SometimesBites

The Duggars and their ilk are a bunch of deeply ignorant, self-righteous, bigots. The trouble is, the longer they rode the TLC gravy train, the more cocky they got about hammering others with whom they disagree. But as the old saying goes, the higher the monkey climbs, the more he expose.

This is great reading, and I'd love to buy "Jimmy" a beer for his answer to Michelle! Not that I'm surprised by her stunted, insulated world view--this is a woman who has said that overpopulation is a "myth," because the entire human population could stand shoulder-to-shoulder and fit in the state of Texas. You can't make this shit up.

Guess they haven't heard of the internet. Oops!

With all due respect to the writer of the Washington Post opinion piece, proposing the notion that this ugly turn of events in the Duggars’ lives could somehow engender a more interesting bit of reality TV is to completely ignore the nature of what this show is intended to do: make TLC and its sponsors lots and lots of money. The implied premise of 19 Kids and Counting: “Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have a WONDERFUL family that is WONDERFUL because…JESUS! Their family is not only WONDERFUL, but is SUPER WONDERFUL and SUPER-FUNCTIONAL because…JESUS! Yes, they have a humongous number of children, but look at them…awwwww, cute as a litter of puppies! And you could probably learn a thing or two about family life from them because they have ALL THE ANSWERS! They’re frugal! They’re sweet! They’re musical! They love Tater-Tots!” Jim Bob and Michelle’s premise is all of the above, plus: “Our family—unlike most of you benighted, godless losers—has all the answers, AND we’re going to do you the favor of letting you watch us do it RIGHT!” The actual premise of this show: TLC and its sponsors have figured out that the old traveling freak show concept is a 21st century money machine. Viewers don’t want ACTUAL reality. They want a PERCEIVED reality. They want freak show versions of humdrum family life: the fundies, the plygs, the straight wife/gay husband couples, the crude and obese pageant mama, the mail order brides—on and on it goes. It’s smoke and mirrors. It’s the freak show. It pays. Of course, the premise never ever survives ACTUAL REALITY. Actual reality is messy and unpredictable and often cruel, mean, and petty. The way this situation with the Duggars haS come out--like slicing into a shiny pink apple and finding a black worm hole at the core--has the words of Yeats’ poem “Second Coming” running over and over through my head: Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. IMO, the best thing for the Duggars and for all the viewers who have been roped into the Duggar fantasy, is for them to GET OFF TV. Sounds like TLC is scrambling to keep it alive, but let’s get real—no one will ever be able to watch it the same way again. Let’s hope the sponsors pull out. Once they do, fade to black, and back to their actual flawed and problematic life.

No, I don't think they should do that. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are delusional. "Honest" and "real" are concepts to which they pay lip service, while building fences to hold actual truth and honesty at bay. The Duggar parents wouldn't know actual truth if it bit them on the pee-pee holder.

I stopped watching a couple of years ago. Do they really wear their street clothes to bed??

When TLC came a'knockin, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar should have said, gosh, thanks but no thanks--knowing they were NOT the sparkly parental know-everythings that such a show set them up to be. They herd the children into common sleeping dormitories to help prevent FURTHER incidents of sibling molestation. The girls are so traumatized by their older brother's incestuous interference that they put a letter in a book, begging for someone outside the family to save them! (Would JB or M care to comment on why their daughters didn't come to THEM for help???) The parents refer to their own sexual relationship relentlessly, while constructing absolutely bizarre fences around the sexual development of their children. NONE OF THIS IS NORMAL. SHAME ON TLC FOR EXPLOITING THE WEIRDEST OF THE WEIRD AND FUNDING THE CREEPIEST FRINGE NUTCASES OUT THERE. And those people howling on the web about how mean it is to "dig up" this issue to smear poor little Josh? Well, darlins, imagine it was YOUR DAUGHTER.

I watched a big chunk of the divorce episode yesterday for the first time. After seeing still shots and reading discussion about the particulars here and at CJ's blog, I simply couldn't bring myself to actually watch it until yesterday when I got extremely bored. I still haven't seen the whole thing...I watched a while, fumed a while, yelled at the TV in disgust, and turned it off again. I've gotten as far as the day of the paper signing, and Meri saying that there's sort of a solemn feeling about the whole thing. *facepalm No shit, Meri. YOU'RE GETTING A DIVORCE. For now, I'll just say that Robyn's facial contortions during Meri's "announcement" were the worst acting I've seen since my 33-year-old son was 2 and used to track me down and say, "I didn't do anything," often with some sort of contraband held behind his back. Robyn's need to look sorrowfully grateful was wrestling with her inner GLEE...and the glee was definitely winning. You could see that both Robyn and Kody were absolutely delighted. DELIGHTED. Also: 1. Kody was a pussy to not be there when Christine and Janelle were told. 2. When Meri kept remarking that Janelle wasn't saying anything, that wasn't concern for Janelle's feelings. That was Meri being pissed that one of the wives was DARING not to rush over and hug her for her uber-sacrifice.

Meri's painted herself into a corner. She made this huge personal sacrifice of her marriage "for the family," with the idea that it would buy her mega brownie points. Pushing to bring Robyn into the marriage was the same attempt, and it backfired on her. Now, she's made virtually the same move, only with even more drastic consequences. And it was all-eyes-on-Meri's-humble-glory for about five minutes, but after the camera crew packs up and the internet loses interest and their family life goes on as usual, she's still one woman among four, alone in a big house with a wet bar. The pedestal she tried to climb up on doesn't exist, and all she is now is Kody's ex-wife. She can repeatedly tell herself that they're still married, but in the wee hours of the morning, when she wakes up alone in her bed, child grown and gone, no husband, she's sick at heart--I guarantee it. The multiple tweets of "deep thoughts" are background noise--something to drown out the reality of her actual life.

Much as I'd love to see Meri or any one of the women leave the Kody Brown Traveling Road Show, I don't believe it will happen. She's going through a big life shift, with Mariah in college and her marriage tossed away like a broken shoe. I think Meri's twitter postings about transformation, etc., are just the usual weird way they have of trying to express themselves. I mean, WHAT is with these women and the Jack Handy faux wisdom sound bites? They have to have multiple posters on every wall saying deep things--I've never seen anything like it.

We've seen how Kody deals with "stress" in his relationships: he tells the woman that he takes no responsibility for how she feels, and walks away with a toss of his stringy blonde curls.

Fascinating study. This was the thing I most gravitated to: “We know that long-term stress in family life increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD)2 and it would be interesting to see what effect polygamy had on wives’ CHD risk." Yes, that would be VERY interesting indeed. Current medical science has made clear correlations between emotional stress and heart health. One can literally suffer from what has always been referred to as a "broken heart."

The episode was all kinds of awesome. Caleb is just OFF. His looks creep me out and his delivery is oddball, but the guy can actually act...at least, he can turn on the tears. LOVE that as everyone gathered for supper, the entire house was VERY brightly lit! Every lamp. Every chandelier. Every wall sconce--not just on, but made to look excessively bright. Haloed, as a matter of fact. Agree with earlier poster that the race is on for Norman's first human taxidermy project. Sorry, but if my only child could probably get a life-saving transplant for $20,000, I would make that happen tout de suite. $20,000 isn't chicken feed, but sheesh, sell some shit. Take out a line of credit. I don't think gun-running is really necessary? I LOVE Chick/Opie! Like all the characters on this show, he plays the weirdness to a razor-sharp edge. The knee socks kill me every time.

Definitely see the physical resemblance. It's sort of like Robyn's much smarter and worlds more articulate sister. :)

I'm re-watching Big Love, having not watched it through in quite a long time. I'm in the S5 episode where the question comes up about Bill and Barb divorcing in order to adopt Nickie's daughter. It is such a weird thing, watching the way the Brown's storyline continuously mimics those of an HBO show. Makes me wonder what the Browns would be doing on their show if they'd never seen Big Love. Some similarities would be coincidental, regardless. But I think Kody watched BL and got all kinds of big ideas. Wonkier and wonkier.

Ordinarily I would agree; however, it appears the Wolfington Manor boys keep the surprise-trailer-attack crew pretty well stocked with fresh bodies. Yep. We have to assume that the zombies are going to be varying degrees of rotten, depending on when they turned. I'd wager most of them are of the, ahem, seasoned variety, since the greatest number of deaths happened early in the event horizon.

After watching a second time, I'd like to add that Daryl taking out three walkers with a chain was all kinds of fun.

So...the woman who was instrumental in taking down Terminus is not actually "bad"? Hm. She seemed quite bad at Terminus, and often seems to me to be ruthless, proactive, and practically fearless, but I suppose we all have various scales of what constitutes "bad." Maybe I'm mistaken and she's not actually strong and post-apocalyptically capable (mildly nuts, too, but who isn't?). At any rate, Carol and most of the CDB women can populate my ZA any day.

Just watched. Will go back and read y'all's responses after work, but wanted to jump in. Oh Show, how I love you. Despite a weirdly questionable first-half season, you have wooed me once again with horror and hope. Bravo. Thoughts: For everyone who wondered why people were excited about the return of Morgan? Perhaps your questions are now answered, perhaps not, but color me deeply satisfied. He came through madness into a new equilibrium: Morgan: Yoda of the ZA. Carol, I have no words. That was the best welcome wagon moment in the history of neighborliness...and bring back my Pyrex, bitch. (Worked perfectly as a provocation to force the nasty boil to a head.) The look on Rick’s and Carol’s faces when Pete cut Reg’s throat—no surprise, no shock, simply: “Well, here it is, just as we suspected.” Glenn and Nicholas, Sasha and Father G., Abraham and Eugene: We are still human at our core. Morgan facing Rick: The ZA will change you, one way or the other. Brilliant juxtaposition.

Exactly. Kody is too stupid to realize the irony of his own words. Kody sez: "To be honest, I am not sure if any one of my wives could fulfill all my needs." Logical (unspoken) subtext: "Therefore I need a lot of women. It increases the chance of meeting all my needs." The sad glaring truth is "I'm not sure..." NO ONE goes into marriage or other committed relationship SURE that this person can fulfill all her/his needs, because it's impossible. But we benighted monogamists understand commitment in a way that a polygamous man never can; we love our partner for exactly what he or she brings to the relationship, and we love him or her EVEN IN THE PLACES WHERE THE FULFILLMENT FALLS SHORT OF 100%. Who the fuck told this asshole that he is owed complete fulfillment??? News flash: 500 wives will not fulfill all your needs, Kody. Some fulfillment is up to YOU. Kody sez:"...nor do I believe that I am fulfilling all of theirs." Unexamined logical question: Your needs aren't fulfilled by one woman, so you address that problem by taking multiple wives. Your wives' needs, according to YOU--aren't fulfilled by one husband, so they address that problem by...by...(careful now, we could be heading into vulgar thinking...) Robyn was just as moronic when she said she didn't want her kids to hear that living in a committed relationship outside of legal marriage was an option. Robyn: THEY ALREADY KNOW. Bitch slaps for everyone.

From the goofy and blatantly disingenuous article linked above, Kody says: "To be honest, I am not sure if any one of my wives could fulfill all my needs, nor do I believe that I am fulfilling all of theirs." God. They make it so easy. The response to both sides of this awful statement is just too obvious. I just can't. Y'all get it, I know you do.

In my state, only the legal parent's income is factored into these scenarios. The parent's subsequent spouse's income is not up for grabs, even if the couple shares joint bank accounts. In fact, some low life folks attempt to use this very much to their advantage: if the spouse has a significant income, the deadbeat parent can try to slither out from under his/her obligations by claiming to be out of work or disabled somehow, all the while living quite well on the income of the current spouse--whose income can't be touched. NOTHING the Browns do to manipulate the system would surprise me...

The only thing Richard knew about plural marriage before the Browns was what he's seen on the 7'oclock news. But now his whole perception has changed. Yeah, that's like saying every pig stye I've ever walked through reeked, but today I walked through a clean stye...so pig styes are much nicer than I thought.

:) I think your reaction is precisely why Carol chose tuna casserole. It fits perfectly with her adopted persona! She remains as bland and unremarkable as she can, all mom pants and flowered sweaters and tuna casseroles sent to the bereaved. Before Carol makes any move in public, she asks herself "What would Mrs. Milquetoast do?" (WWMMD© 2015, Carol Peletier). She didn't give shit one whether Deanna was comforted by the casserole, or even if Deanna got to it before the racoons...as long as it furthers her masquerade in ASZ.

Absolutely. Nature abhors a lack of genetic diversity.