Churchhoney

What the hell can they possibly help people with? Even if they weren't unutterably misguided, ignorant and stupid, on their shows they never do anything or actually say anything. What can anyone possibly expected to learn from watching people heat frozen lasagna, walk on kitchen counters and repeat the exact same platitudes over and over and over for more than a decade?

Well, I think they said something like that once, by reports. But I looked into Arkansas school laws at one point and, if by "actual high school diploma" we mean diploma awarded by the state, there's no way she could have one. Arkansas doesn't permit school districts to award those to homeschooled people, under any circumstances. If she has something, it must mean that they paid for her to attend a private online school of some sort and she got a diploma from them or maybe they joined some cooperative homeschooling group that awards diplomas -- some groups award those simply on the parents' say so, for example, while others have some requirements you have to fulfill. She doesn't appear to have attended any school, private or public, outside of her home, so the options for her having a diploma are actually pretty limited. The "private online school" may be the most likely.

Well, you know, sometimes what's on the outside reflects what's on the inside. And Derick's been living in the Dumpster of Duggardom for a good two years now. I guess the countenance reflects the soul.

I expect there's a very heavy Duggar leghumper crowd in VA. It's got a highly active, very very fundie homeschooling association, to whom the Duggars have been heroes, at least in the past, and it's the seat of Mike Farris, who helps keep that group on the boil. I expect that Jim Bob has great appeal to a lot of those people. At the same time, Virginia is a completely purple state and as generations change and pretty Democratic Northern Virginia continues to grow more populous, conservatives are in great danger of losing their influence in the state. So getting out the vote among the fundies has to be very important to the Virginia GOP.

I guess because it's the only thing the little tape recorders inside their heads can say. If I do something good, Jesus actually did it. That's why nobody deserves to be praised for their successes, such as athletic or academic triumph, for example. Not their doing. God's. (tm Preacher Bin) Contrariwise, if I do something bad, Satan did it. So don't blame Josh! (tm All the Duggars) Makes you wonder why those spiritual powers bothered with having human beings at all , since we have no agency whatsoever. What a dumb universe they want us all to live in. .... Although I guess this view makes it a lot easier for the lazy, stupid and venal. Satan's the cause of everything bad you might do and effort or thought are never praiseworthy. So just chill and drink your Starbucks.

OMG. She desperately needs counseling from a non-crazy person. And she'll never get that, poor idiot. How horrible this is, if true. And given the delusional nature of her "friends" and relations, I expect it is true.

Yeah, that would be my reservation, too. I think he's the sort who probably would pay for it. He seems to have some ambitions for his kids, and he seems to have paid for schooling before. But they seem to have a financial struggle. And of course a bunch more kids coming along behind ...

If he gets a bible-believing degree! So far all we have is a rumor of one online course. And he's probably starting at or nearly from scratch with the religion courses, since his community college degree was either in business or something related to political science .... (or both. ha) If he has to be Jessa's day help every time she's pregnant, plus do filming and clean Jim Bob's sewage chambers, it's going to be a while before he cobbles together even another associates' degree. A long while, I'm thinking. Even if he got it, though, I have a hard time seeing him getting a job with it unless the education process really improves him. Hard to see him being flexible and warm enough to really work well with a bunch of kids; working with kids also tends to require hard work, mentally, physically and emotionally, and that's not down the Duggar alley; he's always madly trying to be someone he's not by impersonating someone hip and cool -- which doesn't go over well with kids; he seems to live to pontificate -- which doesn't go over well with kids either; and he doesn't even pontificate clearly -- usually what he says makes no sense. And those are just a few of his non-qualifications, seems to me. I would think most anybody would have better candidates for the job.

Wonder if Dad Seewald would pay for it?

Many are kind of stretchy. Presumably they help hold an erection. You don't keep them on all the time! You just put them on when you're about to start something. Some of them are constructed so as to have contact with a woman in a way that she might enjoy, shall we say. For example, some vibrate. End of that conversation! (I'm not a nurse. : ) )

"Act like you're studying, kids. I'm just going to grab a picture." Because photographing our families in the dentist's waiting room is just what so many of us do. ... So many of us who view every family photo not as a fun memory but as a piece of valuable promotional material to ensure that we'll remain on television, that is. This is what drives me absolutely crazy. Those kids are constantly coached to do things that have the sole purpose of buttressing the family's damned "brand." They've been treated like props and not like people for their whole lives, and it just goes on and on. That's what is driving me INSANE about this new show. Because by now I'd expect at least one of the 18-and-overs to have noticed that he or she isn't living a real life but is merely a performing seal and to have accordingly, if quietly, withdrawn from participation. But they're clearly all in. And, yeah, I get that they're desperate for cash. But why hasn't even one of the 18 and overs noticed that 99.99999999999999 percent of humanity are getting their cash from something other than reality television and thought about trying that so they can stop the eternal lying about every action, every feeling, everything in their pitiful manipulated lives. But nope. They're all continuing with their pasted-on-cum-Photoshopped smiles.

I thought it was all because they're such powerful effective warriors for Jesus that Satan spends his whole temptation budget on them and barely glances at other people. I picture them with thousands of the devil's minions throwing temptations at them from all directions, 24-7. I mean, other people might get to put bananas in their grocery carts, but when the Duggars and company try it, the bananas turn into an enticing bunch of penises, standing up and waving colorful flavored condoms and cock rings at them. And when Satan's working overtime on you, knowing he'll lose his earthly dominion if you're not there to battle on behalf of Jesus, you'd better believe you need extra-special, watertight wedding vows and a fellow warrior or two fighting beside you as you march down the aisle at Aldi's.

I don't know. All that sounds suspiciously like actual work. I thought work was just the stuff they pretended to do so that they could stay on television.

Hey, maybe he could be a spokesmodel for Binadryl. I suppose I shouldn't give them ideas.

Yeah, I'm guessing the same. It's kind of like the difference between playing the piano and being a concert pianist. Still a mystery, though, since they seemed to go on to say that she's selling those cars. So she's what? Hanging around somebody's sales lot and cleaning up the stock as a volunteer? Or am I misleading myself by imagining that there's a tiny grain of truth in each of these stories? Probably.

Restoring automobiles is hard work. Did you ever try to lift a car door?

Well, usually you have the question or problem on one side and the right answer on the other. So you can drill yourself. And since drilling yourself is probably the Duggars' main, if not only, actual mode of education, he's probably doing that, don't you think? .... (Well, he's probably just daydreaming in a bored fashion. But it appears that he's supposed to be drilling himself...Not in the, you know, dental way, but ... NVM)

Ah, but you'd call Jana to design and build your house, right? Including the electrical? For people who appear to do absolutely nothing, they've developed an impressive list of professional skills. I mean, Jinger restores cars. Who knew? And who knew that they were so down with women developing traditional male job skills like construction boss and mechanic? It's all so transparently FU Internetz. We do too have skills and important jobs in the community. We are not sexist in awarding jurisdictions. And then on the show they sit on the couch and bat around coy questions and coyer answers about who'll next be "courting."

Those are really good and interesting points. Especially interesting that they pin so much on a prayer that isn't directly out of the Bible and also can vary between these oh-so-by-the-letter churches/believers, since, as far as I can tell, utterances very very similar to that particular prayer are part of worship in pretty much all of the churches that they condemn as wrongheaded. For example, this from the Catholic mass-- "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed." It says pretty much the same thing, as far as I can tell. ... And similar things everywhere -- all the different creeds, for example. Why they think they're so different in this belief really escapes me.

A disgrace but not a surprise, I'd say. His parents couldn't care less about math, education or their kids. They're just two massive egos careening about the world, with not one whole adult brain between them to guide the movement, and crushing whatever lies in their path -- notably their NINETEEN damned children. It's plain evil to have raised these kids the way they have, but they've practically been sainted for it as the TeeVee continues to celebrate their "inspirational" family. And he actually looks kind of confused to learn that 5 + 0 = 5. I thought Jesus took care of all of those.

Thanks! That's pretty much what I thought. Somebody up above, though, said that the "lordship" language meant that the guy's mom was not being converted but only rededicated, whereas I thought that the guy was being rededicated but that the way she was described could mean that she had been converted from Catholicism or whatever into the "accepting Jesus as your personal savior" Christianity branch. .... I guess we still have no answer about whether they thought that was a conversion, though, since there doesn't seem to be a consensus here about whether the "lordship" word gets used for that. And of course we have no idea which side of that fence the Dulls come down on. I think I'll stick to my story that they did describe one conversion very early on -- the mom -- but don't seem to have described one since! Which is interesting.

Yeah, I think you make an excellent point. I completely agree that this -- and other things, notably the rotten underhanded insane ways in which JB and M probably brainwashed them, ways that are crazy subtle and probably not even imaginable by people who haven't undergone similar things -- certainly shape what they're doing here. Normally, I'm the first and main person who lists all the things that condition them to stay in this situation and not try to do anything different and express my sympathy for their plight! I guess it's the massive crazy-ass ridiculous falsification that we're seeing in the lead-up to and promos for this new show that really pushed me over the edge at this point. That, and the fact that they all at least appear to be going along with what's now clearly a pile of false crap. It's this complete devotion to falseness that strikes me as the most damaging thing about reality tv -- and, to me, that seems especially damaging, horribly damaging, maybe, to people who've been raised the way they have, in a cult and a family that both force them to falsify everything. That psychological damage, plus the possibility -- to my mind, the extreme likelihood, actually -- that their embrace of this damned tv show threatens them with an even worse future than they'll have otherwise, including a future with more poverty (because, to me, the longer they stay on tv the more their future inability to earn money is going to sneak up on them, and the less time they'll have to prepare for it.) Anyway, those things seem so dangerous to me that it absolutely makes me furious. Furious especially, as always at JB, M, TLC, BG, etc., who've driven and who are driving this whole mess. But by this point I'm also furious that not a single one of these damn kids has apparently seen any light at all. I feel as if they're walking blithely in front of a speeding train, even though it seems that surely one of them, at least, should have seen past the many things that conspire to blind them and pulled back. Their situation looks that desperate, to me, and it makes me feel desperate that none of them seems to see that. ... to me, they're walking into a horrible trap that's only going to worsen the rest of their lives. So I guess that's bad enough so that, at the moment, I've stopped caring about the very major reasons I do believe they have for being people who fall for this!

Speed reading: Not all it's cracked up to be, but often good for a laugh. Actually, given the level of arrogance and dominance he's long tried to project, I'd guess that his cowardly weenie is kinda small.

Courage and strength are not traits Josh has a lot of. Which is unfortunate when you were born and raised to be an arrogant little shit. Combination seldom ends well, I think. And I would guess that Josh is now living his ending -- which will go on until he succumbs to natural causes in his 70s or 80s, perhaps. It's not going to be a pretty life from here on out, I'm guessing. Cause he's an enormous cowardly weenie and not very smart?

It's better than Nashville. Or Birmingham. Or Little Rock.... Sinus? Gas? Acute?