No one writes much about Kent Hovind (a/k/a “Dr. Dino”) these days. Wikipedia describes Hovind’s conviction for tax evasion, and they present a few tidbits from his bizarre defense.
In January of 2007 he was sentenced to ten years in the slammer, and that’s where he’s been ever since. His appeals have all been unsuccessful. His wife, who was his bookkeeper, served one year in prison. His son, Eric Hovind, is continuing in his father’s creationist tradition, but we assume he’s paying taxes and staying out of trouble.
In his prime, Hovind was one of the flamingist creationists in existence — in the same category as Jack Chick. In fact, Chick’s website has promoted Hovind — see Jack Chick Presents Kent Hovind’s Videos. The classic Chick comic book, Big Daddy?, actually cites Hovind as an authority beneath one of the panels — the one where the creationist kid tells his teacher that the Lucy fossil isn’t a human ancestor. His “doctorate” is from a diploma mill named Patriot University (they used to have a page about him at their website, but it’s been taken down).
We weren’t expecting this, but we found some news about Hovind at the website of Forbes. Their article is Time To Let Kent Hovind Go Home? Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us for emphasis:
I was saddened to learn that Kent Hovind will be facing a new criminal charge. Many people believe that Doctor Dino’s incarceration for tax related crimes was actually a response to his effectiveness as a proponent of “creation science”.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
I remain quite skeptical of that view, since there are several “creation science” organizations with IRS recognized 501(c)(3) status including Creation Today, which is run by Kent’s son, Eric. Nonetheless, the latest criminal charge which is scheduled for trial on September 8, 2014 really strikes me as piling it on.
Poor Dr. Dino. The Darwinist conspiracy is still trying to destroy him. What’s his latest problem? After a few paragraphs of background about creationism and Hovind’s career, we’re told:
The latest criminal charge relates to the efforts that the IRS has been making to collect from Kent Hovind. Real property in Pensacola had been forfeited to the government. In 2012, there was an injunction against Creation Science Evangelism and its representative and agents from seeking to file liens on the forfeited property. Nonetheless, a lien was filed – a lis pendens.
Forbes provides this link to a four-page government pleading dated 08 July 2014. The feds want to hold him in contempt for violating an earlier injunction that prevented him and his organization from interfering with the feds’ sale of his theme park, which sale was to pay for his tax liabilities. That lis pendens thing was apparently such an interference. Back to the Forbes article:
Is This Piling On? I’m inclined to think it is. Being in prison and all it’s not like Kent could have gone down to the court house himself to file the thing.
True, but he might have mailed it. We’re not told who signed it. Anyway, the injunction doesn’t seem to have been directed at Hovind alone, but his entire organization. Somebody filed that lis pendens to interfere with the government’s sale, and the government is holding Hovind responsible. They say he did it.
Forbes provides this link to Hovind’s three-page response. The substance is all on the first page. He claims that the government is “retaliating” against him, and besides that, he hasn’t been properly notified about what the feds are doing. Then Forbes says:
Having Kent Hovind do more time for having something filed that did not do him any good seems to be a poor use of government resources. If he has a jury trial and is acquitted, which strikes me as a distinct possibility, it will be trumpeted as a major victory in the tax protester community. (Note Kent Hovind does not consider himself a tax protester). If he is convicted and sentenced to serve more time, he will be viewed as a martyr.
Tax protesters never think they’re tax protesters. They always imagine themselves to be patriots. Not only that, but they think the judges are idiots, while they and the other tax protesters are the only ones who understand what the law really means. See Creationists and Tax Protesters. As for martyrdom, it’s only creationists who will see Hovind as a martyr. They already think that. Besides, who cares what they think? And now we come to the end:
Either way I don’t see this effort as encouraging people to be more tax compliant, which is really the point of criminal prosecution.
It looks to us as if the latest contempt proceeding is aimed at encouraging people not to violate injunctions issued by federal courts. No matter what happens, it won’t have any effect on either creationists or tax protestors. They live in their own version of reality.
Copyright © 2014. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.
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The Sensuous Curmudgeon 
Here is Kent Hovind’s thesis.
You will need to take a shower, maybe several showers after reading this nonsense and wash your eyeballs out with bleach.
Not responsible for loss of IQ.
Thanks, Doc, but no thanks.
“No one writes much about ….”
PZ Meyers did a couple of months ago:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/01/03/kent-hovind-has-been-honored/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2014/02/28/what-is-kent-hovind-doing-with-his-time-in-prison/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2014/03/10/kent-hovind-challenges-me/
So perhaps Hovind may enjoy the hospitaly of American government a bit longer? For the purpose of this blog it’s kind of pity.
SC, I though you’d like to hear about this:
http://www.kgw.com/home/Wash-city-council-considering-In-God-We-Trust-display–268798371.html
As for Hovind’s dissertation, the one docbill linked to above — well, reading it can be a sort of guilty pleasure (though I guess it is an acquired taste). The unsurpassed banality of language, the wonderfully shallow arguments, the impregnable closed-mindedness, the ludicrous interpretation of history, the totally warped wordview underlying it all — you can’t deny that all these elements add up to a CHARMING effect of sorts.
RationalWiki sums up some main points, for those who don’t have the stamina to read through the whole thing:
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Kent_Hovind%27s_doctoral_dissertations
I find it amazing these theocratic authoritarian types turn into flaming Libertarians when they have to pay taxes on their scams to milk the ignorant…..uh I mean their ministries.
Hovind’s thesis is a masterpiece of unintentional comedy.
“Hello, my name is Kent Hovind.” Genius.
I wish I had thought of that for the opening of my thesis. I’m sure it would have distracted my examining committee from the real weaknesses in my thesis that are always present. “You could have done more, lad.” That’s true of any thesis.
Yeah, I could have done more at the time but I did do a lot more after which is what they knew.
Hovind, on the other hand, no chance. He had a book, you see …
Whether Hovind thinks of himself as a tax protester or not, evidently Forbes Magazine does. After all, the reasoning seems to go, liberals don’t like him; liberals don’t like tax protesters; therefore, he is a tax protester. Q.E.D.
Which goes to show the quality of journalism, not to mention rationality, at Forbes these days.
When it comes to a knowledge of science, Hovind is every bit as ignorant as Hambo at AiG. What is interesting is that even though Hambo is an immigrant, he understands the American system better than the U.S. born Hovind. This has allowed Hambo to run his fleece the flock scams and stay out of jail while Hovind languishes in prison for his frauds.
I think the difference between them is that Hambo only scams money from ordinary, walking around, slack jawed drooling creationists while Hovind was caught stealing from the U.S. Government.
Classic use of weasel words. “Many people” being “Dr.” Hovind and his mindless followers.
Hovind: “Hello, my name is Kent Hovind and I’m a creationist.”
Everybody: “HELLO, KENT!”
Sounds therapeutical.
I think Hovind’s sentence is about 3 times the length it should have been. Most of his sentence is for being obstinate with federal authorities regarding his (or has Hovind would put it “His”) assets. Hovind is worse than stupid, he is delusional and that’s why he is in the clink. His delusions aren’t just limited to his IFB flavor of literal socially conservative Christianity, they encompass his belief that he doesn’t own anything because he is a servant of the Almighty (another obvious delusion, being a Ph D.!).
Instead of more jail time it would be great if CSE would go out of business, they are just annoying and rarely amusing.
One wonders how many people are in prison for being obstinate or delusional. How many just irk people with power, who don’t listen to their lawyers and act deferential and remorseful (and don’t insist that they didn’t do it, even if they didn’t). How many people who happen to have obnoxious personalities, even to their lawyers? (I might even offer a kind word for the lawyers who defend even obnoxious clients.)