merylinkid

I actually don't have a problem with JB lawyering up. It's what we WANT people to do when facing legal consequences. Because trust me, even smart people fuck up the law, let alone someone like JB who only thinks about sex. My problem is with the authorities who said "oh lawyer involved, let's stop now." REALLY???? Like they've never dealt with defense lawyers before? The state trooper they reported to, should have realized this required more than a stern talking to. But then I still wonder about his motives here. Also, to go on with Wanderwoman's suggestion, I asked Alison Arngrim over on twitter what groups she recommeds. Her twitter feed now includes a TON of organizations. Find one you agree with and go for it. I believe she works directly with PROTECT.

I know. Will wonders never cease. Wonder if they are celebrating their anniversary by being in the same zip code?

This. Wanderwoman. This. This is how we move forward. We can talk all we want here (and we should) about how it happened, why it happened, who did what when, the future repercussions. But as we are talking, others are being molested, by family members, by trusted family friends, by strangers. We need to use THIS moment to decide to act. THank you so much.

I don't see how the show can continue without JOsh. The whole point of the show is that JimBob and Michelle had 19 kids and they all travel in a herd. You can't do that if 1/19 of the kids can't ever be shown. You can't be bragging about having 19 kids, like it is some amazing feat if you can only show 18 kids. You can't have it be about how close they are and do everything together if one kid can never be seen. They would have to change the focus of the show completely and get a new shctick. Except JB doesn't have any schtick except I had 19 kids because God wanted me too. He's too uneducated and too focused on his moral superiority to have anything else. ETA: This family is not going to drop Gothardism now that this has come out. In fact they may go even deeper. Their religion teaches them it is not their fault, but that the girls' defrauded their brother somehow. Parents hands washed of culpability. Also, it shows they were right to shun the outside world. The outside world found out their dirty secret and is not being nice and "forgiving" about it. Therefore, outside world bad. You can't look at this how a rational person would. These people do not think rationally. If they did, they would never have joined up with Gothardism in the first place. As for forgiveness. FOr me personally to forgive someone that person has to say more than sorry. They have try to fix the mess they made. They have NOT doing it again. Not saying Josh did do it again. But his smugness over the years shows he still thinks he is better than everyone else. Even his statement -- albeit written by a crisis PR person -- does not show he learned anything from this. Until then, he might get my understanding at how this happened, but he sure as hell doesn't get my forgiveness for messing up his sister's lives.

Criminal statute of limitations has run. It was known and reported, but not pursued until too late. However, a civil suit brought by the minor could be brought within a certain time after the minor turns 18. So the minor child could sue Josh after she turned 18. But with the records being destroyed, a civil suit after all this time would be hard to bring. If the minor even had the guts to go against the family line of forgiveness and do it.

Just. I. No. Words. Really. How can ANYONE in this day and age say "hey cool, you swept a serious problem under the rug and acted like all was great" is good parenting. And that God would like it. I know we can't speak for God. But any higher power I personally believe in would totally not be cool with checked out parents who were too busy famestrumpeting and popping out babies to take care of a very real, serious problem in their own home. I seriously have to wonder if JB knew the state trooper would overlook the serious nature of the situation and that is why he went to that particular guy.

I just had the most horrible thought. Compared to the scandal going on over at a TLC show (Discovery owns TLC), Elliott's drug addiction is almost tame. Oooh he was hopped upon heroin, oh dear. That's bad. FIVE TLC/Discovery shows have had sexual molestation scandals. That is horrible.

Referring to the girls as cash cows, no matter how generic the term, this is still a bad use of the term in this context. Hey, you are already devalued in your own religion. Now we don't even think of you as a human being but just as a money generator. Why not just flat out call them hookers? These girls have been exploited enough by their OWN DAMN FAMILY and by TLC. Leave them alone. Fox News has a story on how this is the 5th show that TLC/Discovery has that a molestation scandal has come out. Umm, not a very good record considering most other channels have ZERO molestation scandals. At some point, the money train will stop because advertisers will consider the whole channel toxic. Might be time to consider what is willing to be shown on tv in pursuit of rankings. I've long held that any parent who puts their kid on a reality show, that decision should be considered in a custody decision when the inevitable divorce happens. Not that any divorces will happen in Duggarland. Nor will those girls suddenly get "normal" lives if the cameras go away. If anything, the cameras may have protected them a bit. Nobody wanted anything really bad to possibly wind up on camera. And they can edit to finally show the truth when the crew is pissed enough (hello Elliott on Deadliest Catch). Now with the cameras and outsiders gone, who is going to keep an eye that this family doesn't sweep more stuff under the rug? Not really surprised that Michelle did nothing about this. Remember when one of her kids fell into the orchestra pit? Laughed and took pictures. Kid with his head stuck in the banister -- laughed and took pictures. Kid lost in the airport? Never noticed. Josie seizing? Not even around. This is a woman who is too busy proclaiming how great a mom she is to actually parent.

Statute of limitations are set differently for each crime. They are from the date of occurrence or discovery of the crime. Not when reported, when the crime happened or someone knew or should have known about the crime. So from the minute Josh touched those girls and the parents knew about it, the SOL began to run. By the time they even went to the State Trooper, one year of the SOL was gone. It has been speculated that he would have been charged with 4th degree sexual assault. This is not the same as what we consider rape, which would be first degree sexual assault. The lower on the scale from first on down, the lower the statute of limitations. So 3 years sounds about right for the lowest form of sexual assault. Assault means any unwanted touching. You can touch someone's shoulder with your finger and it could be construed as assault. Wording of statutes also matter. Yes, sexual assault of a minor might have a longer SOL, but only if committed by an adult. Josh himself was a minor at the time. A lawyer listserv I am is debating the wording of the Arkansas statute at this moment, It seems even 4th degree might not apply because it specifically refers to adults touching a child. 3rd degree might have been better, but even then there has to be more than 3 years ago difference in the kids. They might not have been able to fit what he did into the definition of a crime even if the SOL had not run. Still makes it wrong, but sometimes the law just does not fit the sitution and it needs to be handled outside the legal system. Like real counseling, not Gothard shaming culture.

Alison Arngrim who played Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie is all over this on her twitter feed. For those of you who have not read her book - she was sexually molested by her brother for years. She never told her parents at the time, but she just begged them to not leave her alone with him. It was the 70s. Nobody was thinking of this at the time. She went public years later. Her parents believed her and were sorry they did not protect her. He brother is proud of what he did. EWWWWWWWW. So yeah, she is supporting the victims and wishing that Josh got help.

I just can't get over Josh calling this is a "mistake" and God forgives. Where is there "God forgives" and people make mistakes attitude when they are screaming about how anyone who doesn't live exactly like they do is going to Hell? Everything everyone esle does is a sin, but the Duggars make "mistakes." Everyone else is going to Hell but God forgives the Duggars. I'd feel a little more sorry for this family if they had been a little more tolerant of others.

Wow, this is what you get when you keep a whole family together 24/7 with no outside contact. With hypersexualized parents who shove it in your faces regularly. Where else is a healthy young man to go for sexual experimentation? He certainly isn't going to learn about it in the boy's locker room. The only outlet he had was his sisters. Which is still wrong, but he needs help to understand. I always wondered if Jana was exlcuded from courting because of something happening with Gothard. Now I think it was much before that due to her own brother. And of course, she's "damaged goods" that no decent man would want. At least according to their views. All those kids need serious therapy and get away from their terrible parents and their restricting beliefs.

DAMMIT. I had a headache last night and missed this. It better be online somewhere.

You mean they acted like professionals and did their fricking jobs? They were grown up to recognize the difference between themselves and the charcters they played on tv? That's no fun.

ASbsolutely wild theory: JimBoob turned in his son in 2005 for something the rest of us consider normal, kissing, hugging, whatever. Why? Because it was another form of control of his child. You behaved in a way that I the head of household consider wrong, now you must be punished. Nothing happened because the rest of the world is sane compared to the Duggars. The fundies shunned JB because they saw was a moron he was and dangerous to the cause. No one blaed Josh because his dad was an idiot. Fast forward to 2015 and the story comes out. Who did it? Well, Josh has been acting more independent. Even liking his FRC job and showing he is not coming back to Arkansas and living under JB's thumb anymore. So JB leaks the story. He hopes it will get more attention and cost Josh his job. Thereby giving Josh no choice but to slink back to Arksansas so JB can show how right he is once again that leaving his authority only leads to woe. Considering how competitive JB is and how much attentionJosh gets apart from being just 1 of 19, I can see JB's insecurities taking over. "Oh my goodness, my son is going to overshadow me, must stop this now." So he does something like this.

Pretty sure BusyOctober was being sarcastic. As in "only women in prison could be hot for Josh." Just to say, I find him a jerk personality wise, but looks wise, I wouldn't kick him out of bed.

Is anyone surprised that there are backstage problems related to ego? These are actors we are talking about here.

Breaking the rule again: I googled Elliott and he got busted for undersized crab again in January. So back on the boat. At least we don't have to see it. I feel most sorry for his dad. His dad tried so hard to make things work. but you just can't with an addict. And an idiot. If Elliott were just an addict I would hope he gets help and gets his life together. But geing the raging douchenozzle he is, I am just glad I don't have to put up with him anymore. Oh and you think women swooning over Josh is bad? Ehh, he's at least clean cut, bathes occassionally, isn't violent, isn't an addict. There are women swooning over Elliott. But then guys on Death Row get love letter so there is no accounting for taste.

Do we need any further proof Josh is only there for the cameras? No, I am not sending my crab boat out to catch crab, I'm going to have my boat sitting in port. Sure there are expenses associated with going out. But there are expenses associated with sitting in port too. Guess which one has the chance of offsetting those expenses? He has a plan and wants to save. Keith was so right about how you can't save if you are barely paying your bills. Remember, Keith was $3 in debt at one point and has mostly climbed out. He may be all the way out. Sure Disco money and merchandising helped. But there is a reason those boats are out 11 months out of the year. Going to break my rule about Elliott. Just to say ewwwwwwwww. There are girls on twitter posting "Hang in there, I still think you are hot. Call me." EWWWWWWWW. Have they seen this guy? And how he treats the women in his life? Sweetie you aint' gonna be any different. He was a danger to himself and everyone else on that boat. So glad he is off the show. Now I don't have to even think about him anymore. Huge Congrats to Jake A. But Sig, he is already a man. He has grown up so much on this show.

Peter King noted that Kraft is 73 and probably did not want to go out like Al Davis -- suing the league to the end. Plus, Kraft has always put the League first. He just got mad because his loyality wasn't rewarded. I'm sure he and Goodell talked it out like adults and reached a deal that made everyone happy.

Which is so damn stupid. God is so dumb he/she/it/they can't tell acting from actually cheating on your spouse? And quite frankly if it is that big a deal -- don't be an actor. There are lots of other jobs out there. You don't have to act if being "faithful" to your spouse is so important.

I call BS on they ran out of fairy tales too. Bitsie Tulloch said something about how much she loved the show because there were over 500 fairy tales to cover. They haven't even touched on a fraction of those. There are LOTS of stories to still tell. THey just prefer to try their attempt at BIG ARCS where they suck, instead of looking at the world from a different angle. They prefer DARK and EDGY to just exploring this world that is our world, just with some people in it we didn't know existed. Remember the retirement community for aged wesen? How did that come about? Remember the conflict with the bears wanting to be traditional in a modern world? Heavens even Nick trying to be a new kind of Grimm who understood Wesen weren't automatically deserving of getting their heads cut off? Goodness so much more to explore there but instead we get Royals doing something vague, Adalind getting pregnant again, and Juliette turning evil. I want this show to last for a long time. My network tv pickings are getting slimmer and slimmer. Please writers, go back to what you do best -- the fairy stories in the modern world. You got years of material there.

Oh Glee would be a beautiful behind the scenes tell all. The guy who played Puck dated Naya Rivera for awhile. They broke up. She keyed his car. EXCUSE ME??? You only play high schoolers, you are not actually high schoolers.

Except they are telling the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. (You don't say so help me god anymore). Which makes this so darn funny.

Well it's a little hard to pay child support from jail, but yes, child support is theoretically ordered. The TVLine article definitely stated it was Chavez on the phone with Theresa so no Kelly suddenly coming back. Although, I do have to wonder if she is really truly dead too. I want to hear from the Lollipop Guild here.