Vaysh

Don't fundies have among the highest divorce rates in the US? I read some statistic about it but I can't recall the details. IIRC it essentially said that atheists had the among the lowest divorce rates and evangelicals the highest which I found deliciously ironic considering how much that particular group hollers about the sanctity of (heterosexual) marriage and how being an atheist makes you incapable of being moral. Turns out that atheists are actually more moral according to fundie beliefs than fundies are themselves. (I know things are more complicated than it looks on the surface but I still get a chuckle out of it).

I'm going to sound like a complete dimwit but when you guys said JD was running for constable I didn't realise that he was actually in an election to win the job. Because in the US you apparently vote your coppers in, wut?

I'm not from the US but I always thought it was 'murica with a U that held the negative connotations. Like 'muh guns muh freedoms 'murica yeah!' Redneck-y jingoism rather than patriotism kind of thing.

I also thought the casual wear was odd for a wedding; a lot of the guests look like they're just wearing their normal, every day clothing. Was there a dress code written out on the wedding invitations? If not, perhaps in these circles no dress code means casual dress? There seem to be a lot of low income families with lots of kids in this group so maybe this is a courtesy extended by the bride and groom so as to not embarrass or inconvenience those who can't afford fancier clothes but still want to come to the wedding, IDK

I was under the impression that the hipster crowd picked up the undercut style after watching Peaky Blinders and then it spread to anyone who wanted to look like a hipster which caused the hipsters to move on because it isn't cool anymore if everyone's doing it. I guess it's gone one step further by now and even the wannabe hipsters are abandoning the style. Which is a good thing IMO because very few people can pull it off who's not a Shelby.

It's a Duggar trait in Izzy's case. Boob's sister Deanna has the same squint, as has Jana. Combined with the massive bags under his eyes (which I think he inherited from Derrick) poor Izzy looks like he's suffering from some severe allergies.

More like there's a certain subset with severe batshit tendencies and for some reason they're getting away with it because Jesus. Most of you appear to be on the same level of crazy as the rest of us. ;)

That's such a... bizarre, for lack of a better word, view of children. Here, once you pop out of the womb you're a citizen. With rights protected by law. And no one, not even your parents, have the right to deny you those rights. (Hence hitting children is illegal because it violates their right to not be assaulted, just like adults have the right to not be assaulted). Of course, it doesn't always work out that way in the real world, but legally speaking the individual has rights from the moment they are born that supercedes the wishes and wants of the parents and if those rights are violated the state has an obligation to step in and protect them. It's not so much that the state has rights over the child but rather that the child has its own rights as an individual, independent of the parents. Getting a proper education is considered an essential right (as well as an obligation) so while homeschooling is not illegal in Sweden it is very rare since the child's right to an education trumps the parents' wish to homeschool. If you can prove that you are capable and trained enough to give your child an equally good education as a certified school would, by all means go ahead, but you have to prove it before you start to homeschool. I think there would also be issues with any kind of religious homeschooling because while schools here can be religious they must follow a secular, fact-based core curriculum and tend to get into deep shit when they fail to do so. Delving into Fundieland is always fascinating because everything they do and believe feels all topsy-turvy to me, especially how they treat their children. It's like they view their kids as property rather than people in their own right.

The operative word here being "graduation". According to that site one of the criteria to enlist is "Must possess a home-school diploma and submit transcripts at the time of enlistment. The course work must involve parental supervision, the transcript must reflect the normal credit hours per subject used in a traditional high school and the diploma must be issued in compliance with applicable state laws." Based on what we've seen of the Duggars I don't think any of the kids, with the possible exception of a few of the oldest ones (though apparently not Jana or Jessa) would be qualified as they are all obviously and woefully behind their peers in regards to education. All the high school "diplomas" we've seen lately have been homespun, not official. I know some states have very lax rules when it comes to homeschooling, but I can't imagine that most potential employers would accept a home printed piece of paper with the words Duggar Academy on it as evidence of an applicant's qualifications. Surely homeschoolers must pass some kind of official exam in order to count as high school graduates?

As a kid she had some spirit but she was known as Joyless-Anna both here and back on TWoP in the day so I think her misery started when she hit puberty and was expected to stop being a tomboy and become a "young lady" or whatever tosh they teach at Journey to the Heart. She's become increasingly listless ever since.

I don't get the purpose of the potatoes in this dish. Each person gets a whole large chicken breast but only 3/4 of a medium potato? Are the potatoes there as a vegetable and you're supposed to serve an extra dish, like rice or something on the side?

I must commend Jill for the consistent colour scheme in her recipes; she has perfected the art of brown.

Well, I don't see why little girls should have to be ladylike in the first place. I'm actually quite happy that the Duggars are not forcing those girls to restrain their movements to fulfil their antiquated gender roles like they did with the eldest girls. I think they pushed the "ladylike" thing hard on the eldest four; there was a time when Jill just wouldn't shut up about it. Ladies do this, young ladies shouldn't do that. I'm hoping the leggings under skirts thing is a realisation that kids should be allowed to be kids, run around and play, and sit however they damn well please. There's no way they'll be allowed to wear actual trousers while under their parents thumb so this is the next best thing IMO.

Well, it's a cat.

So she can't do any kind of actual work associated with nursing? I'm asking because I thought her degree would make her something akin to what we here call an 'under-nurse' or nurse's aide which is essentially a three year vocational high school program/degree that qualifies you for hospital work, but only the (mostly) non-medical stuff. Kind of like a mix between the LPN and AAS you mentioned in your post, I think? Under-nurses do work in hospitals and do a lot of the heavy lifting like making beds, taking inventory and serving food to patients but also some of the simpler medical tasks like dressing wounds, putting in catheters, blood tests etc, but they can't plan or perform any actual treatments of patients since they're not licensed nurses with a Bachelor's degree. They are fully qualified to start working in hospitals straight after graduation though. Seems a bit daft to do a two year program without anything practical to show for it in the end.

Josiah's outfit would have looked a lot better if it had actually fit. Everything just looks slightly... off. Like the shirt and trousers are too tight and yet somehow too big at the same time creating this weird effect where everything looks wrinkled and bunched. And then a huge ass tie that enhances his short legs/long torso ratio and makes him look slightly off-kilter. Not a great look IMO. How can you be best friends with someone you've never spent time alone with or had a private conversation with? They all say it and I roll my eyes so hard every time,

She looks a lot like Jinger in that picture.

IIRC, Jinger was never this boobylicious during the engagement. She was super scrawny for a while there, and proportionally so.

So Derick spends one year in a programme with no classes, seminars or exams and now they consider him qualified enough for pastoral work to proclaim him a licensed minister. Wow. Those Independent Southern Baptists don't exactly set a high bar, do they? A licensed minister around these parts needs a Master's degree in theology and religious studies and another year of training at a religious institute. Though of course those ministers are heathen Lutherans so they should obviously not be emulated in any way. I just don't understand exactly what it is he's supposed to be qualified to do if all he's done this past year is following the Cross Church people around at meetings and having "Oxford style" discussions. Has he studied rhetoric to be a competent preacher? Theology in any depth? Psychology for when his flock needs guidance? Does he know how to handle trauma and grief? Does he know how to listen? A distant in-law of mine is a retired vicar and she has told me that her job was just as much, if not more, about social work and counselling as it was about writing sermons and the whole hatchings, matchings and dispatchings bit. But I can't see Derick being useful in any kind of situation that requires more than meandering "preaching" against his personal pet peeves because he's not been trained to do anything else, and yet... there's that shiny minister's license in his hands. I can't believe Cross Church is considered legit; this genuinely looks like a scam to me.

I'm fairly certain the Duggars are dominionists since they're part of the Quiverfull movement. They are pretty shady about it publicly and refuse to admit it out loud but considering the company they keep, the politicians they back and the way Boob and Mechelle have been breeding their army for Jesus, it's a given IMO. I have no idea whether Cathy's brand of crazy involves dominionsm but it wouldn't surprise me and if not I think Derrick has gone down the Duggar rabbit hole and adopted a lot of their beliefs even if he didn't have them before.

It's possible that he genuinely thinks this is a healthy, delicious looking meal and good nutrition, but since it's clearly not and I don't think he's that much of an ignoramus, I'm thinking he's poking fun at it ("almost all four food groups!") and Jill. But since he's a little chickenshit he can't just come out and say it's unhealthy slop so he says the opposite but in a really fake-enthusiastic, sarcastic sort of manner. That way he can get it off his chest and also feel terribly clever because Jill and all the other peasants are too dumb to understand his rapier wit. And should someone call him out he can play the innocent, deny any sarcasm and claim that he meant every word. Totally. At least that's my take, but I admit I'm a little biased against Derrick lol.

I always read that post of Derrick's as a passive agressive dig at Jill's cooking as well as her intelligence. He's being sarky as hell IMO but he's assuming it'll fly straight over Jill's head. It fits right in with the tweeting pattern he's established over the years; smug and offensive but always phrased so he can weasel himself out of it if called out. I'm sure he thinks he's being very clever.

Same with me in regards to education; at the Duggarling's age I don't think I had ever studied the Greek pantheon "officially" apart from a couple of weeks in junior high. It's just that the Greek (and Roman and Norse) gods tend to pop up all over the place in literature, pop culture, art etc. I probably learned more about the Greek gods while watching Xena: Warrior Princess than I did in school. And that's the problem with the Duggars; not only did they receive a subpar education designed to keep them ignorant about any religion other than their own, they've also been barred from all other venues where you can learn. No TV or movies, no comic books, no art museums, no video games, no non-Gothard-approved literature, no nothing. So much of what people in general know hasn't been taught to us, it's just stuff we picked up by being immersed in pop culture all our lives, and the Duggars never had access to culture of any kind.

I had to use a converter to translate the cup to metric and HOLY SHIT did she just dump more than half a deciliter of sugar into a stew?! That's not stew, that's cake! The Duggar diet must have been depressing as hell. Nothing fresh, nothing of quality and no flavours beyond insanely salty and sickly sweet.

Why would one use bouillon cubes for slow cooking? Is it against the Duggar religion to use spices and herbs? Garlic? Onion? Even my grandmother, who was very no-frills when it came to cooking, would've put in some pepper corns, allspice and bay leaves with the carrots and onions and there would be no need for any short cuts like cubes because the slow cooking brings out lots of flavours from the meat and veg. Isn't that the point of slow cooking aside from making tough meat cuts tender?