Churchhoney

While I guess everybody misses the point that they're in Guatemala. Being photographed in a hammock is pretty much a requirement.

Maybe Boob pays Bin entirely in restaurant gift cards.

I expect Josh is really really good at compartmentalizing.

Pistol Pete and Nepal are probably the most fun Derick ever had. It's probably not surprising that he loves thinking about being Pistol Pete and cherishes hopes of working somewhere abroad as a half-missionary or whatever. .... At least he knows about some of life's pleasures in the real world and doesn't look as if he's committed to denying them to his children or to himself in the future if he can help it. It'll be uphill work in Duggardom to keep thoughts like that alive, but maybe he can.

He's not just a huge jerk. He's a huge stupid jerk. Because I really doubt that this would have been his intention, conscious or subliminal. He's a big loser on every level. But of course they pretty much all are.

I would, actually. I'd be afraid that if I put it any other way they might misunderstand what had happened. Michelle is still an annoying lunatic, however!

Her parents told her (and told her and told her and told her) that because she's a Duggar and they used Duggar methods, she and Ben knew each other better than any other young people on the verge of marriage ever ever ever know each other. They're just that speshul, thanks to JB and M! And of course that feeds Jessa's ego, and she's in possession of no other facts to compare the interpretation to, and she's stupid. So she believes it and spouts it on television (even though they're not a television family) for leghumpers to believe in their turn. Didn't watch, but I do kind of love it that the editing must have kind of called them out on this. I think that was made by somebody who's still traumatized from the mini-golf episode.

Maybe it's partly that they don't have as many areas in which to vent their competitiveness with each other as some other people do? I mean, a lot of people are very competitive and almost everybody likes to tell stories about some really tough thing they went through that might outstrip other people's tough times. You know, like parents and grandparents telling kids about how they didn't get driven to school in an SUV with heated seats but had to walk there in snow four feet deep -- and it was uphill both ways. And how when you tell a story about a horrible time you had with red-tape and craziness during a hospital visit your friends and family often come up with I-can-sure-top-that stories about their (purportedly) even crazier, red-tapier experiences. And so on. ..... I think it's clear that the Duggar sisters are terribly competitive with each other -- Poor slobs got virtually no individual attention from anybody in their lives, even the most beloved of them (like Jill?), so it's hard for me to blame them for this .... But then when they try to be competitive they really have very few ways to do it, either positive or negative. They can't brag about their school accomplishments or how often they cut class without being caught or how one was more bullied by playground meanies than the other or more disliked by the principal or anything like that. They've done virtually everything together -- and they haven't done much.... So maybe the labor stuff is one of the few places where their (kinda understandably) super-intense sibling rivalries come out?

I'm puzzled by why Josh would have so crazy to have this, given the risks to him from both a pregnancy with her and a potential STD with Anna. I've known a few people in the trade, too, and I've heard that some men say they really want condomless sex because they always use condoms with their girlfriends or whatever, and not using one is part of a fantasy they want fulfilled. .... That's obviously not the case with Josh. He never had to use a condom at his house. ... I suppose a reason could be that he's just a spoiled brat and didn't want to risk any diminishment of his pleasure. But it still makes me suspicious of the details of DD's story. Either she's lying about some details or she's as crazy and stupid as Josh and the Duggars are. Which I suppose wouldn't be surprising.

All I know is that, if Danica and Josh really didn't use a condom, they're both nuts.

The Duggars have company in support for their "children have no rights because parents have them all" stance. Here's the HSLDA position, expounded by, among others Doug Phillips, who went on from HSLDA to found Vision Forum, where the Seewalds hung out: 'The right to self-determine education is, of course, a direct threat to HSLDA’s specific form of homeschooling advocacy. HSLDA holds back little on this count: Klicka was forthright about the fact that, if children had rights, then they could say no to homeschooling — which Klicka would not tolerate. “If children have rights,” he said, “they could refuse to be home-schooled.”[ix] 'Thus to protect the ideal of homeschooling, Klicka denounced giving children rights. In fact, in a later article written on behalf of HSLDA by both him and former HSLDA attorney Doug Phillips, to “give children fundamental rights enforceable against their parents” was explicitly said to be a “threat.”[x] As Klicka and Phillips later define “fundamental rights” as rights such as “speech, press, religion,” one can deduce that HSLDA does not believe children should have rights to speech and religion enforceable against their parents. Indeed, the Washington Post has noted that two reasons HSLDA opposes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are “the group fears that ratifying the treaty would mean children could choose their own religion” and “a child’s ‘right to be heard’ could trigger a governmental review of any decision a parent made that a child didn’t like.”[xi] 'Klicka made this explicit in The Right Choice: Home Schooling. He explained that rights such as “freedom of expression,” “freedom of religion,” “freedom of association,” and “right to privacy” “would virtually undermine parents’ rights as we know it in the United States. Parents no longer would have the basic right to control [their children],” in particular “what church they attend.” Giving “children the fundamental rights of freedom of association, freedom of expression, freedom of religion,” and so forth is thus “in direct opposition to of [sic] those parents’ rights.”[xii]' http://homeschoolersanonymous.org/2015/12/17/why-hslda-finds-the-proverbial-village-threatening/

Here, among other places: http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/josh-duggar-cheating-affair-mistress-ashley-madison-danica-dillon-68130 'Josh was violent with her when they had sex, he did not use protection and gave her thousands of dollars after their encounters. Danica admits she “took the opportunity because Josh offered to gift [her] $1,500.”' The "unprotected sex" is one of the reasons I've wondered whether the details of this Dillon woman's story were exaggeration from the beginning. As you say, hookers use condoms..... The only things that make me think, well, maybe she's telling the truth about the no protection, is that she's a sex performer but from what I gather not officially operating as a prostitute, so she hadn't really thought the thing through? Or maybe she was desperate for money -- because "gift her $1,500" doesn't in the least sound like a hooker talking about a professional, well employed person she arranged a date with? Too little money... and 'gift her'? really? It's pay. Or maybe, realizing who he was, she figured she'd go along with this and then tell a story to the press to get a career boost or something? Doesn't really make sense to me at all, though.

It's cause "they're such a close family!" doncha know. Having millions of people take this 'mother of the year" with no boundaries as a sweet and godly role model just makes me sick. You'd think people would realize that having no boundaries isn't the sign of a caring parent. It's the sign of a parent who's incapable of caring at all. But that fact apparently doesn't penetrate into the skulls of her many drooling fans. That we may be close to seeing these poster people for dysfunction return to tv really makes me sick. Think about this trick of your mother's the next time you say that your family "are not tv people," dumb lying Jessa.

Derick's already spent two years in another country, though. So he probably knows how to navigate this. If she cooks food well, peels everything with peels and eats everything hot and fresh off the stove, they should be fine ... And you do generally get used to the bacteria in a new environment, over time. So if they stay long enough ....

Oh, well. Courtesy of Gothard and the "wisdom" books and Jim Bob's insanity, they also believe that black means white, up means down, back means front and wrong means right. What's a little more misinformation to a Duggar child?

And not just a bloated corpse but, I would bet big money, a bloated corpse who has absolutely no interest in his partner's pleasure, let alone her emotions. He's an utter selfish bastard and a lazy but arrogant oaf who may never have read a book and may never even have watched a movie that wasn't sneaked porn. And he's never looked very comfortable in his own skin either, to me, at least. As far as I know, such men tend to make very very crappy lovers. So ... no contest, as far as I'm concerned.

And the longer it is before self-reliance is forced on them -- and it will be -- the harder it'll be for them to buck up and learn it. And they'll have to learn it. I feel as if I've learned from my life and lives of those around me that when some hard-to-adjust-to thing is in the offing, delaying it only makes matters worse. Deepens the rut people are in and makes it harder to cope in the end.

I'm betting on some nights at least five.

What other people do is bad. What they do is A-ok.

Yeah, they're a thing. I asked this a while ago, and folks said yes. Then I googled and it looks like it's a trend maybe started by one restaurant (in Colorado, perhaps?) where they coated the dishes in fudge and froze them. And now they're doing it all over. This is one of those things that I can't imagine ever becoming a thing. ... If that crap is frozen, it's certainly going to melt eventually. And sometimes you go out to dinner in clothes you'd rather not have fudge all over.... And when something looks like fudge on a sundae, don't you often want it to be hot? And how could you eat that without getting the sauce all over your hands? It's a thing. It's insane. ...So i guess it's no wonder that the Duggars go with this trend every time they order dessert. Two-plus decades of constant practice, reinforced by some kind of hideous emotional manipulation every time you fail to do it.

Exactly. And the longer this damnable show stays on the air, the worse it gets for everyone. Not only have the kids been completely deluded (deprived, abused, manipulated, suckered) by their parents but they've been additionally deluded and warped -- to a huge huge degree -- by being on tv. Having the show gives them money and, maybe even worse, fame -- which warps everybody -- that they never would have had in real life and it also requires them to manipulate most of what they say and do into tv-ready commentary or teaser material. The apparent "necessity" in their home for such self-editing is a terrible terrible lesson that's right up there in warping potential with a bunch of the Gothard stuff. And the longer they stay on the air the less time they have in their lives to readjust to something like normal life, which they will have to do eventually. Between Jim Bob, Michelle, and the world of reality tv, including its audiences, 19 kids have been destroyed. And now they're going on to destroy a new generation. Sickening.

Of course, there are also the editing decisions. It seems pretty clear that the producers have always thought that the Duggar schooling was too boring, for example, and there were probably lots of other things they didn't show. Factual stuff mostly, maybe. .... So it's hard to know what they said or did that didn't get shot or got left on the cutting room floor. And of course there's other stuff that the producers put them up to doing. That's extended to world traveling, for the family as a whole, so there are certainly little things that are producer-invented as well.... The show goes for drama -- so I'm guessing that siccing a baby on a tutor and seeing Derick hop happily away from the house seemed like the dramatic, gossip-inducing stuff. And they were certainly right about that. TLC isn't in the business of a documentary here. I think that ratings considerations based on the demographics this show has mean they're in the business of making people look palatable and noncontroversial in a political/religious way but as juicy and controversial as possible in other ways. That would be the way to keep from alerting leghumper watchers to the fact that the Duggars' beliefs are truly out there while giving hatewatchers things to be outraged about and obsessed with. I wouldn't be surprised if the truth is a little less damning than has been implied. (not a lot less damning, probably, but a little)

And this is something that Josh has learned in the past few years as well. It's hard on them when they learn it. .... Lucky Jessa, by contrast, gets to hang out with Ben all day, and he probably can't make anybody feel inferior.

"Some animals are more equal than others." Just sayin.

I wonder how the focus on the young adults will affect the apparent main audience (not the hate watchers) of the show. Seems to me that many people were attracted by its being such a "wholesome' show about a big family that made them feel warm and fuzzy and the antics of the many many young kids that made them laugh. That it was a show that they felt good having young kids watch because it was so "wholesome' and "godly" but also fun and interesting because it was fun to see them packing 20 people for trips and so on. Will these same people be as enamored of a show about one baby eating an avocado and two idiots installing bed skirts and valances? ... Not to mention Anna talking about saving her marriage to a child-molesting cheater accused of violence against a sex worker? .... Wonder how that possible??? change of focus will affect the show's standings with the leghumpers when they begin the new full season of Jill and Jessa (But Not Really) in 2016?