PikaScrewChu

Jinger: "Uhhh... It is sad when people die. 😭😱😬😭💔 Now ummm... I got Felicity's latest bow from..."

"There were like Jews and stuff and like Hitler was trying to like kill them all and everything. And it was really sad. I will like, go into more detail but first lemme take a selfie."

There are some policies that are really outdated. Males not being able to donate if they've had sex with another male in the past 12 months or having sex with a male who has had sex with another male is one (technically if you are a female who has had sex with a man who has had sex with another man you are not supposed to donate either). On the other hand though I find that it's not nearly as accessible to donate as it should be. They only do blood drives at the college I work at twice a year now. The clinic turns away people by noon because they're out of time and supplies. The closest permanent clinic is quite a distance away. You're more likely to just go "eh, I'll do it" if it's right there. Especially with a very over-eager student body.

I used to donate regularly until I was barred because of low iron. I had depleted my iron stores from donating on a regular basis. It's been 4 years and I've fully replenished my iron stores but they're not willing to risk it again. I went with one of my friends for the first time. She did amazing until she went to get up. She fainted as soon as we went to go get our free cookies for donating. They've barred her from donating until she's goes through pregnancy. They called in a doctor and he said her body is more likely to compensate for lost blood after it has experienced pregnancy. They don't mess around if you're going to harm yourself from donating. I'm hoping to volunteer with a local chapter once life settles down because it is so important.

I don't think Austin would have married Joy without the D-List fame. Remember that the Forsyths immediately included her in the Fort Rock banner as soon as the courtship was announced. They were looking for a bride that could bring in more $$$ to their business. Had Joy been Joy Duggar the daughter of Jim Bob Duggar the Leech, she wouldn't have even been in the running. Rather she was Joy Duggar, one of the stars of TLC's Counting On. It was very much a business transaction on both sides, although it seems to have worked out? I'm still on the fence about Austin. The Burnetts are just very interesting in that we don't know much about them besides they are deep in the IBLP kool-aid, but let their daughters do NIKE things like nursing and wear pants. The dad isn't a pastor trying to hitch his wagon to JB nor is JRod heading off to try and park her RV in their driveway.

Oh definitely. The difference between them and the rest of the clan is that they are keeping their views to themselves and out of the public eye. Whether that is a good thing or not, you decide. It's very interesting the Burnetts have decided to remain quiet and not seek out publicity. The rest of the Duggar in-laws were salivating at the idea of being on the TeeVee and having a famous son/daughter-in-law.

I'm sticking to my theory that Abbie decided to go back to work after all.

Unfortunately I generally have a very good read on people in real life. Whether or not I listen to that read is a different story. It is nothing about been there, done that. You can glean a lot about human behavior by quietly observing. Had I been smarter I just would have gone to med school and became a psychiatrist. Instead I pursused whatever it is I'm doing right now...

Thank you, thank you. I won't be here all night but I've been a real bitch on wheels lately so zingers like that slip out every once in a while. I pointed it out to one of my (formerly) married friends that people who have the strongest relationships generally don't boast on social media about each other. She told me that I had no idea of dynamics of relationships and that social media behavior wasn't a good barometer of how relationships function. I said "Watch and observe". As soon as her marriage started to hit the shitter all of a sudden the #BestHubbyEver #LoveMyHubby posts started. I had it pinpointed down to the week when things started to go downhill. She confided in me a few months back that people had no idea how bad her marriage got in the last few years. I was like, oh I knew. I didn't have to be told. I just watched and listened as you over-compensated by telling us how great everything was and it was better than ever.

It just reeks of attention seeking behavior and wanting validation. Like, what do I say? "Maybe you should introduce him to soap and water"? "That's really gross and not all that funny"? It's the equivalent of Jill Dillard's #BestHubbyEver. My friends had to go searching to find pictures of the lad I'm seeing. We've kept it on the down low just because I may be moving now and long distance is not ideal. His mom figured it out last weekend what's been happening and she's not very happy. That's something I will deal with if it comes to it though.

I have a friend who is currently doing the "I HAVE A BOYFRIEND!!!111!!!!" shtick. She texts me pictures of him for no absolute reason and I'm constantly puzzled why. I get she's excited, but we're no longer 16. I've started ignoring and she hasn't gotten the message I don't care. The guy is not all that great and I don't care to engage with someone whom she is already having massive fights with.

With the exception of Giddy's nose, you could throw him at the TTH with the hoard of children and he would blend right in. How the GrandDuggars look more alike when put together in a group than their aunts and uncles is a bit baffling.

I'm looking at the court filing. InTouch sent their FOIA request May 15th and the city was required by Arkansas law to fulfill it by May 20th. An extension could have been granted but it's never a given that the government will grant the extension or that you will get ahold of the proper person who will get the government to grant you the extension. That is a very unrealistic timeline. Why 5 business days? InTouch knew what they were doing to bamboozle the police department to get the reports. There were some things that could have been redacted further. Joy's age is the one that stuck out. I'm not going back to the 34 pages to examine every single instance though. Realistically any sort of record that details sexual assault should not be released to the public whatsoever. But it circles back to that the documents were available to the public by law (as long as they were properly redacted) because JB and Michelle did not take the proper route of dealing with the situation from the beginning. I do think it was morally wrong to release the documents now that I've really had time to think about it these days. But was it legally wrong? Well, there's three people left standing in this lawsuit after a long list of defendants had the lawsuit dismissed against them. Just because something is morally wrong doesn't mean it's legally wrong.

New people heading to Love Island this week I am going to be watching now.

They couldn't sue InTouch and their employees without sueing the City of Springdale and all the individuals involved with the redacting process. It would have looked reeeeally bad had they only gunned for InTouch/Bauer Media. There were several individuals involved and the City of Springdale before it was whittled down to these three. The case against Springdale as a city was always going to be dismissed. There is some clause in Arkansas law about that. It was then a case of who was involved in the redacting process that could be held responsible for not properly redacting the information. Now it is down to these three people. Realistically I would have rather see them campaign for more strigent privacy laws and mandatory, comprehensive FOIA education for government employees. I will reiterate I am skeptical that there will be any meaningful change that comes out of the remainder of this lawsuit. It doesn't harm the city, county, or state in any shape or form. They have no initiative to change. Now it's just three meaningless individuals who were befuddled on how to handle such a request. No taxpayer money will be lost to the Duggars as a result. All the ones who had the power to change laws have had the lawsuits dismissed against them. It'll probably take happening to a bigger celebrity for such laws to actually change.

And if they fight it, the lawyer fees come out of the estate thus reducing the estate even further. Hopefully they've named a decent lawyer and not the one Josh always hires for his frivolous lawsuits.

Next week on a very special episode of Counting On...

They still continue to present their way as the godly model for Christianity. In their minds they "fixed" the issue. Meanwhile the family is more dysfunctional than the Kardashians. Their fan base still laps it up and here we are.

The scummy part is I suspect the bigwigs at TLC knew and carried on scripting the show as "family friendly". Granted it seems everyone associated with the Duggars is problematic at this point. It came out recently that the officiant at Benessa's wedding was accused of sexual assault of at least one of his siblings.

I've worked with some jurisdictions where the turn-around is less than a week to respond and send out the requested information. No exceptions. I can't remember what it was with Arkansas but there was no way they could have properly consulted with several experts in order to make sure that the information was adequately redacted in that time frame. I get why because FOIA requests generally aren't supposed to be for other people's information. Say you needed a police report to give your your insurance company and you need it in a timely manner. It prevents the departments from ignoring requests for several months and dragging out the process. That being said, the laws need to flexible to account for the differences between someone requesting something they need ASAP and what happened with the Duggars.

I just remembered that Star Jones did the same thing. She essentially grifted her entire first wedding for "exposure" on the View. People were not happy about it. Alas, we need to get that outrage again. I need to remember when I eventually re-activate my IG account to unfollow all the meme accounts that get paid to advertise the silliest things.

This is an instance of law not catching up with privacy and/or policy makers not knowing how to adequately address situations because they are so rare. I just sent in a FOIA request for something. I've done this a dozen times in my line of work and am still surprised at how lax regulations are. I have gotten information I clearly shouldn't have access to on several occasions because of the fact there are such rigid times to reply and give out the information. Realistically this is a state/nation-wide issue and should be lobbying for changes in privacy law. This is just the remnants of the lawsuit that wasn't dismissed and I'm skeptical that it will lead to any major changes in how FOIA requests are handled. The problem is people submitting FOIA requests (especially of this nature) are so rare and putting limitations on when you have to respond to a FOIA request leads to massive mistakes. They do not have the time to get multiple opinions on how well redacting is done, etc. It's essentially crossing your fingers and hoping you did the best. Generally the experts in the exact letter of the law will take weeks to get back to you and oops, you've missed the deadline. What now? You just broke the law too. Is it an excuse? No. But there are systemic problems that lead to the four Duggars being easily identified in the report and whatever comes out of this lawsuit is not going to address those systemic failures. That and I don't think JB and Michelle honestly care that their daughters' privacy was compromised. This part of the lawsuit always just struck me as a side piece. The lawsuit against InTouch was what they were really aiming for.

Any financial award will be minimal and likely ate up by all the lawyer fees incurred from the beginning. The lawsuits against InTouch, their employees, and the other employees in Springdale were dismissed. The Duggars were represented by a bigwig firm at the time and I imagine it wasn't cheap. It looks like they have a local lawyer instead now. I cannot imagine how expensive this lawsuit has been. The real payday was Bauer Media. Although I think we all know JB is a gambling man. He had no issue slamming down a cool quarter of a million on a Senate bid while grifting for love offerings. He's really bad at gambling when it involves actual money.

What's interesting is I used to go to a dance studio where the owner would do the same thing before social media. People really fell for it and didn't get anything from it. But because she was the best in the business everyone thought they would. I stopped patronizing yoga studios that offer the YT-200 teacher training and had karma, pay what you can classes a few years ago. Why? A lot of those studios are using people who are trying to get a foot into an oversaturated market as free labor. It was promise of "exposure" and if clients really liked their classes, then they could eventually get paid jobs at the studio! Some actually may not be exploiting their graduates but just not taking the chance since no one tells you these things until after you leave a studio. I'm actually glad the conversation about influencers and the like is coming up now. Sure it's more framed as "ha ha look at these people with 50K followers trying to get free stuff" right now. I'm hoping people start to peel back the layers and realize it is a problem throughout a lot of society and has been for a while. It's just magnified now because anyone can create a social media account and with smart #hashtagging gain a loyal following. It was a bit harder when you had to have some thing more than social media presence.

As someone currently in the gig economy (and trying to get out) this stuff infuriates me. You got a bunch of IG followers? Cool story bro, I'm not giving out my services for "exposure". People deserve to be adequately compensated for their time, money, and training. I know people who have spent more money on their yoga training than I did for my bachelor's degree to get where they are in the industry. People still barter with them for free classes in exchange for "exposure". Not to say this practice wasn't prevalent before social media but it has definitely made it worse.