Churchhoney

I hope it, too, but I don't think it'd actually happen in a million years, unfortunately. I'm afraid the whole point of reality tv is to keep costs down as low as possible, don't you think? The crapweasels might even welcome illness as a plot point. And I wish I were kidding!

Yeah, an employer group will be cheaper. Costs can be spread among the group, which helps because in any pre-formed group only a few people are likely to be really big spenders in any given year. Plus, insurers have learned that people with fulltime, regular gainful employment tend to be among the healthiest people in society as are their dependent families. ... Of course, bigger employer groups get the best deals, because the cost spreading is easiest for a big group. FRC is relatively small, so they'd have a medium-sized payment. Much less than an individual or a very tiny business would pay, but more than a huge company would pay.

For a family of six maybe $18,000 to $20,000 a year or thereabouts, I'd guess. Kids are less expensive to insure, but births run it up.

I'm sure they do by now because it's been happening to them since the beginning!

I would be very very very surprised if they didn't continue paying for the Smugs' insurance through the pregnancy, birth and early infancy. Under the circumstances, the last thing they wanted was to give anyone an excuse to brand them with hypocrisy that could be compared to Smugs' hypocrisy. They were well aware of the media crapstorm they would have faced had there been some baby-related medical crisis and their many critics had found out that the self-righteous, pro-life, pro-family group had dropped health insurance coverage for a young mother with a baby on the way, when she was already a betrayed spouse. They're ideological crazies but they're also savvy beltway players and not stupid hick cheapskates like Jim Bob. Women with graduate degrees work there. Their top consideration when Smugs left had to be how they could make everyone forget their involvement with him as quickly as possible. If they'd stopped covering Anna's health care, they would have needlessly risked a health crisis for her that could -- and would -- have been quickly tied back to their actions. And a story like that, which would have had real legs in the media, would have emphasized their relationship to Smuggar, not helped it get lost in the mists of time, as they certainly hoped for. I'd bet real money that forestalling that eventuality was worth the 10 or 15 thou it cost them to continue the Smugs' insurance till well after the birth.

That was good. But of course she only had that because Maryland doesn't allow the other kind and is a state well known for strict oversight of health care. I'm sure some lurk about in Maryland, but a relatively short-term resident like Anna probably couldn't have turned one up, since I expect they lie low and you have to use your connections to contact them.

Well, here it is, anyway. He starts by saying that it's not often that men get to talk with men about sexual lust. ..... Where has he been? Then a quick followup showing that he definitely has something in common with Jinge. He, too, became aware at age 5 that he was a monstrous sinner. Really.

God doesn't care about this, you know.

Well, she says she wasn't writing a "sponsored add." Didn't say anything about not writing a "sponsored ad," though.

Wise move. Friends don't let friends watch Chuck Vuolo's sermons.

If they did, though, wouldn't that just be temporarily making the Duggars look way better than they are as a false PR ploy? It's not as if having somebody else dress you for one photo shoot is going to change your approach to dress, so it wouldn't be educating them. We've certainly seen that with Michelle. And heard plenty even from the kids that show how unlikely it is that they can be influenced for the better or educated by anything done by someone from the "outside world." Dressing any of them, even Jinger, for an hour of photography in non-Duggar clothes would just be, again, using false appearances to normalize their shit so the public doesn't notice what it really is, seems to me. So let the little brainwashed one wear whatever ugly crap her Duggar heart desires. That represents the true Jinger, apparently, and it is reality TeeVee, after all.

It does kinda look that way. If you listen to dad's sermons, though, you get a vibe that looks kinda laid back but in substance is totally into male dominance and kinda antediluvian. .... I guess I've mentioned this before, but clearly educated and intelligent people like these two who buy into this "biblical gender roles" and patriarchy thing actually drive me a lot crazier than idiots like Jizm Bob who embrace it. Because the smarter ones seem to have so little excuse for flying in the face of all evidence and all justice, really.

Yep to all this. I've learned over time, though. Never come here before early-day caffeine or late-day alcohol. ; )

Jana seems noticeably missing here. I do wonder why TLC wouldn't have conjured up some little plot line for her, since six of the ones that are here are really a whole lot of nothing and seem designed just to make sure that all the older kids that people supposedly want to watch are present and accounted for. Maybe they figured that the Jana the Builder plot line of the last series was her moment in the sun?

Yep. Do as I say not as I do! Of course there's still the possibility that the bedroom screen is the household surveillance system. Or JB and M's version of a mirrored ceiling. Or both. : )

I think you've got it. Apparently it's a very common thing with women in group photographs. I've seen it called stuff like "the sorority crouch." I guess it's women trying to be accommodating for the photo. .... But imagine men doing this. I can't. I'm all for being a nice person, but I think we need to stop with the crouching and claim our right to be as tall and outsized as anybody else. The crouch is too much a sign of "woman's place" through history and today. .... Super symbolic that we keep seeing it in Duggs' pictures, of course.

But luckily in Gothard land women and second- and third-generationers aren't allowed to have friends. Whew! Jesus' favorite style icon is safe.

Double jointed?

I'm of two minds about this. Thinking it's possible DumDum JB is so stupid that when you change a penis for a pickle, he's too dumb to make the metaphorical leap. Sort of in the vein of DumDum Michelle's "Feet aren't sexual!" comment.

Easter rabbit will be easy, though,.

If they fatten them up, it'll be harder for them to run away.

To prove to Jim Bob that he's already been effectively emasculated?

Speaking of seen and not seen.... Did somebody issue Jim Bob an invisibility cloak or something? Refreshing not to see his hideous mug, at least.

Jer -- the new Marjorie. He's got the "describe my life in the terminology of a tv-series teaser" thing right down pat. (with less crazy-eyed enthusiasm, however)

Blessed are the meek. But more blessed are the pushy. Meek people are never the stars of the moment.