Thursday, November 02, 2006

Kent "Dr. Dino" Hovind, felon



All reasonably informed and honest Creationist-watchers (a hobby similar to bird-watching, only involving much larger amounts of schadenfreude) shouldn't need a jury to tell them that Kent Hovind, founder of Creation Science Evangelism, is both a liar and a fraud, but today, after a three hour deliberation, a jury Florida did just that:

A federal jury has convicted Kent Hovind and his wife, Jo, of tax fraud.

Hovind faces a maximum of 288 years in prison. His wife faces up to 225 years. Her charges include aiding and abetting her husband with 44 counts of evading bank-reporting requirements.
Since forming his "ministry" in 1989, Hovind has conned his way into the hearts and wallets of untold thousands of naive and unfortunate church-goers who earnestly wanted to believe that he was doing the Lord's Work. Well, reasonable people may disagree about what doing the Lord's Work might look like, but one thing is certain: as he spread the warm and fuzzy Gospel of Young-Earth Creationism, Hovind conveniently managed to forget that part about rendering unto Caesar, and now Caesar's come to collect the debt. There's a lesson here--you can lie to children and swindle the ignorant, but never, ever try to cheat the Taxman; he always wins.

I know I shouldn't have a smile on my face right now, that there's something wrong with taking pleasure in the misfortune of others, even major-league assholes like Hovind, but I can't help it. I confess--I'm a terrible person, and this piece of justice is so terribly sweet that I just can't keep from grinning.

No comments: