Creationist blames dreadful attendance at Ark theme park on tax-starved city not supplying...

[DonViejo]

Creationist blames dreadful attendance at Ark theme park on tax-starved city not supplying ‘tourist services’

NOOR AL-SIBAI
03 JUL 2017 AT 19:22 ET

The creationist behind Kentucky’s failing “Ark Encounter’ theme park is at it again.

Ken Ham, the president and CEO of “Christian apologist ministry” Answers in Genesis, penned an op-ed that once again deflects the blame for the failure of his Noah’s Ark replica theme park. This time, Ham argued that the culprit is Williamstown which footed the $92 million bill for the park that now graces their city for not providing enough infrastructure to accommodate visitors to their new “attraction.”

“Williamstown, where the Ark is located, doesn’t have the tourist-related services that Dry Ridge (a neighboring tourist trap) has, so it needs more businesses like hotels and restaurants if it hopes to experience the growth that Dry Ridge is now enjoying,” Ham wrote.

There are a slew of problems with Ham’s reasoning. As Hemant Mehta at The Friendly Atheist points out, Williamstown has received no financial incentives to stoke growth in the area because Ham negotiated a “ridiculously low” 30-year property tax rate for the taxpayer-funded park. Ham is also garnishing his employees’ paychecks to help repay the loans taken out to complete the park.

According to a Patheos article published while the park was still under construction, employees are subject to a two percent “job assessment fee on gross wages.”

more
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/creationist-blames-dreadful-attendance-at-ark-theme-park-on-tax-starved-city-not-supplying-tourist-services/

[NurseJackie]

1. So, it's sinking? They're awash in a flood of red ink?

[DonViejo]

2. Yes and yes. Last month they blamed the failure on Atheists and the liberal media. eom

[NurseJackie]

4. Why does god hate them?

[TheBlackAdder]

22. Even God knows the Great Flood didn't happen. 3 active dynasties (China, Egypt, India) existed then.

.

The time when Biblical scholars cite the Great Flood's occurrance, there were three active dynasties.

On top of that God also knows there were no dinosaurs at that time. Ham is making this a sham.

.

[A HERETIC I AM]

33. I read a great quote a while back....

something to the effect that Ken Ham believes the earth was created in 6 24 hour periods about 6000 years ago, roughly the same time the Sumerians invented glue.

[Xolodno]

54. Which is essentially heresy....

Genesis clearly states that days, years, etc. didn't exist until the fourth "day".

Creationists are flipping literal on the account of creation, if they applied there insane theology to the rest of the bible, they should be limbless, blind and deaf....but then, maybe that's the point its making.

[sakabatou]

5. They're already blaming atheists for the low park attendance

[DonViejo]

8. From the article....

<< This isn’t the first time Ham has tried to pin the blame on his expensive and ambitious project away from himself. A few weeks ago, Ham complained to a local news outlet that atheists protesting the park were the reason it hadn’t lived up to his expectations. >>

[dem4decades]

9. Well he is correct. It's the last place I'd ever go.

[trusty elf]

6. ......

[img][/img]

[MiddleClass]

19. The flat earth society meets the creationists Noah's Ark

Thank God they're wrong, otherwise it would be disastrous for them.

I guess the prosperity gospel is not helping out either?

Maybe they are sinners and God does not want to reward them with riches or taxs.


I guess Brownback and Stephen Moore, were wrong about tax cuts for the rich boosting economic growth and paying for themselves.

[NurseJackie]

31. That's great!!

[Adsos Letter]

43. Not the giraffes!

[Ilsa]

45. That is hysterical! Thanks! nt

[Solly Mack]

48. lolol!

Perfect!

[lame54]

18. "And he gathered up 2 of every %."

[3catwoman3]

56. Oh, that is good!

Very good indeed.

[hatrack]

3. And the successful grifter blames the marks . . .

I wonder if they'll pony up some more after this little shit-fit?

[trusty elf]

7. "Ham is also garnishing his employees paychecks to help repay the loans...."

What an ass.

[gratuitous]

10. I'd be interested to know how he's doing that

In most states (I don't know about Kentucky), if an employer doesn't pay all wages when due, the employee has a massive club in the wage and hour laws to make the employer pony up. If employees are voluntarily kicking back a portion of their pay to keep the place afloat, that's one thing. But if Ham is withholding or diverting his workers' pay to cover his own expenses without their consent, he's in for a world of hurt.

[TheBlackAdder]

24. It's a RTW state, employees don't have to pay union dues, why be forced to pay this 'due/tax?'

[A HERETIC I AM]

35. The 2% the employees are having deducted is to service the junk bonds that were floated.

It isn't "to keep the place afloat", rather to try and keep a bond series from defaulting.


The place is doomed anyway.

[Volaris]

15. How the fuck is THAT legal...it's not like they owe him a debt for his employment of them..

[BannonsLiver]

38. Most red states have highly oppressive labor laws

That always benefit private industry always to detriment of the employee.

[tammywammy]

17. Sounds highly illegal. n/t

[bdtrppr6]

11. So a dishonest portrayal of a non event

failed to bring in the masses. Whodathunk? Besides anyone with a brain. Anyone who believes this shit, needs to have their head examined. Hogwash for idiots in the first place. Ken Ham is a moran. Way to go, Atheists, keep it up. Shut more of this shit down. Grifters preying on the weak minded.

[trusty elf]

12. "Ark won't even hire members of town's community unless they ascribe to same fundamentalist beliefs"

and yet they were given a ridiculously low 30 year property tax rate? Why?

Outrageous

[underpants]

14. In the Bible things are usually 40 years

Just saying.

[DonViejo]

25. The expression "40 days and nights" or "40 years" is just...

that, an expression for "many days and nights" or, "many years."

[underpants]

49. I know

I was offered a religion scholarship at the Methodist school that I started at. It only took me 10 years to get a degree.

[Volaris]

16. Again, how the fuck is this LEGAL?

[TheBlackAdder]

21. I believe the state allowed it. Let the area burn under its weight and debt load. They asked for it.

[Archae]

13. Like I said in a previous thread...

This tourist trap is going to end up like Jim and Tammy Bakker's "Heritage USA."

[rusty quoin]

32. That's some perspective.

All that money spent on that and it's all gone to waste. Imagine what it could have bought to actually help people.

Jim Bakker, the quintessential greedy preacher. I see he's on television again selling tubs of rapture survival food. Too many people are incapable of learning. That's why we are doomed.

[0rganism]

41. "look on my works ye mighty and despair"

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Ozymandias, P. B. Shelley, pub. 1818

[underpants]

50. That's creepy and sad.

They were printing money at one point.

[underpants]

51. Wikipedia - interesting history including Falwell going down the water slide in a suit

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_USA




Video 9+ mintues. Jerry doing his fundraising baptism starts at about the 5:00 mark. There are mascots.

[TheBlackAdder]

20. Ham praises God for his successes--even for the socialism he gets. Ignores it when God forsakes him.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

23. There's a born again sucker every minute.

[rusty quoin]

34. Hey that's good.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

26. Install some slot machines,

and hold bingo games, they'll make money hand over fist.

[stopbush]

37. Not if tRump is running things it won't.

[Ilsa]

46. They'll need strip joints and sex workers if they want to bring in

Republican men with money.

[lpbk2713]

27. If you build it they won't come.

Must not have been praying hard enough.

[elehhhhna]

28. Wants to be Noah, instead he's Job.

[Initech]

29. Tourists still exist, Ken

You just have to build something that people actually want to visit!

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

39. I would love to visit

But as a coastal elitist, it is in the middle of fucking nowhere.

[Ilsa]

47. And it's $80 a ticket, unless

they offer a coupon day or something.

[Warpy]

30. Last week, it was us mean old atheists

who insisted on paying the full ticket price and going through it with barely suppressed giggles at the cavemen riding dinosaurs and other creationist howlers. This week it's the stingy taxpayers who built the damned thing but now won't duplicate Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge for him.

Well, I guess this is progress, he's finally realized he should have built his white elephant closer to some place that's already a tourist attraction. Branson would have been perfect, the faithful sinning all week in the honky tonks and one act theaters and coming to Ham's pile of lumber on their last vacation day to get their sins washed away.

KY is going to have to take that thing over and turn it into a massive casino to turn a profit.

[rusty quoin]

36. It's not the atheist, the liberals, nor the townspeople.

The dang thing is too far out of the way, and the cost of admission too much just for a laugh.

[Vinca]

40. Mr. Ham needs a lesson on how many times you can con the stupid people for a buck.

How many times would a person want to shell out money to see Adam and Eve on a dinosaur??

[Adsos Letter]

42. Franklin, with great foresight, adressed this type of thing directly.

"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." Letter from Benjamin Franklin to Richard Price, October 9, 1780.

[Warren DeMontague]

44. Yes, Ken, but didn't God create Williamstown? Isn't it technically God's fault?

[n2doc]

52. Jesus will provide

If Mr. Ham sends me 1,000,000 dollars I am certain it will come back to him 10x over from Jesus! Jesus told me Himself! Cash only, no checks accepted.

[Nevernose]

53. Last week he blamed atheists

So I guess I should say "You're welcome, Earth. Not sure what exactly I did, but I'm pleased with the results."

[FreeJoe]

55. I blame people's evolving tastes (nt)

[lebkr]

57. evolving tastes

"I blame people's evolving tastes." Yeah . . . . and a really bad business plan.