Hovind busted, finally

Yes, unbelievably so. I almost feel guilty. But I pay my income taxes, I pay my property taxes, and when we put an addition on the house we filed for permits and the work was inspected several times. I tell the truth not as I see it but as I have actually verified it to best of my ability. When I'm wrong and I'm corrected I don't continue repeating my errors. And here I sit in my study with my hot cup of steaming coffee in front of my computer listening to my music in the comfort of my home (yes, there's cats, but nothing's perfect).And Hovind sits in a cell with an open toilet amidst rudeness and crudeness with his mind focused on lawyers and trials and appeals and general concerns about his and his family's future.Yes, Virginia, there is a God!--Percy

Five years in a federal minimum security prison for Kent Hovind with the possibility of parole after two years.Two years probation for Jo Hovind.Restrictions on the kinds of activities they can engage in.Found this today, I don't think this link has been posted before: Update from Bunk ThreeIf you poke around you'll find that he's been blogging about the case and his ministry for quite a while.--Percy

You mean sentencing hasn't even been announced yet and I've already lost the pool? Darn!--Percy

10 years?No parole?Wow!Okay, someone needs to fill us in on what his options are for appeals, both for the sentence and the guilty verdict.But what a strange end for Dr. Dino. He could have gone on merrily doing what obviously makes him very happy, preaching the gospel of the Lord, giving lectures on creationism, and debating evolutionists, but he somehow became enamored of tax evasion schemes based on religious claims. The greater good of his ministry and his family were sacrificed to his own arrogance that whatever he thought was so *was* actually so. No evolutionist had ever bested him in debate, a tax court would be mere putty in his hands!Whether or not Hovind is a liar and cheat or actually believes everything he says, there's something profoundly pathetic about those who bring disaster upon themselves through their faith in the rightness of their cause and their own infallibility, especially when there has been more than ample evidence to question that faith. This isn't the first time Hovind's lost in tax court, but evidently the prior case from the 1990's had barely ended before Hovind resumed his tax evasion activities. Hovind fell victim to his own well-established powers of persuasion, convincing himself that because he did the Lord's work that that placed him above the law.I wonder if this will truly be the end of Dr. Dino, or if the website and his books and videos will live on. Perhaps he'll write and maintain his website and make new videos from jail. It'll be difficult because I think a great deal of his income derives in indirect fashion from his popularity, and a great deal of his popularity stems from his public appearances, and the inability to appear in public could make it impossible for him to continue his creationist ministry. We'll have to wait and see.In a way it's sad to see this clown of creationism removed as an adversary in this way. It would have been much more satisfying to see his creationist machinations be his downfall, but I can't imagine a way in which that could have ever been possible. But we can at least be thankful, indeed very thankful, that one very significant source of creationist misinformation about science could very likely disappear completely from the stage.--Percy

Hey, soldier, there's a gap in the line, go fill it! Seriously, you do realize that our national debt is really caused by a Druid cabal that dates back to antiquity. Kennedy was in their pocket (Cuban missle crisis and all that), and it was the rival Wicca underground that paid Oswald to assasinate Kennedy. I can't believe you don't know this stuff...--Percy

You were probably thinking of Gettysburg, the first significant Union victory in 1863. The war did continue on for almost two more years, as you said.--Percy

This was in today's Pensacola News Journal: Here's another article from yesterday, some old info, some new: Here's a link to a video of Hovind jail calls, well worth a listen. Hovind seems to be the biggest victim of his powers of persuasion: Jo Hovind comes across, to me, as such a nice person of faith just caught up in Hovind's whole web of lies and deceptions simply because he's the guy she happens to love. Here's an incredibly painful exchange from the 1st jail tape video, I think from 12/4/2006: This tells me that Jo Hovind has real problems with the course her husband has chosen for them. He's an extremely powerful and manipulative personality. As much as these tapes are evidence that they should throw Hovind in jail and throw away the key, they are also evidence that Jo Hovind should only be sentenced to probation. I see divorce in the Hovind's future.The sentencing description at the Pensacola News Journal says that after his prison sentence Hovind must spend three years on parole, and a couple people have wondered if they didn't really mean probation. I've now seen it reported in a couple places as parole, and if it really is parole and not probation I wonder if that is because it makes it easier to throw him back in prison for misbehavior once he gets out. Anyone know?Here's another gem where Hovind is talking to his daughter Lindsay: Nor the tax court, nor anyone else either. The only one that seems to agree with what Kent Hovind says is Kent Hovind, and the only one Kent Hovind is willing to listen to is Kent Hovind, and he's giving himself just horrible advice. It's almost as if he beliefs he can talk and bluster his way out of anything.Here's another intriguing conversation between Hovind and is wife Jo: I think it break's Jo Hovind's heart to have to witness her husband so hellbent on his self-destructive course.--Percy

You're accusing evolutionists of holding tax evasion wrong for creationists and okay for evolutionists? What leads you to this weird conclusion?If you listen to the jailhouse tapes (Hovind Jail Calls Video (Starts with a commercial, it's audio after that)) you'll see that Hovind is an egomaniac who believes he can do no wrong. In conversation after conversation Hovind rants on and on about how he committed no crime, they couldn't point to any statute he violated, they're the ones committing the crime, the American public will be shocked when they discover what's been going on, he's going to continue suing them, he's still got teeth and he's going to use them, and so forth, all while his wife and family listen despairingly in the knowledge that Hovind will never abandon his delusions.Hovind is a charismatic and glib personality who apparently believes his own bullshit. His many weird creationist positions make it clear how capable he is of ignoring hard evidence. He doesn't seem to be able to tell the difference between evidence from the real world and his own opinion, and he always lets his own opinions win out within his own mind. The sad thing is his ability to sway the minds of others. I'm glad that the jailhouse tapes reveal Jo Hovind to be able to question her husband's judgment while still not being able to turn him aside from his chosen course. This should make sentencing go much easier on her. I hope she receives no more than probation.Literally hundreds of millions of Americans have paid their taxes, and if there are any successful tax scofflaws out there then they're keeping a pretty low profile. Al Capone went to jail over taxes when no other legal entity could nail him. Irwin Schiff, who wrote and lectured widely in the 1980s that American money was unconstitutional and therefore couldn't be taxed, went to jail. Just look at the list of tax protesters who instead of retiring in luxury to their Caribbean islands went to jail (Wikipedia: Tax Protester History - wow, Hovind's on the list already!).If it were the voice of a famous and eminent evolutionist (say Edward O. Wilson or Nobel prize winner James Watson) on the jailhouse tapes instead of Hovind's I would react the exact same way: what an arrogant idiot! The difference would be that I would also think, "How extraordinarily out of character." With Hovind I instead think, "It figures he would do something as cockamamie as this!"Scientists do not tolerate tomfoolery like this. Hwang Woo-suk, the South Korean stem cell researcher who fabricated data, has been roundly condemned by the scientific community. Pons and Fleishmann (of cold fusion fame) made the relatively innocent transgression (compared to actual lies and fraud) of by-passing the peer-review process to issue a public announcement, and they've never worked again in mainstream science.It should never be a case of, "He's my guy, and therefore he can do no wrong," and I'm disappointed that you've made this accusation. I hope it is the case for all of us that we place the ideals of integrity, truth, honesty and responsibility first and foremost above all else. When measured against these ideals Hovind comes up short, very short.Being a poor excuse of a human being is not a jailable offense, but Hovind went beyond this to brazenly break laws left and right. It wasn't just tax laws he violated, but any law that got in the way of what he wanted to do. He didn't even believe he had to get site approvals or inspections from the city of Pensacola for his Dinoland construction projects. That is why we believe prison is the right place for him, and we take great joy in the fact that the system has proven that it works and shown that people can't circumvent it just because they are famous and charismatic.But these events will be very hard on the Hovind family, and we take no joy in that. Except for Kent Hovind, they are victims in this sad story.--Percy

Are you saying you've examined what people point to as Hovind's most loony positions and you find them rational? If so, then I can believe that, and a discussion about whether these Hovind positions are actually loony or not is a topic for another thread.But if you're instead saying you can't find the specific Hovind positions that people think are loony, well, then you're just not looking. Watch this debate between Hovind and Shermer. During the debate Hovind provides an excellent presentation of most of his most loony positions - almost everything he says is loony. He also clearly wins the debate, so enjoy!--Percy

There is some recent Hovind news: Attorneys for Hovinds seeks acquittal on bank structuring--Percy

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Normally we close a thread after 300 posts, but it seems like this Hovind case is winding down, so rather than open another thread that might only have a few posts I'm reopening this one. If other moderators feel it important to instead open a new thread I'm okay with that. --Admin