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Answers in The Flintstones

We recently discussed Govenor Steve Beshear (D-KY) and his support, and $37.5 million in tax breaks, for a theme park devoted to a recreation of Noah’s Ark called Ark Encounter, here. Who owns Ark Encounter? A private LLC whose membership includes a subsidiary of Answers in Genesis, whose CEO is Ken Ham.
The Governor’s office issued a press release:

A feasibility study by the renowned America’s Research Group has indicated that the Ark Encounter may attract 1.6 million visitors in the first year and is expected to employ up to 900 full and part-time staff.

That’s a lot of visitors, a lot of occupied hotel rooms, a lot of restaurant meals, a lot of local purchases, and a lot of sales taxes. Sounds too good to be true? It is.

Just what is this “renowned America’s Research Group?” From their website:

America’s Research Group is a full service consumer behavior survey research company. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative research, America’s Research Group has virtually reinvented the research arena with our distinctive, personalized services, encyclopedic reference of consumer demographics, annual client conferences, and extensive interview database.

Sounds impressive. However, America’s Research Group is run by C. Britt Beemer (left). Beemer is also a personal friend  of Ken Ham and coauthor, with Ken Ham, of Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it. Has anyone at the Governor’s office heard of due diligence? How about Google?

There’s much more coming and I’ll keep you up to date.

H/T: Barefoot and Progressive.

-David Drumm (Nal)

29 thoughts on “Answers in The Flintstones”

  1. Buddha

    Orval with Orval cheese is almost enough to make me want to join a monastery. I’ve seen some Chimay cheese in grocery stores from time to time.

  2. Gyges,

    All true. No need to convert me on the beer and cheese pairing though. I’m already a fan via the German and to some degree French culinary traditions. And one of the reasons I prefer ales. To my taste, they stand up to cheese (and sausage for that matter) pairings better than lagers and pilsners. Give me a Maredsous and a cheese plate and I’m a happy guy.

  3. Gyges,

    I spend a couple of weeks roasting turkey parts with vegetables and making batches of turkey reduction sauce for Thanksgiving. I skim off the fat and cook the turkey stock down to its tasty turkey essence. That gelatinous stuff makes a heavenly gravy when added to pan drippings.

  4. Mespo,
    I love Lewis Black and that was a great clip. I have go to see my barber for some leech therapy before I can get my tickets to see Ark Encounter!

  5. Buddha,

    By the way, I actually have a reason for suggesting beer other than I just like beer.

    Assuming a similar structure to the ribs of modern animals, there’s going to be a lot of connective tissue. The reason we cook ribs low and slow is to break down that connective tissue into yummy gelatin like stuff. That’s why ribs “stick to your mouth” when you eat them. Basic cooking science.

    Well, beers carbonation cuts through that better, leaving you with a cleaner mouth to taste the beer and other food.

    It’s also why beer’s better with cheese. (Seriously, get a good English blue, a bottle of a good English style barley wine or old ale {I’m a big fan of Traquire House Ale} you’ll be floored).

  6. Gyges,

    Good kid. We need more exact people.

    Thanks for the link too. I saw a headline about that in my RSS feed, but hadn’t looked at it yet. It makes a lot of sense, both morphologically and especially given that other species also point to decreasing biodiversity as a contributory factor to saurian extinction.

  8. Elaine and Gyges,

    Points taken.

    Elaine,

    It can be hard to let go of that popular term from childhood! So many improperly named dinosaur toys back in the day. At least I used a valid but discarded junior synonym.

  9. If we would just grant tourist visas to members of the Taliban, then that number of 1.6 million annual visitors would be more realistic.

    Sorry – that’s a pretty obtuse statement. My intent is to point out that the beliefs of many American fundamentalist/evangelical self-styled Christians are surprisingly similar to groups like the Taliban. There’s a lot of common ground between American fundies and the Taliban on issues like rejecting evolution. (or the uncontroversial science which makes it clear that the earth is more than 6,000 years old.)

    Except for the fact that one group is running AbrahamicOS v2 (featuring the Jesus plug-in) and the other is running v3 (featuring the Mohammad plug-in), they would be quite comfortable in eachothers’ worlds.

  12. You know, none of this answers my persistent Flintstones take on reality:

    Since birds evolved from dinosaurs, does one serve a red wine or a white wine with Brontosaurus ribs?

  14. Next, they will be saying that the earth is flat and a vengeful anthropomorphic man-god created it—oh, wait!

  16. mespo,

    That’s one of my favorite Lewis Black stand-up routines.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40Q8p3GqPqQ&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

  19. I believe Diane Sawyer and the NYT also recently ran stories on Ham’s ark park. I don’t think either brought up this issue, but instead opted for fluff pieces that encourage children and parents to ignore science and accept myth as fact.

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