its own weight. One can hope.
I think you are being optimistic. The local city board or state legislative session in which it's due to expire, Ham will donate thousands or even tens of thousands on campaign contributions to keep it going.
Money is merely free speech, don'cha know, and not at all corruption unless you can show a written quid pro quo agreement. So sayeth SCOTUS.
I mean, if he can spend all that money to get out of paying taxes, he can afford to PAY THE FUCKING TAXES. But what do I know, I pay my taxes.
I'm guessing it costs just a few cents out of each tax rebate dollar to buy the needed politicians.
That's kinda the way it works with every other industry. Exxon spends millions in campaign contributions to get billions in tax breaks/subsidies.
Agreed, "tax the fucking churches" - Frank Zappa 1980 😆
I shudder to think what Ham's books look like, what his P&L margins are, particularly. I'd bet you a cuppa that he's skating on very thin ice and has been for a while.
Let's hope the ice cracks!
I seem to recall that the Organization is a ministry, so it is pretty opaque - even to the IRS.
That IRS Form 990 loophole really needs to be closed.
One wonders if that ark has a boat anchor. Whether it does or not, that stupid chunk of egotism might as well be one around the individual and collective ankles of the denizens of Williamstown.
And I'd be willing to bet that there are at least a few of the townsfolk who are at least beginning to wake up to the fact that they were PLAYED.
The local politicians HATE Ken Ham and hate that they bought a hamm in a poke. I doubt they'll do anything to save him money. They were the same politicians that started the safety fee.
"[E]ven if it were with a bunch of other atheists, to go and laugh at it." Actually, I have seen several YouTube videos of atheists going to visit and mock it. First one that comes to mind is when Seth Andrews and Matt Dillahunty went there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ln2epbcEao
I know about that. Was a while ago, several years, if I recall. Aron Ra has been there as well and likely crossed swords with Kenny, too.
Somehow, I don't see Ham looking too good, coming away from such a confrontation!
yeah ,he's got one too many cloves stuck in his head
Every time I see pictures of the "Ark" at Ark Encounter I am amazed at Noah's shipbuilding acumen. He even included that bulbous bow that naval architecture describes this way:
"Large ships have a bulbous bow primarily to improve fuel efficiency and reduce drag. By protruding just below the waterline, the bulb alters how water flows around the hull, which can lower a ship's fuel consumption by 12 to 15 percent."
Makes me wonder what sort of engine and fuel Noah used? And although the Ark Encounter version has the hydrodynamic bow, it does not appear to have any propulsion mechanism at the stern.
Meh, I need to go worry about important stuff. Did Alice really meet the Red Queen and have tea with the Mad Hatter? What kind of tea was it? English Breakfast? Earl Grey?
Propulsion? That thing (were it real) didn't even have a sail.
Never let an ancient vintner and his equally ancient sons build a boat for you. Particularly if their building materials are limited to gopherwood and tar.
Gopherwood is a mistranslation. Noah told his sons to "go for wood". He was sending then to Home Depot.
😂😂
It had jet propulsion, that's how they got rid of all the methane.
All the animal feces onboard was collected and went through a ferment/ collection unit to fire a methane propulsion system- an engine made of bronze…
The engine was likely machined by a Utnapishtim - who isn't mentioned in Genesis, but who was the ferryman who saved a few folk and farm animals during the Flood written of in the Epic of Gilgamesh…
And gee, to get out billed by the young upstart Noah, over a millennium later just ain't fair.
But this is what happens when the same Creation stories get borrowed and recrafted by later writers.
*smh* And all this time I thought they just used a Mr. Fusion.
Mushroom tea.
MAGIC mushroom tea!
Aldi doesn't seem to carry that.
You need to talk to Dave.
Dave? Dave's not here! 😁
No, man! I’M Dave!
Earl Grey... YES!!
Though SOME TIMES, it doesn't come out quite right:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVUuaDXBhs4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaAT6-dY1QI
34 years ago, my husband and I went to Hawaii for our honeymoon. We were staying on the North Shore of Kaua’i at a lovely hotel/condominium. The hotel was selling timeshares. I told my husband that I really wanted to attend the timeshare presentation, not because I wanted to buy one, but because I wanted to see what real hard-core sales was like and my business was taking off by beaps and lounds. Also, they were offering all kinds of goodies that seemed like it would be fun to us. A boat cruise along the Nepali coast, for example. I had hiked there as a boy several times. But there was a lot of stuff they were offering. And all we had to do was sit through the timeshare presentation.
It was a lesson in everything that one should not do if one wanted to be an honest businessman and a decent human being. The lie started right from the beginning about how much vacations cost, how much they went up every year, how expensive it was to stay in blah blah, and more blah blah. I was frankly amazed at the sheer artistry of it all. I don’t remember much of it now, but one thing stuck in my mind: the cost for a vacation went up something like 8% every year, so this was a real bargain.
Except that the cost of a vacation didn’t go up 8% every year. That was something like three or four times above the official rate of inflation. There were a whole bunch of other lies, easily contradicted by facts, logic, and experience. But it all sounded like a luxury cruise on the ark encounter.
We reached the end of the presentation/sales pitch/threat of hell, and said we would have to think about it, which was the lie that we told. You don’t do the back stroke in mendacity and come out smelling like a rose. They were very upset that we didn’t buy into the scheme. There were so upset that we didn’t even get all the things that they promised us, not one. Apparently, you had to actually buy into it to get all the goodies they promised. They had lied about attendance being all you had to do.
They wanted your soul as well. Just sign here on the dotted line.
So, the conclusion that I make is that the Ark encounter people are like timeshare salesman, except that the time is eternity and the men are only half men, and they don’t share anything.
What’s funny is, the whole scheme sounds just like fundamentalist Christianity. Collect money, get someone else to pay for it all, make promises you can’t fulfill, and have no means of verifying fulfillment, but the payoff will always come later, later, until you are ‘late” in the obituary sense.
And someone else pays for it. Meanwhile, the pope gets to live in his palace, mike HuxterbeE gets a $6 million house on the beach in Florida, Creflo dollar changes his name to Letflo de megadollar—it’sfrench—and the taxpayers pay for it all.
And the baby Jesus cries tears of joy.
You couldn’t sell a project like this in California, unless it was a major league sportsball park. But the scheme is the same. People with money get government with money to pay for their Ponzi schemes, and the taxpayers get left holding the bag— the one without any money in it. paraphrasing Ben Franklin, a good business ought to be able to survive and thrive on its own. If it needs taxpayer dollars to accomplish it, then perhaps it really isn’t a good business.
Or good people. Or a good idea.
I’ve been saying for a while that religion is an MLM scheme. Timeshares are a different type of MLM scheme but they’re still schemes.
I was on vacation with my then boyfriend (now someone I look back on as a semi-pleasant mistake) in the Army and he thought it would be a good idea to attend one of the timeshare presentations to get tickets to sea world. The presentation took all day and the tickets were only good for the day, or we only had the day to go, I don’t remember which, so we only had like an hour or two to visit sea world. We did get the tickets without buying the scam. The whole idea of a timeshare is astounding. Buy a condo that you can only access two weeks a year, and have to schedule around six other people (at least) for your access to it, spend a monthly rent all year to cover maintenance (that is also being paid by the six other people), have to deal with weird rules and regulations and still pay when you stay, all for the price of your very own condo that you can live in the whole year long. Sounds like a bargain.
My wife and I sat through a 3 hr one, got a $100 gift certificate which we used to buy a pretty nifty souvenir. Love the souvenir, still not sure 3 hrs of my life was worth it.
My parents went to one and got a free diamond. It was in a folded piece of paper inside a small envelope. They opened it, I think everyone saw it, then it got dropped and nobody could find it on the hardwood floor. It was probably 0.01 carats.
Ha, I was wondering as I started reading the comments if anyone would make the connection with professional sports stadiums. A scheme repeated over and over and still people fall for it. I remembered being flabbergasted when Trump was asked during the Trump University case, “wasn’t the advertising full of lies” and largely got away with shrugging his shoulders and replying, “it’s marketing “ and further claiming during that campaign that marketing was his real talent. And still his supporters would be livid when his lies were pointed out. We (the generic we, humans) fall for the conman repeatedly whether it be a millionaire owner of a sports team, a politician, or a pastor despite all the warning signs.
Some people fall for it.
For myself, it’s one thing to purchase goods or services from a private company. It’s quite another thing to give the private company—-let’s call it WimpyCo — a bunch of money today, and they promised they will pay you back on Tuesday. I’m very much against corporate welfare, especially helping out people who have more money already than they could ever possibly spend.
You can't even sell sportsball parks in northern California -- notice how a baseball team and a football team left for the griftier pastures of Vegas? Because people made it clear they weren't going to pick up the costs.
But Oakland is still holding the bag financially, as far as I understand it.
Yes, but not as much or indefinitely. Most people think it was worth it; the facilities are still there. Nearby cities noped out with quickness. The traffic alone would have been bad enough for them.
I’m not sure what the situation is anymore. It was still an issue a couple of years ago, but that was the last I paid attention to it. I think that there was another stadium building issue on the ballot, and I voted no.
The Ark Encounter was and is a monument to ignorance. I never pictured many fundy kids bugging their parents for a return visit. As for the communities getting screwed by this fiasco, they're getting what they deserve for having supported this monstrosity in the first place. At least Ken Ham gets to go on pretending he’s a poor persecuted victim of the godless left.
Had the city engaged outside financial experts to give an objective assessment of expected receipts, and proceeded with a reasonable business venture based on their assessment, well I would've grumped about Ark Park misleading the public but acknowledged that cities have a right to make money off amusement parks.
But it appears the city didn't just support ignorance, but shafted their citizens and taxpayers by relying on the self-interested estimates of the people who wanted to build the park. That's corrupt and unforgiveable, asking the fox what he thinks of coop security. I'd say "throw them all out of office" but chances are, now that we are 10 years gone, most of the elected officials that approved this are already gone for unrelated reasons.
At this point, the folks of Williamstown pretty well have to acknowledge that they are STUCK with this boondoggle. They fell for the sales pitch, and now they get to live with it and the fact that it'll NEVER live up to Ham's overblown projections.
🎶Monorail🎶
Blinded by religion.
There is a lot of overlap.
It was probably more Christian Fucking Privilege than corruption. I'm not saying corruption wasn't involved, just that they were more inclined to believe Ham was presenting his proposal in good faith, when they should have been twice as skeptical.
Notice Ham never prayed to his god through Jesus' name like (Jesus said to) to get the money to build his monument to ignorance? Nope. Prayers are for others, not him He wanted taxpayer $$$ (while simultaneously discriminating in his hiring policies).
It’s kinda ironic that the good people of Williamstown were fleeced by someone named Ham, also the son of Noah who was cursed by his father. Perhaps that was a sign from God not to invest in his scheme.
Damn, people! Don't y'all remember what your mamas told you? "If it sounds too good to be true, it's probably a Ken Ham grift."
My mama done tol' me when I was in pigtails
My mama done tol' me, hon
A man's gonna sweet talk and give you the big eyes
But when the sweet talking's done
A man is a two-face, a worrisome thing
Who'll leave you to sing the blues in the night
https://genius.com/Ella-fitzgerald-blues-in-the-night-lyrics
Mama told me not to come.
♫♪ That ain't no way to have fun, son! ♪♫
🎶 'Mama, didn't mean to make you cry.
I wanted to see a caveman ride a dino...."
Watch The Flintstones. At least they're funny and entertaining!
😂. If Ark Encounter was a cartoon!
𝐵𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦’𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 ℎ𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑖𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑑 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑑, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑎𝑑 𝑛𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠, ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑎𝑥𝑒𝑠.
And the stores, restaurants, hotels, etc getting the small tourism bump are mostly 30 miles north in Cincinnati.
A decade of data supporting the claim that YEC is a grift and that lying liars for Jesus lie constantly.
This morning’s outrage: “ President Trump announced on Tuesday that he was naming Bill Pulte, a home-building heir who runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be the acting director of national intelligence, replacing Tulsi Gabbard. The move has drawn criticism as Mr. Pulte has no known experience for a national security role.” (Quoting NYT).
“ Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that President Trump had chosen an official with a demonstrated “eagerness to use the authorities of government to pursue political retribution” to be the acting director of national intelligence. Warner said that Pulte lacked the national security experience that is legally required for the post.” NYT again.
Pulte is the one who rifled thru mortgage applications of a Fed governor and Adam Schiff (?) to allege mortgage fraud.
You/they expected him to appoint someone who is competent? ; )
No. But I still SMH.
I would genuinely wonder if there are ANY qualified and competent officeholders in ANY major office in Trump's administration.
Don't wonder. There aren't.
Yeah. We both really knew that one. 😝
Yet another know-nothing to a CRITICAL position in the federal government. Also known as Standard Operating Procedure for the Trump administration. 😖
Dollars to donuts he starts pushing DJT Jr. for 2028.
Why can’t these people ever learn that Trump will never do anything for them.
Meanwhile, Trump is awash in so many vanity projects, I'm not certain I could count them all. I have to ask: has there been ANY legislation that has made it through Congress and gotten to his desk for a signature? If there is, there has been NO reportage about it!
Do nothing Congress. Do nothing presidency.
If Warner is right that there is some legal requirement he doesn't meet, this will be a very short-lived nomination.
I'm guessing this was some spontaneous Presidential decision with zero consultation involved. Can't imagine Security Council, Senate or House GOPers ignoring that; it's just a stink bomb waiting to happen.
One can be “Acting” for 120 days without Senate confirmation.
Turns out, there's nothing quite so bland and boring as a beached boat full of bullshit.
It must be really bad if it's only worth visiting once. I tend to visit museums on a regular basis. I'm happy to look at things I've looked at before but they often change their displays as well. Obviously these guys don't, because ... Bible?
When I lived in north suburban Chicago, I used to LOVE visiting the Museum of Science and Industry. There was a time when I knew that place, backwards and forwards, and I STILL loved walking through its exhibits. It was a place of fun and discovery.
Ken's eyesore is anything BUT.
When I originally went to college in NYC, I had hours between classes so I would hop on the subway and go uptown a few stops to the American Museum of Natural History. I grew so familiar with it that years later I took my future wife and another couple there on a double date and they all wanted to know if I had worked there because I still knew where most of the exhibits were.
My bride and I went to the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art over the weekend to look at haute couture as art. My fave parts were less haute couture and more utilitarian. One section was dedicated to “fashion” for the physically disabled. Another section showed fashion for the very pregnant. Another section focused on the term ‘nude”. Which varies dramatically upon how one’s skin looks.
If you want a DIFFERENT look at fashion (with a HEALTHY sense of humor), I strongly recommend "Refashioned Hippie:"
https://www.youtube.com/@refashionedhippie
She is a TON of laughs!
She's great.
We have the World of Wearable Arts. Some of which don't look particularly wearable to me. Not really my thing but other people seem to enjoy it a lot.
It's not worth visiting once. : )
He couldn't fund his monstrosity privately. He had to put his hand out for government help.
Somebody should have slapped that hand away.
Is it time for 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 quote again? I think it just might be!
“𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘙𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥, 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧; 𝘢𝘯𝘥, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵, 𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘨'𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘭 𝘗𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳, 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯, 𝘐 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘥, 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘦.”
- Benjamin Franklin
It is damned near ALWAYS time for THAT quote! 👍👍👍
Blimey!
True believers must have flocked to it in the early years, then having crossed it off the bucket list didn’t find it worthwhile to return.
That’s my guess too. And the target demographic is not growing either.
Ark Encounters of the Close Kind is not on my bucket list….. ever.
TWA 517, do you want to report a stupid boat in Williamstown, Kentucky? Over.
I would like to give you so many more hearts.
(Saw that again in the theater a couple years ago. Still holds up great!)
I've watched that scene with the air traffic controllers more times than I care to count. There is reality there I genuine sense of veritas, mostly because the people you're looking at are actual air traffic controllers! Steven Spielberg was going for reality there, and he succeeded.
"TWA 517, do you want to report a UFO, over?"
And the guy on the big keyboard at the end was the guy who installed it.
So, never going to Roswell then. 👽
My bride was in Roswell a few decades ago and got me tshirt about aliens. As I downsized my wardrobe last year, I’m not sure I still have it.
That’s OK. The real Lizard People live in DC.
Lol, probably not.
It's a cute town.