Archives June 2007

Jo Hovind Gets Time

The Pensacola News Journal has the news about Jo Hovind’s sentencing:

Jo Hovind, the wife of creationist theme-park owner Kent Hovind, stood solemnly beside her attorney Friday as U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers handed down a sentence of one year and one day in federal prison.

Jo Hovind, 51, also was ordered to pay $8,000 in fines and three years supervision when she is released from prison.

Which I guess brings closure to the Hovind saga. Now, when are we going to see similar indictments against Ken Ham, Pat Robertson, etc?

Debbie Schlussel Tests Poe’s Law

Pop quiz: read the following and try to figure out whether it’s serious, or a parody of right-wing conservatives:

Yale researchers found that male Congressmen with daughters are more likely to vote for “reproductive rights”–the sanitized phrase for abortion: […]

The conclusion they want you to get from this is that pro-life Congressmen are insensitive to women and don’t have contact with any.

But I’d draw a different conclusion: Congressmen who are liberal are more likely to have slutty daughters. And therefore, they are more likely to support abortion for selfish, personal reasons.

Answer: it’s from Debbie Schlussel. I think she’s serious, though obviously it’s really hard to tell.

(HT FSTDT)

I Slept Through the Nuclear War… Again

Long-time readers may remember Yisrayl Hawkins, who predicted that a nuclear war would start on Sep. 12, 2006.

Some of you may be wondering why CNN didn’t mention this rather newsworthy event. Simply put, on that day, Paris Hilton’s parents visited her in prison, so the media couldn’t take time out to report on anything as trivial as millions of people dying at once.

Nuclear Baby

No, really, Hawkins’s excuse is that on that day, the Nuclear Baby™ was conceived.

This nuclear baby was conceived September 12, 2006 and just as with a woman with child, nine months later the delivery is due, which will bring us to June 12, 2007. This nuclear baby will actually kill one-third of man over a fourth part of the earth in and around the great River Euphrates.

(emphasis added)

So far, this baby is over two weeks late, which seems rather impolite.

For whatever reason, his site now says

16 days remaining before the due date for the birth of the Nuclear Baby!

107 days remaining before 4/5 of the Earth’s population is dead because of nuclear war, famine, disease, and other curses of sin.

(for those who don’t do mental time_t arithmetic, that’s Jul. 14 and Oct.13, respectively, so mark your calendars. Or don’t) from which I gather that he found some clarifying passages in the Bible, perhaps in the Book of Excuses. But as far as I can tell, everything on his site still has the old Jun. 12 date.

Now, can I add this to the list of Umpteen Successful Bible Prophecies that fundies like to pass around?

Jo Hovind Update

Kent Hovind’s site reports that his wife Jo will be sentenced tomorrow, Jun. 29, at 9:00 a.m. I guess we’ll see what happens.

No Bong Hits 4 Jesus!

The Bong Hits 4 Jesus case has been decided. The Supreme Court found that the student was in the wrong, 5-4.

Quick recap: in 2002, when the Olympic torch was passing through Juneau, Joseph Frederick’s High School class went across the street to watch. Frederick unfurled a sign that said “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS”. The principal confiscated the sign, and later suspended Frederick, for encouraging students to use drugs.

Obviously, easy cases don’t make it to the Supreme Court, but I thought this one was particularly hairy: yes, the banner was silly. But the First Amendment gives you the right to say silly things. Except that Frederick was a student, and students’ First Amendment rights are limited. Except that this wasn’t done on school property. Except that it was done during a school-sponsored event (effectively a field trip across the street). Except that political speech has strong protection (so that a school with a no-drug policy can’t punish you for arguing that marijuana should be legalized). Except that “Bong hits 4 Jesus” isn’t obviously political speech.

Roberts’s majority opinion says that this isn’t about free speech, but really about advocating drug use. So there you have it.

Update: In other legal news, Court finds missing pants not worth $54M.

AIG’s Creation Museum

I’ve finally written up my visit to the Creation Museum.

Is This Really What Passes for Thinking Among Theologians?

dlighe pointed me at an article in Christianity Today by Alvin Plantinga, The Dawkins Confusion. He seemed to find it interesting, and there are a lot of links to it from the blogosphere, and they seem to agree that it’s a good, solid refutation of Dawkins’s The God Delusion.

To which I can only say, WTF?

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