SometimesBites

That's what I suspected, although it was dated today.

Just stumbled on this InTouch info on a sixth victim of Creeper. Didn't we sort of hear about this already? I barely pay attention anymore... http://www.rawstory.com/2016/06/a-new-victim-claims-child-sex-abuse-by-josh-duggar-which-caused-her-to-rebel-and-leave-home/

After reading here, I actually watched this episode. First one in…so long I can’t remember. Am I happy I watched? Phfft. Still a meaningless, scripted yawnfest. Never again. Probably. OMFG, THE DRAMA. Will Robyn and Areola go to Hawaii?!? (very dramatic music). Turns out to be a plot thread leading nowhere. Time-waster. Can Meri and Robyn sit in the same room and talk about The Great Thanksgiving Project of Aught-Fifteen?!? (very dramatic music). Janelle dares to suggest they do something together in Hawaii and Meri immediately gets snotty about it. After all the years of same-old-same-old, why the hell bother? (PS: Meri is a bossy, overbearing, micro-managing control freak and Janelle is a passive introvert; the harder Meri pushes, the more Janelle withdraws, and vice versa. If Janelle can’t learn to push back (unlikely IMO), Meri will never learn to step off—so good luck with that bullshit, girls.) The wildly scripted GATHERING AT MERI’S and her patented Meri hemming and hawing was just a tad familiar. Meri’s going back to school. Meri’s going to get a divorce. Meri made paintings. Drama drama drama. (PS: Even as cartoonish as the paintings were, I sort of dug the fantastical look of a couple of them. But the massive emotional weight these people ascribe to every little thing. “My paintings are symbolic, see? SYMBOLISM!!!”) Christine: “WE RENTED TO TWO BUSES TO GET OUR FAMILY TO THE AIRPORT! HAHAHAHAH!!!! WE’RE TAKING UP THE WHOLE BAGGAGE AREA!!! BEING POLYAMISTS IS SO WACKY!!” “How does Kody do it with four wives?!?” BADLY. VERY, VERY BADLY Didn’t think it was humanly possible, but Kody’s hair is uglier than ever. He would look so much better if he just cut it very short. Please, someone get poor Aurora to a dermatologist STAT. Also, for crying out loud, Robyn needs to lovingly help Aurora break the habit of picking at her face and get to the bottom of possible (likely?) anxiety issues. Here in meth country, we call that the “pickin pox.”

Yikes. I had five, and I assure you, the body has an amazing ability to recover nicely.

The banana picture was clearly intended to be titillating, as were the several cleavage shots and the bubble bath shots.Did Sam the BatFish put a metaphorical gun to Meri's head and force her to scratch "Sam" into her leg?? What a load of horseshit. The really do think their viewers are morons. Fugghedaboudit, Meri. Everybody's onto you, honey.

My mileage doesn't vary a bit--which is is precisely why I said choice is the sticking point, and exactly where I think the cult of "Daddy knows best" (in all its funky iterations) fails the children, particularly when they become young adults: choice is too often abrogated.

She (and her sisters and mom) definitely have an Amish-inspired wardrobe--and I mean that literally. It isn't what 99.9% of young women would ever choose for any reason. Still, I don't find that wardrobe choices "ridiculous," just outside the norm. I'll be the first to admit, though, that my eye is arguably skewed. I hail from the Pacific Northwest, and in my corner of the world there are actually LOTS of women (all ages) who dress sort of like this (the McDonalds live in Washington state, BTW.) 1960s sensibility is still ingrained for a lot of people where I live--it's just as culturally influenced as other fashion sensibilities are elsewhere. There's even a term here in Humboldt County: "Humboldt Honey." I have a hunch that we'll have to agree to disagree about what necessarily constitutes a pretty dress for a special occasion, since one woman's pretty is another woman's uh...no thanks! And having said all that, I'll add that there is something wardrobe-related that looks ridiculous to me--that's when the Duggars make cheap, oddball modifications to their clothes. As we've all noted, if your goal is exceptional modesty, then make or purchase modest clothes to start with; their efforts to modest-up their special-occasion clothing are atrocious (like Michelle's hideous silver mother-of-the-whatever dress.) So probably the Duggs would tell me to heed my own ideas about eye-of-the-beholder fashion. ;)

I don't find the woman on the left ridiculous, and I don't have a problem with it, per se. I have friends who are Hassid, Muslim, and Mennonite; each of them wear some sort of head covering. Each of them is an intelligent, funny, generous, thinking woman. They're writers, professors, world travelers. If the woman on the left is wearing a head covering because she's been coerced or brainwashed, that's fucked up and I wish for her a way into a larger world. But if she is choosing that for herself, if it's part of her genuine belief system, then I have no words of condemnation or derision. The question of intelligent, deeply considered CHOICE is, of course, the real sticking point.

Couldn't help myself (what with my new McDonald Family interest). Here we have two young women, one age 24, one age 23, both of whom come from families that claim to embrace deeply fundamental Christianity. I find it particularly interesting that in both cases, the young women eschew pants and embrace exceptional modesty. The McDonalds don't make a fuss about this belief--they just do it. The Duggars FLAUNT their modesty (which sort of defeats the purpose...doesn't it???) Not making a judgment call on whether the life outcome for the McDonald kids will be a lot better than the Duggar kids, but in terms of the Duggars' holier-than-thou modesty claims, I find the photo comparison interesting--a visible marker for how their different approach to modesty looks, side-by-side:

Riiiight.

To be honest, when I made that post late last night it was after a fleeting thought about what it would be like to have Smuggs and Anna as parents--a sleazy, lying, know-it-all, sister-molesting bigot and a doe-eyed, half-bright, self-righteous doormat--and in the moment I was so repulsed by the thought that they seemed even worse than Jiz and Me-Me-Me. In reality, of course, they're ALL nightmare parents. It's sort of like asking if you'd rather eat week-old roadkill or undergo gallbladder surgery sans anesthesia: sometimes all options are hideous. Echh. Even thinking about living with any of these people makes me want a hot shower and a dose of Noam Chomsky.

Too true. It would be bad to have Jim Bob and Michelle as parents. But to have Smuggs and Anna as parents...god. Talk about FML.

I can't stop laughing at this. Reassessing your viewing habits, your marital status, or your crafting abilities? :D

I was doing back-reading on this thread last night when I ran across this post. And fell into a very deep rabbit hole! For some reason, I was seriously intrigued by their blog and wanted to see what I could find out about what their deal was (you know, research is a lot easier when these people put themselves on television...) In the very first blog posts from several years ago, there are a couple of photos where the older daughters are wearing pants and no scarf, but it isn't very far in that they switch to dresses/skirts, and the scarves. I guess maybe it's the obvious differences between the McDonalds and the Duggars/Bateseses/Rodriguii that piqued my curiosity, and then watching for places where their habits and ideas intersect. Here's a baker's dozen random list, for those who are interested: They aren't Amish or Mennonite, but they have rubbed elbows with both of those groups in various places, at various times. Their flavor of faith appears to be a blend of evangelical fundamentalism with a heavy twist of voluntary simplicity/back-to-the-landy/barefoot gospel-ish. Very Jesus/Crunchy Granola. They do homeschool, though it's unclear if they always have. They DON'T make a huge deal about the homeschooling; it's barely mentioned, ever. The kids seem genuinely happy and bright. No hint of the Duggar smugness or vapidity, no whiff of the terrifying Rodriguez robotic emptiness. Having said that, the older kids still live with Mom and Dad, and I don't remember reading anything about college. The oldest daughter is 24, and the next oldest is 21. I think the oldest son is 18-ish. The older kids look younger than their chronological age, especially Ash, the oldest girl (who looks about 16). There are six kids. While the older kids do help out with the younger ones to some degree, there really doesn't seem to be any sort pawning off of parental responsibility. The McDonald parents are sort of the antithesis of Michelle and Jim Bob (except still devoutly Christian): Dad seems quiet and unassuming, generous, hardworking. Mom is very busy around the home; adores the kids, and it seriously shows. They take LOTS of family outings, mostly to places of great natural beauty--hiking, camping, beach trips, fishing, etc. They are very into gardening, growing food, and keep some animals (a cow and some goats, which they raise for milk). The teen girls and often the mom do wear scarves. Like the homeschooling, this choice is not made much of (in fact, I never saw it mentioned at all). They are obviously taking a page from the Amish/Mennonite playbook and adopting head-covering as a personal religious choice. Even though it is a very visible distinction, they seem quite casual and humble about it. For all their vaunted modesty, the Duggar women could learn a lot. The Duggar women FLAUNT their long hair in a way that draws attention to themselves. Same with makeup. The McDonald women don't appear to wear any, while the Duggars pile it on (don't even get me started on JRod--that woman is just a fucking freakshow.) The McDonalds are into the missionary thing (minds out of the gutter, people), and have spent a couple of stints in Belize. It does appear that they actually try to blend in, make friends with, and live like the locals. They seem extremely friendly and genuinely warm, and there doesn't seem to be that Duggary thing of "let's bring them tacky shit from the US, do a few skits, and then go home." They seem kind of ungrounded. A little rootless. I don't think they own a home--every mention of moving in somewhere is about a rental that they worked out some kind of fix-up deal on in order to save rent, or they're staying in the mobile home of friends, etc. They move a lot, and almost every time they move or make a big life decision, shit goes seriously sideways in the details--like: Oh, hey, we don't qualify to get visas to live full time in Belize! Oh, hey, we can't adopt a couple of older orphans from Liberia at the drop of a hat while visiting there"! It may be a combination of "no worries, God will work out the pesky stuff" and "let's not waste too much precious time researching the fine print." There are lots of troubles with vehicles breaking down and bad, bad water issues in Belize. When things unravel, God is teaching them some sort of lesson. When things go well, God is blessing them. The usual. Mama McDonald, as it turns out, has been pregnant 12 times. Six miscarriages. She had her first four kids (and there's a "powerful testimony" surrounding the details of their oldest daughter's conception and birth--you can read for yourself...) without incident, But then she started having troubles. The two younger daughters are much younger, as there were several miscarriages between #4 and #5 (more about this below...). I will say, though, that Mama didn't have home births, due to her difficulties. BTW, the two younger daughters were both somewhat premature; each of them weighed a little over 5 lbs. at birth. Maybe that's God with a message? Huh? HUH?? They have an approach to their healthcare that dances right up to the edge of sketchy at times. They've had some very serious health troubles: Second oldest daughter Amanda has had horrific trouble with her heart, starting went they went to Belize--really scary stuff; it took them a long fucking time to come back to the states to get some more comprehensive care and answers. Their littlest girl broke her arm, and they considered taking her for care to a chiropractor (they decided not to risk having it heal badly and went to a doctor--DUH). The oldest boy turned out to have a terrible cystic tumor in his jaw; they didn't realize there was a problem until they could see the left side of his face was swollen and his expression was skewed to one side in a very Derrick Dillard kind of way. By the time they took him in, the tumor had destroyed a lot of bone mass in his jaw and had invaded into his sinus cavity! HOW DID THIS TEENAGE BOY NOT REALIZE THERE WAS A BIG PROBLEM IN HIS FACE??? Who knows...they don't say, but I after reading their blog I can absolutely imagine them seeking natural and holistic treatment for whatever ongoing symptoms he might have been experiencing. Finally, Mama McDonald writes this about her uterus/childbearing (emphasis mine; spelling and grammar hers): I'm going to HAVE to follow their blog now, as I want to see if the older kids marry, or get jobs, or stay home like Maxwells. They are very attractive young people, and seem kind and sweet, rather than robotic dullards. But it's too soon to tell if they're choosing their parents' ways, or being psychologically held there.

I was laying on my bed using my Kindle. Hadn't checked in on the Duggar antics for a while and randomly wandered over to see if there was any new snark. Why yes, yes there was. I sat straight up and said something to the effect of, "I knew that slimy little shit would show the world a dark side someday." Boy, did this place catch fire in a hurry.

I always suspected that Meri acquiesced to taking on Janelle because she knew Kody was dead set on polygamy and she perceived Janelle as being less of a threat in the hierarchy. "Let's see: I'm thinner, I'm high energy, I'm first with my loverboy--she'll never hold a candle to me in Kody's heart. There's the guest room, Janelle. Kody and I are going to be snuggling under a blanket on the sofa. Bring us some popcorn?" And then the babies started popping.

Bingo. The whole frantic setup is such a manufactured escapade, ala making those stupid boats. These people have been together for a very long time. They've had umpty-bazillion holidays and parties together--yet we're supposed to buy that they need to manufacture Thankgiving deco from whole cloth? WTF did they use last year? And the year before that? And the year before that? And so on... I don't know about all of you, but we tend to have some fairly comfortable and beloved holiday traditions. Yes, we may add a little something new now and then, but generally it's my great-grandmother's china, my late MIL's crystal wine glasses, the placemats I made when we were newly married, etc, etc. They're going about this as though they're 20-year-old college roommates struggling to create a mutually acceptable holiday. Moronic. We've watched Meri be an utter control freak a million times on this show. We all know the type: "Let's collaborate" actually means "Let's do everything according to my exact specifications, and if you have something to contribute I'll let you know." A couple of decades of that bullshit, and I'm going to ship my oars right along with Janelle. When you know you can't win, you say fuck it and make yourself scarce.

I wouldn't give shit one about another frantic, tail-chasing bout of Brown Klown zaniness either. I don't think it makes her lazy, per se. Maybe after a couple of decades of their hare-brained, pillar-to-post bullshit life, Janelle has learned that if they insist on dragging her into the middle of their group chaos she will just not play. For an introvert, this bunch would be an absolute hell. ETA: Janelle's not over 300 lbs. At her heaviest (and she's big now, but not as big as she was) she weighed about 270. She's pretty short, though, and carries most of it in her belly, so she appears even heavier than she is.

OMG, you completely win the entire internet for the whole week!

"...and don't forget, you two: THIS is your anniversary. The day you got pretend married for the TLC cameras--NOT the day you usurped my position as legal wife. Just a piece of paper, remember??"

Exactly. They hide under thick, smothering layers of piety so that even their love notes and birthday wishes are lifeless platitudes. This is what happens when a belief structure focusses so rigidly on appearances. Derrick's greetings-from-the-heart-of-darkness letter is generic as a bucket of wallpaper paste, just like everything they say and do. I see his globe-trotting-earth-daddy behavior as almost a direct corollary to Ben's sick-hip-hop-rap-daddy fiasco. It's all a desperate effort to find some personal distinction while drowning in an ocean of bland, smiling, rigid conformity. All of Ben's attempts at social media preaching to a lost world are the same thing; he's not equipped to express nuanced thinking, so he turns up the volume with fire and brimstone. Giant yawn. Original thought? Not likely, unless one of them makes a break for the fences. And baby, am I ever keeping my fingers crossed that one of them gets out!

I'm up the road from Sew Sumi (by about 250 miles) and in recorded weather history it's never gotten hotter here than 87 degrees (yet...the way things are going, I keep expecting to see that old record break.) I begin to decompensate when it's hotter than 75. Arkansas wouldn't work for me, even if the Duggars weren't there stinking up the joint.

I want to throw in a differing paradigm here. I fully realize that in the Bible Belt brand of evangelical Christianity there is a pretty narrow scope of what a believer should look like, and I'm sure Derrick knows it--I mean, look who his FIL is. But maybe Derrick simply wants to be his own man. Maybe his time in Nepal, for instance, exposed him to a wider variety of people, and cracked open his thinking just a little bit about things like outward appearances. Derrick has a BIL who had the outward appearance thing down pat, and on the inside was a seething mess of nasty, hypocritical awfulness. I come from a very different school of evangelicalism: straight out of the West Coast Jesus People movement of the late 1960s/early-to-mid 1970s. An entire generation of young people dedicated their lives to Christ when they found churches that were loving and accepting, where they were embraced in spite of their differences--those incredibly superficial differences, like how long someone's hair was. When you see candid photos from those days, there are straightlaced, Sunday best, buttoned-up people worshipping right along with long-haired, headbanded, granny-skirted counterculture types--all of them smiling and enjoying the intersection where their faith brought them together. This may be who Derrick feels he really is on the inside. Or it may be he's just exploring ways to differentiate himself from the narrow strictures of the social milieu you describe. I find his changed look to be refreshing, because it gives me a hint that there may be a strong, healthy rebellious streak in him. BTW: "hippie" is not a synonym for "dirty." I once WAS a hippie, and lived in several communes. People are just people--some have sketchy personal hygiene, and some are clean as can be; I've been around plenty of both flavors, and their hair or style of dress had ZERO to do with it!

It looks to me like the picture is just flipped, and that Joy is in the driver's seat.

In my part of the world it's also pretty important to include at least one piece of upholstered furniture, vintage circa 1982.