Letter to the Editor Pulls No Punches

A letter to the editor over at the Lexington Herald-Leader tickled my funny bone.  You have to be careful with sarcasm when you are writing, because you can't send to obvious non-verbal clues which help to sarcasm-deficient people from understanding the meaning behind what you are trying to convey.  I do so enjoy things that are clear-cut, like a slap in the face.

This one hits the nail right on the head: "Ark Park wizardry".  While the facts of the recent debacle over the emergency tax are pretty simple -- the ark park folks have offered little substantiation for their claims that they had always intended to pay it, nor for that matter a reasonable explanation about why the property changed metaphysical pockets- going from kennie ham's for-profit pocket to his non-profit pocket and then back to his for-profit pocket.  Mark Looy, the ark parks communication chief seems to expect us to believe there was no connection with the timing of the property shift or the potential loss of the State's Sales Tax rebate because of the switch.

So, let me get this straight, Mark.  You get hit with a tiny tax that you claim you never saw coming, and right after the local community reminds you that you are a for-profit business, kennie changes from one pocket to the next, and back again after learning the State was less than amused and offered to pull the $18,000,000 in estimated sales tax incentives  And you expect us to believe all those actions are unrelated?  Really?

I don't think Daniel Phelps, the writing of this short, but entertaining letter, buys that either.

Loved how he closed it:

"Not only are the Ark’s leaders the world’s most holy men and know more about science and religion than anyone else, they are also ace businessmen, financial wizards and philanthropists who want only to help Williamstown and Grant County public schools."

Sarcasm, my second language.  Actually since I am from Brooklyn NY, English is my second language with Brooklynese my first.  So I guess sarcasm is my third one.  I don't think that is what comes to mind when you think 'multi-lingual'.

I also recall a Washington Post asking people to add or remove one letter from a common word and define the new word.  One of the winners from a few years ago is now an entry in the Urban Dictionary:

"Sarchasm - the gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it"

I know which side of the chasm little kennie is probably on, which one are you? 

Interesting Post That Will Raise Kennie Ham's Blood Pressure to Biblical Levels

This post "Ark park’s cubit sticks holy relics for gullible of today" asks a question, just what value do places like the Ark Park and the Creation pseudo-museum have in today's society?  It's an Op-Ed piece from the Lexington Herald Leader.  I think there are a couple of answers, but one of them is certainly the primary driving force.  So let's examine it a bit.

Who are the people who go to these sort of places?  I think you can group them into a few categories.

First of all you have the Hamians, they already believe in what little kennie ham is selling.  Those people do not need his monument to his own ego to believe. They are already sold and probably already contribute to the coffers of kennie's ministries, and did so well before the ark park was opened.  This is probably the only group that would plan a vacation around visiting.  This is more than likely the hard-core and largest group of the visitors.

The second group I would have to call Believers, but non-Hamians.  These might be the curious, who do not share kennie's entire belief set, but wanted to see what all the fuss is about.  They probably are mostly Creationists of one stripe or another, just not as hard-core as little kennie.  They probably wouldn't plan a vacation with the express purpose of visiting one of his ego-monuments, but if nearby will probably stop in.

The third group are the Non-Believers.  This group would include the atheists, agnostics, scientists, and those simply curious.  This would be like myself when I visited the Creation pseudo-museum back in 2009 or Bill Nye when he visited the ark park.  This is probably the smallest group to shell out money to kennie, and the group mostly entertained at the ridiculousness of his ego monuments.

So, in reality, the first group, the Hamians, don't need kennie's ministries to believe the hard-line evangelical message kennie sells.  The second group probably will see some things that align with their religious beliefs, but aren't going to climb on board kennie's train.  The third group most certainly won't start to share kennie's belief set.  They are the one's who are snickering at the obvious miscues and pointing out the error in kennie's pseudo-science.

So if the ministries aren't there to change people's minds, what's left?  The post makes it pretty clear, the objective is said to be a ministry, but the actual one is to make money.  Believers are notorious for letting various denominations of money go to religious organizations, look at how many fall for prosperity gospels? Remember John Oliver's incredible take-down on those!

While there is a lot of similarities between prosperity evangelists and kennie, there is one difference.  Little kennie isn't promising to make you rich, he's the one making money here.

So with no clear religious purpose, what's left?  From the op-ed piece:

"If Jesus Christ returned tomorrow, where would he spend his time: helping the sick, dying and impoverished or rummaging through some money-grubbing tourist trap that cynically preys on people’s faith to make a profit?"

I don't think little kennie has seen the piece yet, in some ways he's like that certain hamster-haired serial lying misogynist -- and kennie, that's not a compliment.  You share similarities because you are also quite thin-skinned and always on the defensive.  He'll probably accuse the author of being an Atheist, even though the author self-identified as a devout Presbyterian.  You might also remember that if you aren't a believer in little kennie's narrow view of the universe, you really aren't much of anything else.  After all this is the guy hosting a 'World Religions Conference' in a few weeks for the express purpose (I added the underlining): 

Either you believe as kennie does, or your soul is lost, LOL!

Ark Park: Economic Boom or Bust?

There have been a great many articles about the economic impact that 'little kennie' ham's latest monument to his own ego, the Ark Park, has had on the local community.  The clear majority has been bad news for the citizens who thought it was going to be a tourist goldmine.

If you remember, one of the rationalizations that kennie used to sell the building of his ark park was how many visitors it would being into Grant County, Ky and the surrounding area.  By portraying it as a tourist trap and not a ministry, he sold it to the State and local governments who granted him all sorts of incentives and breaks.

But in all the press concerning such economic benefits, I have seen only one semi-positive article, the rest portrayed communities feeling more than a little victimized.  There was one that should to be viewed with a grain of salt . . . it was written by little kennie himself ("Economic benefits of Ark Park unfairly downplayed").  The clear majority of the reporting has shown that the ark park hasn't meet the expectations of the citizens who are paying for those incentives and breaks.  Here are a few examples:

"While a steady stream of visitors has flocked to visit the ark and the nearby Creation Museum, the impact on Williamstown’s economy has been far less than what many local residents expected." (Answers in Genesis? Ark, other attractions haven't boosted economy as expected, The Daily Independent, June 7, 2017)

"Stormey Vanover is less hopeful. . . . She has operated Country Heart Crafts on Williamstown’s Main Street for the past nine years, sometimes with a profit, sometimes at a loss. “We do get a few people from the Ark, but they don’t really know we’re here,” she said amid the Kentucky-made soaps, candles and ornaments featured in her store, which is surrounded by empty storefronts. “It’s just not impacting us the way we thought it would.” " (Town expected flood of business after Noah’s Ark opened. So far, it’s a trickle, Lexington Herald Leader, June 2, 2017)

But the project’s single largest source of funding was actually $62 million in junk bonds floated by the town of Willamstown, population less than 4,000, home to the Ark Encounter and the county seat of Grant County, which faced bankruptcy this spring.“In terms of revenue for the county, we don’t get too much from them,” says the county’s chief executive, Stephen Wood. The Ark Encounter negotiated a vastly discounted 30-year rate on property taxes in 2013 under a previous administration. “I hate it, but that’s the deal,” says Wood.(A giant ark is just the start. These creationists have a bigger plan for recruiting new believers., The Washington Post, May 24, 2017 )

So, with the conclusion that the economic windfall isn't happening, the next question is who is to blame.  While that might not sound like a fair question, it does need to be addressed because little kennie, for all his pronouncements about how well the ark park is doing, posted this today:

"Recently, a number of articles in the mainstream media, on blogs, and on well-known secularist group websites have attempted to spread propaganda to brainwash the public into thinking our Ark Encounter attraction is a dismal failure. Sadly, they are influencing business investors and others in such a negative way that they may prevent Grant County, Kentucky, from achieving the economic recovery that its officials and residents have been seeking." (The Secularist Media War Against the Ark Continues, Answers in Genesis Ministry News, June 12, 2017)

Basically it's the atheists' fault.  Regardless of the lack of reporting from little kennie on actual attendance figures, or economic information impact, it's all the secular groups' fault.  Now I have a question, do you think believers in kennie's narrow version of the universe really pay much attention to the media, especially when the media isn't particularly flattering about one of their ministries?

I'm serious, I don't think anything the media says would affect their interest to visit kennie's ministries.  The media hasn't been particularly flattering to his Creation 'museum' and it seems to be making kennie lots of money, but not the communities in the surrounding area.  So, if anything, the media's representation of the ark park is probably keeping some people away, but would those people want to visit it anyway?

Serious question, while some might visit out of curiosity, but no media coverage, flattering or not, will get most people who disagree with kennie's point of view to visit one of his ministries.  So why aren't the local communities experiencing some sort of economic renaissance?  One thing might be kennie's overstated projections.  In his post Kennie said ". . . The economic recovery that the officials and residents have been seeking" but that's not an accurate picture.  It's not just that those communities were seeking, but that's the economic impact kennie said they would receive . . . providing they gave kennie all sorts of incentives and breaks so he could build his ministry there.  They did, yet the economic benefits are going where exactly?

Before the ark park was built, little kennie made a number of projections made, he even reduced his final set of attendance estimates to between 1.4  and 2.2 million visitors a year, recent reports say he's close to seeing his 1 millionth visitor -- which is interesting since it's been open over a year now.  More realistic estimates claimed while the first year will bring in many curious believers, as time goes on, it will decline to about 375,000 a year.  Far below his projections.

While it would be nice to blame kennie, the fault isn't entirely his.  Yes, his forecasts and projections have been mostly smoke, but the local people and their elected officials are also responsible.  What they should have told kennie when he announced plans to build his ministry was "Have fun!"  They should not have offered any incentives or tax breaks, after all it's a ministry.  But they were looking for a lifeline and that bought into kennie's overly optimistic numbers. Remember the adage "Let the buyer beware.", well they bought into it and now they get to pay for the privilege.  If I recall correctly. kennie forecasted 3000 new jobs, but in reality on about 900 have materialized.  A small county not getting 2100 anticipated jobs is another significant impact.

Things are so bad for Grant County that they may have to go bankrupt.  But they do have a plan, and it hits kennie where it hurts, in his wallet.  They are proposing a $0.50 tax on entertainment ticket sales.  We wrote about it in "Greedy Shepherd Annoyed that the Sheared Sheep are Making Noise".  Little kennie claims such a tax would force him to raise his $40 ticket price.  Sure, 1.25% tax is going to 'force' his to raise his ticket prices.  It wouldn't have been necessary if kennie had made realistic projections and the county understood what it was getting.  But that is a little too much to ask.  

What I will say, at this point, is someone is making money off of the ark park, and it's not the local community.  Gee, I wonder who it could be?  In the meantime, little kennie's 'ark of ignorance' is open for business while the rest of the area might not be able to say that for long.