Jonathan Schwartz continues his analysis of the final day of Kent Hovind’s March trial along with some commentary on the Hovindication movement. No pictures for this one, so Jonathan asked me to insert some clips.
An Introduction as the Government and Defendants lay down closing arguments
On March 11th, 2015 the Government delivered its close, with a passionate and peppery presentation by Assistant District Attorney Tiffany Eggers.
It was followed by an hours’ worth of a highly personalized plea from Attorney Klootz for John Paul Hansen. Looking earnest and dashing and full into a 1980’s civil rights courtroom drama persona, he recalled his days mustering a hard fought defense resulting in the freedom for a man falsely accused of murder who had festered on Death Row for a dozen years. He talked about fishing with his boys.
Klootz exuded the charm of a tousled haired and gangly idealistic young lawyer from Mississippi. He referred so often to Hovind, we began to forget he was Paul John Hansen’s attorney. When he did occasionally refer to Hansen, he told us among other things that Hansen knew more than anyone about the 1776 legal milieu but should avoid trying to involve himself in modern law.
Attorney Keith for Kent Hovind was methodical, believable, broadly intelligent, clearly liked by the Jury for his sincerity. Then, the piece de resistance, the rebuttal by Eggers, where she came out in force, newly energized and engaged, and at times, seemingly hostile and frustrated.
Despite the genuinely moving work by the attorneys for the defendants, which I found stirring, Kent Hovind is guilty of violating the law. Paul John Hansen as well. This despite the fact that Hovind is a cutesy pop icon, the panda brand of the extreme Christian right, a fast talking wind up doll that was the bright kid in class who was both admired and despised by the other boys , always has an answer, paternal and sadly hapless, Doctor Dino.
It’s quite interesting to watch the efforts of the Free Kent Hovind folks, as they plan and get ready for the second trial date of May 18th, keeping as busy as possible doing what “Free Someone” movements do complete with dissension in the ranks.
They mostly want what we all want. And that is to be part of a movement with folks they know and respect, who “get” them, for whom their beliefs are normal and not kooky. Each of them wants to snag that brass ring and make a difference, uncovering a new factoid of the day that will be the silver bullet that sets Kent free, or at least gives his team a new angle to pursue.
They want to get recognition for recruiting a new and important member who will become active. A good social media campaign is a huge plus for them, and to be able to demonstrate that their organizing techniques are cutting edge and high tech and attractive, down to the graphics and a quality digital aesthetic. Choosing and funding a legal team that reflects their ideology is paramount.
It is a social thing as well, being able to talk and chat and write to other kindred souls that are also moved by Kent Hovind’s plight, or even who once long-ago stirred by his videos and teachings.
Unfortunately, many of those in the Free Kent movement also look for a new enemy to dump on, almost on a daily basis. There have been lurid video trailers produced replete with images of Hitler as a stand in for the US Government, as well as nicely made mini-video narratives, one with a capable teen presenter.
Like Hovind himself, they are on a perpetual search for the panacea that will set Hovind free, a loophole, such as a Freedom of Information Act Suit to find out just how expensive this expensive trial was, or snagging a fabulous Christian/Sovereign Citizen Lawyer, mounting an attack on Wikipedia, and other campaign techniques to try and get a ground swell of public support.
Getting into the majors for the Free Kent Hovind movement types means getting right-wing Christian talk show hosts and politicians to give then the time of day.
Above all, they need a common enemy, those people and institutions they can rail against. Maybe it will help them find inner peace, but a few in their movement are just plain mean, mocking and picking at weaknesses they perceive in their opposition, taunting and needling and trying to shame. It’s not just politically incorrect, it’s the wrong way to act, so hatefully and obviously bigoted, intolerant of others and demonstrative of the insecurity that needs to put others down to be fulfilled.
Jonathan is off on assignment and promises the last two installments of this series will be ready next week.
Another really great article by the IRS atheist dream team. Hey Peter, Robert Baty, will you tell everyone how closely you both work together with the IRS and atheist foundation FFRF?
Please help explain to us your treasonous behavior!
This article is trash and anyone that reads it knows it.
Public opinion is in favor of Pastor Hovind. Just let him out already you guys look like a bunch of idiots at this point.
Don't worry, plenty of evidence is being put together to show IRS agent Robert Baty, Peter Reilly of Forbes.com magazine are nothing but a bunch of paid IRS, er CPA, goons working alongside the Atheists….
You won't get your Government religion of Unitarian Blaba Blab puny g-d religion…
DID YOU NOT HEAR? PURITAN CHRISTIANS FOUND THIS COUNTRY! CONGRESS PRINTED BIBLES FOR SCHOOLS IN THE LATE 1700's EARLY 1800's
THIS IS A CHRISTIAN NATION YOU
PACK YOUR BAGS AND GO TO CHINA – THEY WILL WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS.
It doesn't make you any less wrong when you shout, sweetie.
to Anonymous aka Erin Davis aka Shamu the land whale………take your pink gun and do all of us a favor and shoot yourself in the foot.
Oddly enough most of the concerns of the Freedom From Religion Foundation that I have written about – basically the favorable tax treatment of churches are not really in oppostion to Kent Hovind who thinks churches should scorn 501(c)(3) status. I have written both critically and favorably about FFRF and had at least one guest post from them. I think you can get it all by going to forbes.com and searching Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Peter, Peter, Peter, you're being rational and reasonable. It's hard to be rational and reasonable with people who cannot even agree on the basics, which is that Kent Hovind is not being persecuted. Anyone who has read the 2006 trial transcript knows this to be the case. As I stole from you, it's not about the dinos, it's about the taxes.
Keep submitting incriminating evidence Peter Reilly and Robert Baty, the IRS should look out for another scandal in the coming days.
Incriminating evidence? ROFL. Y'all don't even have a clue what evidence actually is, let alone incriminating evidence. Erin, Rudy and all the Hovindicators gettin' all threaty when you're obviously talking out your rear porthole is lots of fun. Especially when compared to some of the stuff about keeping your Christian testimony. Keep the laughs coming, Erin — or is it Rudy? Or Donna? It doesn't matter, they're all part of the terrifyingly delicious Hee Hoving Gang.
Following Rudy Davis'/LoneStar1776's own recent advice, I just have to suggest that if any Hovindicator has any serious, substantive matters they wish to discuss regarding the Hovind legal problems, they are more than welcome to make themselves known, qualify themselves as worthy correspondents, and begin the negotiations for some matter of possible mutual interest on which we differ and just maybe we can advance that conversation.
As most know, I have a special interest in the subject Kent Hovind so often mentions as fundamental to his case, and one he and his people typically misrepresent; structuring.
http://ytmp.blogspot.com/2015/03/retired-irs-kent-hovind-critic-seeks-to.html
Robert Baty’s Structuring Proposal for Discussion
Withdrawing less than $10,000 in a single transaction
with the intent to evade bank reporting requirements
is a violation of the law and regulations and was at
the time of the Hovind withdrawals in question and
was the legal standard used to convict Kent Hovind
of “structuring”.
Robert Baty – Affirm
Kent Hovind – Deny
Run, Kent, run!
See Kent run!
I would, however, you repent and come out to me or send out your champion. It is so wearisome to try and deal with your anonymous lemmings.
ROFL! Keep it up you wonderfully hilarious and tragically sad bozos! Hovind the incorrigible felon is going to continue paying for his continuing crimes against society and his fully unrepentant sov-cit-style blather.
From the Wiki:
Decline of power and influence
Puritan oppression, including torture and imprisonment of many leaders of non-Puritan Christian sects, led to the (voluntary or involuntary) "banishment" of many Christian leaders and their followers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This impact of Puritanism on many new colonists led or contributed to the founding of new colonies—Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New Hampshire, and others—as religious havens that were created for those who wanted to live outside the oppressive reach of the existing theocracy.[3] The power and influence of Puritan leaders in New England declined further after the Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1690s. Beginning as a trial of one or several self-avowed witches who admitted to practicing voodoo-type rituals with malicious intent, the trials ended with a number of innocent people being falsely accused, found guilty, and executed. Most of the magistrates never admitted fault in the matter, though Samuel Sewall, publicly apologized in later life.
Related Religions and Churches
Most colonial Puritan congregations were absorbed into either the Congregational Christian Churches,[4] or the American Unitarian Association.[5] The Congregationalists merged with the Evangelical and Reformed Church in 1957, forming the United Church of Christ, while the Unitarians consolidated with the Universalist Church of America in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Puritan doesn't equate to something good or good for America. See the next excerpt.
Kent Hovind, Rudy and a lot of other Hovindicators are Baptists. Remember, the Puritans didn't like the Baptists very much at all and ran them out of Massachusetts. That's how Rhode Island got started!
Seriously, the Hovindicators need to read the Constitution again. In addition to the First Amendment, there's Art. VI, para. 3, which is the No Religious Test for Office clause. Unlike that mendacious "historian" David Barton, the Founders didn't want a particular religion running the show. They'd seen up close and personal the results of the European Wars of Religion and didn't want them here. It's entirely too bad that the Hovindicators are ill-informed on the history of the United States.
I'm afraid you're going to have to define "mendacious" for the Hovindicators and maybe give them some very simple examples. They don't pick up concepts like that very well, Dee.
The smithsonian is
Excerpt from the Smithsonian:
In the storybook version most of us learned in school, the Pilgrims came to America aboard the Mayflower in search of religious freedom in 1620. The Puritans soon followed, for the same reason. Ever since these religious dissidents arrived at their shining “city upon a hill,” as their governor John Winthrop called it, millions from around the world have done the same, coming to an America where they found a welcome melting pot in which everyone was free to practice his or her own faith.
The problem is that this tidy narrative is an American myth. The real story of religion in America’s past is an often awkward, frequently embarrassing and occasionally bloody tale that most civics books and high-school texts either paper over or shunt to the side. And much of the recent conversation about America’s ideal of religious freedom has paid lip service to this comforting tableau.
From the earliest arrival of Europeans on America’s shores, religion has often been a cudgel, used to discriminate, suppress and even kill the foreign, the “heretic” and the “unbeliever”—including the “heathen” natives already here. Moreover, while it is true that the vast majority of early-generation Americans were Christian, the pitched battles between various Protestant sects and, more explosively, between Protestants and Catholics, present an unavoidable contradiction to the widely held notion that America is a “Christian nation.”
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-true-history-of-religious-tolerance-61312684/#hOhq7yxVFVfiBX2k.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter
Nope, we largely finally escaped the violence, the self-righteous, the murderous superstitious discrimination and mistreatment of the Puritans. False re-tellings to the contrary. But Hovindicators and the crazies they're drawn from aren't interested in facts that contradict their persecution complex, their persecution drama.
Smithsonian is run by a bunch of evolutionists who fire any scientist bringing forth evidence that goes against their lies…
Smithsonian can not be trusted.
Nice try… Nice try…. lol
You're going to put up Hanson's testimony against the Smithsonian magazine? Of course you are. Silly bunny. I'm looking forward to this next trial. I only wish y'all were actually going to get any of the crazy testimony you think the court will allow. New word/and it's opposite for ya, sillies: "relevant"/"irrelevant".
speaking from FreeKent HQ. i can tell you the only motivation we have is clearly and honestly stated TO FREE KENT HOVIND!! he is the #1 soul winner on the planet and that is our goal. after that you will never hear from us again 🙂 we are lkg fwd to putting all these dealings w retards at the irs behind us.
Freedom ain't free, sweeties. You still has to pay your taxes, obey the law, n' stuff like that there.
Did the anonymous whiner really say this:
– "speaking from FreeKent HQ. i can tell you the only
– motivation we have is clearly and honestly stated
– TO FREE KENT HOVIND!!"
If that was or is the case, there antics are anything but consistent with that goal.
Kent and his people have gone out of their way to pursue a course that has done, and will do in my opinion, nothing to "free Kent Hovind".
Kent's got legal problems which Kent and his people have never been open and honest in dealing with.
There is still time to repent and act like they want to minimize the damage Kent has done.
Will they repent and bring forth works meet for repentance?
We will see.
Robert Baty you IRS agent… You should not talk about repentance…
Will you repent for lying about Pastor Hovind, admitting you lie about him then lying about admitting you lie about him?
I smell a libel and slander lawsuit in the coming days (we have all the evidence big guy… you might want warn the IRS they have another scandal on the way)….
I smell the cowardice of one of those anonymous Hovindicators who will not come, come clean, and allow me to face my accuser regarding any substantive matter he/she/it might think we have something we disagree about regarding Kent Hovind.
I should not have to talk about repentance when it comes to Kent Hovind and his criminal career. He should have repented long ago and brought forth his works meet for repentance. That is left for him to do yet.
By the way, I am not an IRS agent, and retired from that agency 10 years ago. If people didn't keep reminding me I may not even be aware of that part of my biography.
Wouldn't it be amazing if all the Hovindicators actually grew a brain cell between them, wised up and quit being co-dependent boot-lickers to Kent Hovind and told the guy to wise up, quit running from the responsibility for his felonious behavior and start digging himself out of the hole he's continuing to dig himself deeper into? Wouldn't it? Not to worry, though. They'll be months before they're burned out, bummed out, with Hovind still in prison doing time for doing stupid.
@ Pluto Dog
Nick Lally of the Creation Science Hall of Fame, one of Kent's most affectionate supporters, tried to get Kent to repent, and Kent rebuffed his efforts and others, like me, who have done likewise.
Nick recently wrote a letter of support to the Pensacola paper, and today Kent commented on that, claiming he did not remember who Nick was or if he ever met him (didn't Kent once, recently advise people involved in his litigation to conveniently "not remember" stuff in order to avoid saying they didn't know).
Here's something Nick posted in the long ago:
(Begin.)
Creation Science Hall of Fame
Update on Hovind Project
From: Creationfacts@aol.com
Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2013 12:45:19 -0500
(excerpts)
Nick Lally here.
I just shipped Kent a new packet of letters from
supporters around the world who wrote the
Creation Science Hall of Fame asking him to
give up his tax fight with the IRS and get back
into the Creation Science arena where he is
needed the most.
Nick Lally,
Chairman, Board of Directors,
Creation Science Hall of Fame
(End.)
Maybe in years to come Kent will claim he doesn't remember me either!
True. But to the degree Kent is remembered, it will be as the fast-talkin', Gish-gallopin' anti-evolution zealot and sov-cit narcissist with an enormous taste for felonious thinkin' felonious behavior…and also not much of a husband, father, American.
That last video of Rudy blowing his "Christian Testimony" is just hilarious. I just love that. He's such a laugh-load of demented blowhard!