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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Soo sad, anyway: REMEMBER TO HAVE YOUR MAGA SUPPORTING RELATIVES SPAYED AND NEUTERED! HELP REDUCE THE REDNECK POPULATION! ONLY YOU CAN ASSIST IN RAISING HUMANITY’S I.Q.!
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.
Kentucky has a history of making its residents pay for the privilege of a tiny number of them getting access to the shittiest, lowest-paying, most exploitive version of already below average jobs. And even with the state sweetening the pot to such extents that it's definitely going to further erode weakened infrastructure and struggling communities with no return for a decade or more, these projects fail. Consistently. Bipartisan projects. Right to work states are such dumbfuckery.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Agreed, "tax the fucking churches" - Frank Zappa 1980 😆
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.
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.
Or stupidity, probably both!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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."
Hope they recovered from the water damage okay.
https://www.tampabay28.com/news/national/ark-encounter-in-kentucky-suing-after-flooding-causes-property-damage
His god was trying to tell him something.
I would think insurance wouldn't cover, "an act of god."
Agreed, and hopefully Ken Ham's Ark repairs are made and will be seaworthy for when the End Times are here to save all the animals once again. 😆🤪
Soo sad, anyway: REMEMBER TO HAVE YOUR MAGA SUPPORTING RELATIVES SPAYED AND NEUTERED! HELP REDUCE THE REDNECK POPULATION! ONLY YOU CAN ASSIST IN RAISING HUMANITY’S I.Q.!
🤣
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.
Kentucky has a history of making its residents pay for the privilege of a tiny number of them getting access to the shittiest, lowest-paying, most exploitive version of already below average jobs. And even with the state sweetening the pot to such extents that it's definitely going to further erode weakened infrastructure and struggling communities with no return for a decade or more, these projects fail. Consistently. Bipartisan projects. Right to work states are such dumbfuckery.
It’s the racism ;)
Whi could have known a charletan pushing nonsense would lie and misleamislead their community?
Who is Whi? ; )
More important— how do I misleammislead? it sounds like fun.
A sleam made of lead doesn't sound fun.