Churchhoney

I don't think any of them has a plan B for life outside of having a fanbase, at this point.

Except to the Duggars, including Josh and all the rest of them, who know that job one for the entire family right now is to get the heck back on television. (absurd as that ambition now is) Since the public means money and fame, we may in fact be the only people who do matter to many of the Duggars (Josh, JB, M, maybe Jessa come to mind).

"Viewing pornography over the internet" is the new "inappropriate touching." Masters of understatement, the Duggars.

A friend of mine said yesterday that "Ashley Madison" sounded like a brand of yuppified clothing sold mainly at K-Mart. Sounds about right to me.

Here's an account of how Ashley Madison works. It's pretty much the same as any other dating site, except that it's supposed to be restricted to married people looking for other married people: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/11542100/Everything-you-need-to-know-about-Ashley-Madison.html The currently exposed data is on what's called the dark web. So initially you could only look at it if you use a web browser called Tor, which disguises your IP address. So only techies could really look at it in the early going. But if you used a Tor browser, you could just to in and search the list for names you were interested in, just as you'd do with any other list online. Among users of the dark web are some reporters, since it's a place where leakers and whistleblowers and such can communicate without having their whereabouts and identities easily traced. So I assume that some reporter went in and searched for names that would be fun to find on the list -- and, not surprisingly, "Josh Duggar" was among the names the person searched for. (I know I would.) There are certainly names that would show up in that search when people hadn't actually used the site because a lot of people certainly signed up with aliases, including aliases belonging to famous people. But the hackers have also exposed the credit-card information. I'm sure a lot of people paid with pre-paid cards that you can't really trace, but if somebody used credit cards that are actually traceable to them, then it's highly likely that, yeah, they did use the site. Josh D seems to fall into that category, using cards that are traceable to not one but two of his actual addresses. It seems unlikely that somebody trying to entrap him or perpetrate a hoax would or could manufacture that much payment information that ties directly back to his addresses just on the off chance that someday someone actually would reveal the Ashley Madison data, which the company certainly did try to keep secret. So there doesn't seem to be much doubt that he actually was on the site. (Incidentally, making him one of the dumber and more arrogant people on the site -- just as usual for him.)

Now that you mention it, it strikes me that this account of his mistress hunting is pretty much the same of the process in which he got married to Anna. He was working on engagements before her, and at his young age. And she was livin 1000 miles away during a lot of their "courtship," I believe, so the time they spent getting to know each other had to be fairly minimal.I don't think people and, especially, women are real enough to Josh (or Jim Bob and Michelle maybe, either) for him ever to bother clicking with them or to get carried away. Women are just meaningless means to the end of getting his perpetual itch scratched or getting him hooked in with a SAHM. His purposes. His wants. And what woman it is is immaterial. Just like in the Ashley Madison profile -- it can be short hair, long hair, business woman, casual jeans girl. No matter. She's just an itch-scratcher anyway. It's all just more of the Duggar no-empathy trait. Other people just are not real to him. And women, in particular, are not real. I'm still waiting for "Gay Marriage Made Me Do It: The Josh Duggar Story."

Good grief. You mean he wanted that in a mistress, too? His stupidity and arrogance quotients just keep on rising.

How true. But I think Josh may be terminally arrogant.

My guess is that the Duggs have been madly consulting with Huckabee's PR guy, and right now Josh is sitting down with his ghost writer -- David Waller -- to tell his harrowing story in a book titled "Gay Marriage Made Me Do It."

Yeah, it's terrible that they don't see the keys hanging right within reach. But I'm pretty sure they don't. They're so programmed. I keep hoping that the programming has failed in somebody's case, but there's sure been no evidence of that. A hyper-controlling upbringing really messes with your will. And when you've been kept ignorant of just about everything as well, that's pretty deadly. I know many people say we shouldn't talk about anybody in this kind of situation being brainwashed because it doesn't give enough credit to the fact that they're autonomous and may have decided to do exactly what their parents want and see things exactly their parents' way. But the plain truth is that it's just as likely if not more so that they are not making autonomous decisions at all. Brainwashing of children that lasts into and through adulthood is perfectly possible and happens all the time. Given all the guilt stuff we've heard from Jinger and the dead eyes thing we see in Jana and the apparent increasing deflatedness of Joy, I'd say they're very good candidates for having had this happen. Unless something really really drastic impels them, I doubt that an of them really has the ability to move on her own.

Probably not as long as you keep paying for programs. It's a personal piggy bank, after all.

Maybe it's just simple arrogance (combined with stupidity). He sure as heck came across as an arrogant little piss-ant in the Kids and Moving special, which happened pretty much in the midst of the molestation mess. If he could come across then as arrogant, haughty and apparently convinced that the world was his oyster and his dark secrets would never come to light, it seems as if he could make the same arrogant assumptions at any other time. Not least when getting the FRC job may have inflated his ego even more.

I wonder if practice makes progress with this.

Oh, good. Now JB and M can pitch a show with a double focus -- sexual-abuse recovery and sex-addiction recovery. Now that second one is something that Jim Bob really does know about!

To whatever extent JB and M failed to completely mess up their kids, being on reality tv finished the job and stuck some icing, whipped cream, sprinkles and a cherry on top. Seems to me her current feelings -- engendered by her tv "stardom" in our stupid age of instant, unearned celebrity -- set Jessa up for long-lasting frustration and disgruntlement. Unfortunate that her experiences clearly coincided with some natural tendencies to turn her into an entitled bitch.

The article: "Jessa would have liked to have had the same sort of platform to give thanks, show what a miracle she feels her child is and express her gratitude," the source continues. But with the cancellation of 19 Kids in May, "the show isn't there to chronicle this happy time, and even though she's posting on social media, the scandal still gets brought up by commenters. So much has changed for Jessa compared to what Jill experienced, and it can't be changed back. And that's sad for her." Give me an effing break. She's all about the Jesus, but she needs a frigging TV platform to "give thanks," "show what a miracle she feels her child is," "express her gratitude"??? As I recall, Jesus said something quite pointed about praying in secret in your damn closet because your Father in heaven will always hear you. Those who don't do that, said Jesus -- about whom Jessa would have us believe she knows pretty much everything -- are "hypocrites," the ones who stand and pray in the synagoges and on the street corners, so they can be SEEN. And he wasn't even aware of mass media. Talk about "being seen." The mass social media she's constantly broadcasting on isn't even enough for her. She's got to have television. Imagine how unsatisfying she'd find mere synagogues and street corners. They aren't a tv family, she's said. But somehow the coming of her first child somehow just isn't so special since a tv show isn't around to "chronicle the happy time." Good grief. Ignoramus who knows nothing about the religion she's busy declaring is going to send billions of us to Hell. Whiner about something that she believes is due her but that fewer that .0000001 percent of the population gets, and that she did nothing to deserve except to be born to two completely unethical famewhoring idiots. And talk about a hypocrite. Every breath she's taking here contradicts the gospels that she's supposedly madly devoted to and competent to harangue other people about. Disgusting behavior on numerous levels. And I suppose she's stupid enough to think that her second-hand whining willl win her public sympathy. Man, she is the second coming of Jim Bob. I feel sorry for her children.

Amen to this for all future Duggars. I also hope that Jessa's first dozen are boys.

Because they've so successfully dissuaded the kids from knowing anything or finding anything out or encountering anyting that their parents have not pre-screened, Jinger and all the rest of them must be very short on the mental tools you need to plan and execute or even to clearly imagine an escape, unfortunately. When Faith Pennington -- the no-birth-certificate girl -- famously escaped, she had to beg and beg her grandparents, who were already leery of the family situation, it seems, for sanctuary. But the Duggars are short on potentially helpful relatives, who mainly seem to have been coopted or to be at a distance. You have to be prepared to do most of what needs to be done on your own. And when someone has been as carefully isolated as they have, with pretty much every movement programmed by JB and M and spies everywhere, it's not clear how anybody would get the wherewithal to take what would be for them a tremendous leap. If Jinger's response to stress really is not eating, she's becoming unhealthy, too, and weakness won't be helpful. It's tragic.

Wonder whether UP will show BG at the wedding. It's a Christian network and he's a big part of their form of Christianity (not that he ought to be, but still....)

Yeah, I think that's probably right. And you could stop with "I don't think she has any empathy." So much for the "servant's heart" and "Do unto others." Honestly, though, I sort of conjecture that she herself isn't happy either (despite the husband she thinks is hot, the new baby, ads on her website), since I have a hard time imagining a truly happy person writing a bunch of instagram posts that damn billions of people to hell. That sounds more like bitter and vindictive than happy, to me. I suppose she imagines that's happiness, though, since it's so in the family line.

I'm really torn on this one. I completely agree that Jessa should be able to escape, and I'm glad for any of them to escape. But if I were Jessa, I'd feel really bad for my near-twin-sister left behind and try to do what I could for her. They did credibly claim to actually like each other in the past, I believe. Of course, we don't know that Jessa doesn't do this. (since, like all the Duggars, she has such as "servant's heart" and all. .... yeah, right.) I mean, there's getting what's due you -- and in this case it's escape -- but there's also doing the ethical and kind thing for somebody you were close to for years and who hasn't been as lucky as you. I hope Jessa does still spend time with Jinger. (Don't buy that Jessa is too busy with other friends, though, as has been suggested. I don't think we've ever seen any evidence of their existence -- in the past or today. And plenty of evidence from the whole family that they're prevented as much as possible from developing any outside friendships. The family has helper suck-ups, but that's about it. And I wonder what will happen to most of the helper suck-ups as the fame and money dissipate.)

Yes, because all the boys will be flailing about trying to make a living, with their no educations, no training, no job experience, no work ethic, no comfort with the outside world and their years and years and years of imbibing JB and M's stupid toxic worse-than-useless parental "advice". Poor slobs. They're going to have their share of struggles, especially if they purpose to follow their horrible father down the hyperfertility trail, as he never stops suggesting.

Is it just me or is Jinger's smile kinda scarily eye-popping and manic? .... Hiding her real feelings? or Pepsi addiction?

Top advertiser: Coke

Maybe they all went to the wedding? All we saw on the bus was Jinger. She must have had a busload. There'd probably be lots of other kids there, right?