Albanyguy

The worst part of this whole Danica Debacle is the ammunition that it will give the leghumpers: "See, the Duggers really ARE an awesome, special, super-neat family being persecuted for their Christian beliefs by the agents of Satan! We believed that Josh was being victimized by that lying whore and he's been vindicated!" And in a weird twist of leghumper logic, this "vindication" will not only absolve Josh of having abusive sex with Danica, but will also absolve him of being an Ashley Madison client and of molesting his sisters.

I'd definitely add Jill to the list; I think she's every bit as much a Mean Girl as Jessa. In fact, I'm inclined to view all the Duggars as being steeped in malevolence. Jim Bob and Michelle are just a couple of natural born assholes. That's probably what drew them to each other as teens. It's definitely why they embraced Gothardism. It allows them to revel in being cruel to others (including their own children) while wrapping themselves in a protective cloak of sanctity. It's okay to be unkind to people and ungenerous in your judgments as long as Jesus understands that you're only doing it for His greater glory. Jim Bob and Michelle then moved on to raise their children in an atmosphere of entitlement and self-satisfaction. The Duggarlings have been brought up to believe that they're better than everyone else. They've been taught that THEY are among God's most cherished beings and that almost everyone else is facing eternal damnation and DESERVES it. How can they feel anything but contemptuous towards other, lesser people? Their lives are so drab and joyless, so empty of actual accomplishment, that the only pleasure open to them (and sanctioned by the parents who control their very thoughts) is a triumphant vindictiveness. It manifests itself in vicious attacks on those who believe differently (Michelle's robo-calls, Ben's social media tirades) and casual cruelty towards each other (Michelle laughing when her children are hurt or in danger, the boys trying to run down the cat to everyone else's glee). They lack kindness and empathy to an alarming degree. I think we recognize this in Josh and Jessa and Jill simply because the show has brought them front and center. We witness their selfish behavior and their sanctimonious double-talk. We tend to think of the ones we don't hear much from, like Jana or John David, as being somewhat nicer and more deserving of sympathy. But I wonder if they really are.

A gay cousin can be tolerated if he buys them one of the hundreds of gift items on their registry.

I agree completely. If there is one child in the family that Michelle truly loves, it's Josh. I don't think she gives a rat's ass about any of the others. She seems to like Jessa and Josie, but I think that's because they feed her narcissism. She sees Jessa as a reflection of herself as a young girl. Jessa is the "pretty" one, the "spunky" one, the one who would be a cheerleader and be out mowing the lawn in a bikini if Gothard and Jesus allowed such things. And Josie is her prize trophy, the "precious miracle" who can be trotted out at right-to-life rallies so that Michelle can bask in the crowd's admiration. I also think that Jim Bob has always been jealous and resentful of Michelle's bond with Josh and for that reason his dislike of Josh pre-dates their discovery of the molestation.

They reject the "myth of adolescence" and send their son to Quest so he can learn to jump from childhood to "manhood", but they still expect their "adult" children to live at home, sit around all day doing nothing and be at their constant back and call.

I'm surprised that no other Fundies have called them out for drinking Starbucks, considering the company's long-standing corporate support for gay marriage (not to mention the silly brouhaha over their red holiday cups). I know a number of conservative religious groups have called for the faithful to boycott Starbucks. I'm not surprised at all however that the Duggars would continue to slurp their Starbucks while preaching against gay marriage.

Well, Michelle has a crush on Ben, so why wouldn't Jinger? There must be something about him that we can't see but that makes him catnip to the Duggar women.

My guess would be that, since Jill is clearly Jim Bob's favorite child, Izzy will be his favorite grandchild. Since Michelle has no heart for children and is so spaced out she can barely remember their names, none of the grandchildren will make much of an impression on her.

And this is what really bugs me when people compare Gil and Kelly Bates to Jim Bob and Michelle, saying that the Bateses are so much more normal, so much better parents, so much nicer than the whacked-out Duggars. Baloney. Gil Bates is a Board Member who has known for years about Bill Gothard's sexual abuse of young girls and did nothing to stop it. He and the other members of Bill's inner circle worked hard to cover it up and protect the leader. When their backs were to the wall and they couldn't avoid taking some kind of action, they conducted a bogus internal "investigation" and allowed Gothard to step down (and I still think the plan was always to bring Bill back once the fuss had died down). And they're still denying and shaming the victims. Gil is just as amoral and self-serving as Jim Bob; the only difference is that he's better at hiding it behind a cheerful, reassuring façade. Jim Bob covered up the molestation of his daughters; Gil Bates covered up the rape of other people's daughters.

"Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man" - Thomas Paine.

Plus, Amy was always "headstrong" and hadn't been properly trained to "keep sweet" and obey the males in her family. Josh was probably smart enough to know that if he pulled any funny business with her, he'd be crawling around on the floor looking for his missing teeth. I think another reason that Gothard and IBLP has survived so long is that he was always careful to fly under everyone's radar. He maintained a very low profile all though the years, while other evangelicals from Jim Bakker to Mark Driscoll were courting national publicity and basking in the limelight. Most Americans had never heard of him until the Duggars shot to TV fame and it became known that they were members of his cult (even though the Duggars were very careful never to mention him by name). Public interest in the Duggars, especially after Joshgate, lifted the veil Gothard had carefully drawn over his empire. He must rue the day he ever laid eyes on Jim Bob and Michelle.

My God knows better than to lay anything on my heart before I've had my morning coffee.

Hey, haters gonna hate and humpers gonna hump! So, why didn't he get one, then? I thought he was the lord and master whose wife was supposed to submit to his authority. Why couldn't he just decree "This one is Julia" while Michelle nodded in agreement?

Ah, leave it to Jim Bob to pick this guy. He must be offering his services for free or at a greatly reduced price in exchange for the publicity. Buy used and save the difference... With a head rag wearing, motorcycle riding lawyer heading up Josh's defense, I see nothing but good times ahead for us here. The Duggars really are the gift that keeps on giving, aren't they?

Not as happy as Anna is that she didn't use "Madison"!

And Josh is the eldest, which means they all had to obey him. No wonder he felt empowered to gratify his desires. No sir, there's no way that system could possibly fail.

And the leghumpers on the FB page enable the Duggars in pretending that everything is just fine and dandy with Precious Miracle Josie. The picture of her licking the plate (which grossed us all out) brought forth a barrage of posts calling her "adorable", "so cute" and "such a little mischief maker!" With lots of praise for Michelle and the awesome godly way she's raising Josie. One poster dared to ask Josie at her age still has to be carried around everywhere like a baby and the leghumpers ripped her a new one. Why would Jim Bob and Michelle get off their dead asses and get Josie the help she needs when so many good Christian fans are telling them they're already doing everything right?

And I'm sure that she's avidly followed every social media comment about herself and has realized that she's the most disliked Duggar daughter. She gets hit with adjectives like "bitchy" and "stuck-up" while Jana and Jinger reap a ton of sympathy. So, she's going all fake-romantic and cutesy in an attempt to reverse her image without having to do anything drastic like, say, being genuinely nice to people.

I think it's called "Oops! Oh, well, plenty more kids where that one came from...hyuck, hyuck!"

Of course, to a Gothard family, something as ordinary as just making a kissing noise into the phone or saying "Love ya, babe" could be considered "phone sex". I still think that Marjorie's parents yanked her out of the Duggars' clutches because of Josh's scandals. But that is so patently unfair to Josiah that they may have felt compelled to come up with a reason why he was an unfit candidate for their daughter's hand and latched onto the "phone sex" as their excuse.

I think she'll want the "physical part" because she'll be hell-bent on having another baby as soon as possible. Look for a new blessed event to arrive nine months to the day after Josh gets home from Jesus Jail. She's probably already picked out new boy and girl "M' names (although I'm guessing "Madison" won't be one of them).

Oh, I could believe that there's some poor deluded woman in Jesus Jail that he's playing patty-fingers with, but I can't imagine that he'd ever seriously consider leaving Anna. Divorcing the mother of his four children would be the final nail in his coffin. Any slight chance of rehabilitating his public image hangs on going back to her and he knows it. Not that Jim Bob would permit it, anyway. However, I could see Josh jerking Anna's chain by telling her that he's thinking about leaving her. Just to keep her off-balance and keep her from getting too full of herself: "Don't start thinking that you're the one with the power now, Cupcake, I'm still calling the shots in this marriage!"

I think the fat-shaming had less to do with Jana's actual weight than with the fact that Michelle seems to really dislike her. I suspect that Michelle was looking for something to torture Jana with and decided that picking on her for being "fat" would be as much fun as anything.

Priscilla always reminds me of the young girl in The Light in the Piazza. If you've never seen it, it's a movie (and later a Broadway musical) about a young girl touring Italy with her mother. The girl is pretty and sweet, but extremely child-like and dependent on her hovering mother. A young man from a wealthy Italian family falls in love with her and wants to marry her, but the mother refuses her permission. At first, it seems that the girl is being stifled and controlled by a domineering parent, but then the truth is revealed. The girl suffers from a slight mental and emotional impairment. She can function well enough to appear "normal" as long as there is always someone with her to watch over her and clear the path for her. On her own, she cannot cope and becomes hysterical with fear and panic. The young man (with the backing of his entire family) still wants to marry her and promises that he will always guard and protect her. They marry and presumably live happily ever after. Obviously, we don't know if Priscilla is actually impaired in any way, but she and David both come from a culture that refuses to acknowledge any kind of mental or emotional problem that can't be "prayed away". It's also a culture that sees passivity and obedience as desirable traits in young women and where young men are taught that the perfect wife is a child-like creature who will always depend on his strength and wisdom.