Kentucky Gives Initial OK to Tax Breaks for Noah's Ark

I can't make this shit up. This is wonderful news. As if the world needed another reason not to go to Kentucky.


FRANKFORT, Ky. – A group of investors looking to build a replica of Noah's Ark as part of a proposed $172 million theme park cleared its first bureaucratic hurdle on Monday.
The Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority granted preliminary approval for state tax incentives for the project. An economic analysis must be done before being considered for final approval.
"Actually, all we're doing is saying 'go do your study and bring it back to us,'" said Darrel BeShears, a member of the financing panel.
Mike Zovath, co-founder of the Answers in Genesis ministry that opened the Creation Museum in Kentucky three years ago, said investors are looking to build a full-scale replica of the ark in what would be an expansive theme park that could draw some 1.6 million visitors a year.
Investors, attracted by Kentucky's tourism tax incentives, are considering an 800-acre site near Williamstown, just off Interstate 75.
Gov. Steve Beshear, who gave the proposal in a Capitol press conference earlier this month, has said he favors tax incentives for the ark park that is projected to create about 900 permanent jobs and have a $214 million economic impact in its first year of operation.
Some detractors, including Americans United for the Separation of Church and State executive director Barry Lynn, have objected to the state providing tax incentives for a project with a religious theme. Lynn said religious projects should be supported by voluntary donations, not the government.
The newest project would include an ancient walled city, a petting zoo, live animal shows featuring giraffes and elephants and a replica of the biblical Tower of Babel.
The Tourism Development Finance Authority also gave final approval Monday to tourism tax breaks to Kentucky Speedway, which will host its first Sprint Cup race later this year.
Kentucky Speedway is undergoing an $82 million expansion to accommodate the Sprint Cup. That includes expanding seating from 60,000 to 102,000.
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Online:
Ark Encounter: http://www.arkencounter.com

The Reason for the Season . . .

As we enter the holiday season, I thought it appropriate to reflect on a few of the loving words of Jesus. Share these with your family as you enjoy the warmth of the season and all its blessings. Ahhh . . . good times.

"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."

- Jesus (Luke 14:26)

"But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."

- Jesus (Luke 19:27)


Cheers.

-J

"Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear."
- Thomas Jefferson

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use"
-Galileo

The Pale Blue Dot

It's Not All Bad Out There...

This is awesome! I love seeing folks get behind their team. I love seeing our team playing well on such a huge stage. They've worked their asses off.

Every American should give-up whatever they now do on Sundays, get out in the park and play some soccer. Our real sins are committed at the dinner table. Soccer could offer a real cure.


U-S-A !!!!!

You got to Respect the Mormon

Yes you do! With all the crazy religions in the world, and all of them are crazy, you have to clap your hands for the Mormon. Nobody gets hurt. And as ridiculous as the Mormon faith is with all its idiosyncrasies, i.e., Joseph Smith and his verifiable criminal record, The Word of Wisdom, which clearly defines a Mormonic diet, the allowance of polygamy, a dead person's spirit in prison, and Jesus visiting the Americas to name a few, still the lasting effects of being a Mormon are nominal at best. In truth the Mormon, and I'm speaking of the Mormons I've encountered in my life, stick to their beliefs. They don't end up on T.V. involved in some homosexual scandal, they don't rape little boys on a global scale, or sneak off and do crank for a weekend in a seedy hotel room with some guy made up like Tammy Faye Baker in a really bad dress.

The point is that we spend too much time saying one thing and doing another. Having come from a religious upbringing I do hold religious people to a higher standard, just as they hold non-religious people to a lower standard. "One without religion is bound to do evil things" is the dogma when all my life its been the opposite way around. The atrocities throughout history fall on the shoulders of the religious. Except for the Mormon, anyone remember the Mormon Wars? Me neither. While, to me, they may be the silliest of all religious systems in America, they are pretty harmless. I just can't get passed the fact that they are always in close proximity to a public school.

Otherwise....Bravo Mormon, Bravo!

The Project Reason Video Contest

This is one of the finalist from the Project Reason video contest. This is an amateur video created by reasoning folks like you and me. It's a hopeful glimpse at a post-religion existence of humans. Please check it out.