I read an article on this menagerie around the time the existence of #18 came to light (or maybe it was #17, it gets so hard to tell). They were talking to one of the older boys, who said that he was more or less numb to the whole experience. I forget the quote, but it read like someone who wanted to run away.

I’m not going to claim that the Duggars don’t love their children – it would be arrogant to claim that knowledge. However, at this point I can say with certainty that they love their children less than the idea of childbirth. Look at all the publicity photos, the reality show, etc. All meticulously staged to make them look righteous. These aren’t kids, they’re props. At this point, they probably barely acknowledge the infants – just pass the new bundle to one of the older girls and get to work on the next one.

These aren’t kids, they’re props.

Bingo!

I do feel sorry for the poor kids. I was the eldest of six, and the very little I contributed to raising the younger ones convinced me never to have kids of my own. One of my friends in later life was the eldest of ten, and she said she & her nearest sibling used to envy their classmates from the local orphanage, because the orphans had fewer daily responsibilities. I’m sure we’ll see a spate of “How dare you, I came from a huge family and we all LOVED our lives!!!” comments, but let’s face it — the adult Duggars are the low-rent Talivangelical version of Macauley Caulkin’s father or Lindsay Lohan’s mother. Narcissists using their helpless wombfruit as props for their “Hey, everybody LOOK AT ME! ME! ME!” pathology.

I don’t give a rats ass about the Duggars and their kids. They are fucking nuts and religious whack jobs and life is too, too short to spend time with them.

Having said that, I do love you TBogg for putting my life mantra into a few succinct words: I want people to leave me alone, keep it to themselves, and generally shut the fuck up.

Oh, and let me add on what I tell people at work: Shut up and go back to work.

what was once a holy mission became a public pubic spectacle

I swear I thought that’s what you wrote.

A few weeks ago, I was zapping harmlessly, and I came upon these aforementionned Duggars. They went to visit Ohio, and their big visit was the Creationist Museum.

I’ll spare you the mindfuck .

Poor poor brainwashed kids.

Haven’t owned a TV in 3 years. Thanks for passing on one more reason getting rid of it was a good decision.

Of course, not having kids to grow up in a world with 18 and counting Duggars is looking better as well. The move toward the lowest common denominator continues.

It would be an interesting study, say fifteen—twenty years down the road to see which is the first to go on a six-state killing spree.

I come from a large family but jeez… The fact that I always had someone to play with if nobody was around was nice. The fact that someone was ALWAYS around was not. I love my brothers and sisters to death but man, I was certainly glad to get out of the house at 18.

There is something mentally wrong with these people, but I guess I can’t fault them for the publicity. How else are you going to pay to feed 18 kids?

One of the boards I read has a thread solely devoted to the online wars between the Duggar fans and fans of that Jon & Kate Plus 8 family. It’s a real hotbed of insanity.

They ought to devote a reality show to large families beating the crap out of each other. It would be fantastic. My mom was the oldest of 8 so I know how vicious they can be as a unit when challeged.

They only kept the cute ones.

The Duggars raise their children using the buddy system, in which an older sibling assists the younger sibling in daily tasks. The older buddy “will get the younger ones’ meals” [20]. According to Michelle : “They help them with their little phonics lessons and games during the day and help them practice their music lessons. They will play with them or help them pick out the color of their outfit that they want to wear that day, and just all of those types of things”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duggar_family

*****
Buddy’s all, Used Car Salesmen, Real Estate Investors….The Duggars family theme song in the New Economy of Free Money:

(Sung during meal times lined up, shortest to tallest, through the kitchen door. All together now.)

*Dad Duggar solo:

They used to tell me I was building a dream
And so I followed the mob.
When there was earth to plow or guns to bear,
I was always there, right on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream
With peace and glory ahead –
Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?

Duggar gang:

Once I [sold a used car], I made it run,
Made it race against time.
Once I [sold a used car], now it’s done –
Buddy, can you spare a dime?

Once I [invested in RE] tower[s], up to the sun,
brick and rivet and lime.
Once I [invested in RE] tower[s], now it’s done –
Buddy, can you spare a dime?

Little Duggars respond: ‘Eff off you wanker, where are my clothes? mom, Mom, MOm, MOM!

“Having said that, I do love you TBogg for putting my life mantra into a few succinct words: I want people to leave me alone, keep it to themselves, and generally shut the fuck up.”

Exactly what I wanted to say. I knew there was some reason I felt a bond with you TBogg, despite never having met you face to face.

Which makes me wonder: Are all your fans desperate for peace and quiet like abogato and I, and just want everybody to STFU?

I don’t think the human baby-making equipment is really up to that task. Isn’t she just about worn out? I mean, that’s like putting 250,000 miles on a car. No, make that a tire.

That’s not surprising, but it is rather sad. That’s how you run a Montessori school, not a family. Really, if your family is so big that you are having to assign them to care for each other in pairs, then it’s too damn big. I don’t know who has it the worst in this family; the older kids who are effectively spending their adolescence as surrogate parents, or the younger kids whose connection to their parents is remote, to put it generously.

hot dog, hallway

Those reality shows are antiunion shitbombs, too. The industry maintains that they’re “unscripted,” though they are performed per written scripts, just not scripts written by WGA members. Nor do the participants hold SAG or AFTRA cards. Nor do the nonwriters and nonactors get union scale or union safety, health or welfare protections. While our antiunion EmEssEm covers this shit like it was Hollywood (then a union town with a quality product) in the 1930s. Hope The Owners all get a smelly, incurable fungus on their scrota, replete with weeping, stinking blisters and really foul running sores. And lose all their money. And their health coverage. Fucking douche nozzles.

“Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar have a big secret: they are pregnant” — Jesus, after doing it 17 times before? That’s not a “big secret,” it’s a report of the status quo, like claiming it’s huge news that today is Wednesday. No, the really big secret would be if Michelle had decided to have an abortion or declared that she was really a lesbian. Now that would make me pay attention.

These self-aggrandizing reality shows with their hair-sprayed egos and pretend hype over largely contrived matter do nothing for me. I’d much rather watch the weather channel — or, in my case, since I have no TV and live in Vermont, look out the window and watch really real snow falling…

How right you are. I love it:

I want people to leave me alone, keep it to themselves, and generally shut the fuck up.

The creepiest thing about this, IMO, is that these people see their large family as proof that God loves them more; it’s showy and boastful “Christianity”.

Did anybody notice that the photo, insane as it is, is missing three children? Yikes.

Good catch, Otter. Winter was butchering time in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.

Finally, the world will get a chance to meet JISM BOB DUGGAR!

Can someone describe the picture of the family for me? I plucked my eyes out with a soup spoon after being exposed to five minutes of Wife Swap over at my in-laws at Thanksgiving.

I too wonder where people find the time to commit to hours and hours of weekly television programming. I can sit still for a movie at home because I am making an event-specific commitment. I am saying, “No, I will not finish that Pynchon novel tonight nor will I blog about anything, because I really want to watch Carwash tonight.” And then I do just that.

But the idea of people regularly scheduling their lives so they can suck up the slop of reality shows in big three hour increments every single week night? That makes me cry almost. Sweet baby Jeebus’ shitty diaper, get some kind of fucking life or just off yourself already.

BTW, you’ll be pleased to know that the eldest son has already married and is doing his part to litter the world with more Duggars.

Jesus on a stick. And *that* is what basic cable is all about.

Growing up in a working class Catholic neighborhood, we were pikers w/five kids. Most houses, all 3bdrm, had 5-13 kids. Breeding like a “pyramid-base”
species should be a cautionary tale. With no acme predators, these rodent people doom the rest of us.

At this point, all Ma Duggar has to do to give birth is stand up.

it’s the new fad. from a local paper:

http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?…..894e4e90d8

“Oh, get that would you Dierdre?”

I’ve been of the opinion for years, based on personal observation, that unformed people try to learn how to behave from the sociopathic personalities on these TEEVEE shows. Maybe most especially “soap operas”.

They learn how to become borderline personalities very well.

Which makes me wonder: Are all your fans desperate for peace and quiet like abogato and I, and just want everybody to STFU?

Yes. This has been another edition of short answers to…..

The best part about all this is that the tall one in the back looks just like a young Tom DeLay.

Wonder if he’ll also make killing his business while shouting hosannas to his convenient god.

watertiger helpfully points out that he is ready to begin cranking out Duggars of his own.

The future of the Republic looks bright, indeed.

With no acme predators, these rodent people doom the rest of us.

Apex predator, not acme predator. The presence or absence of an Acme predator (such as Wile E. Coyote) doesn’t make any difference to the propagation of the prey species.

yes, the Duggars are narcissistic – they are cloning Mini-Me’s. Same hair in same style, same clothes, and same names (all begin with J). Children need to learn to be individuals. Not gonna happen in this house.

I just think it’s cute how *they* are pregnant. Like he’s going to be pushing out a kid, too.

dsidhe — You beat me to it.

Though I was planning to ask when “they” were having “their” episiotomy.

I’ve always hated that “we’re pregnant” bullshit.

No way, buddy. She’s pregnant. You had the super deluxe easy fun part and your work is already over.

“We’re having a baby” sounds better, but even that seems to fall short of describing the division of labor (hah!) in that endeavor.

With no acme predators, these rodent people doom the rest of us.

Have you taken a good look at Wall Street and the Republican Party lately?

My wife and I have five kids, and here in a liberal town in the secular northeast I guess we are a bit of a spectacle. The best rude comment I ever got was from a Pentacostalist Brazilian immigrant: “What is wrong with you — Don’t you have a television?”

I’m pretty sure you don’t need an episiotomy after #4. Also, I could be wrong, but I believe there are only 14 kids in the photo above because it’s ~3-4 years old. I recommend everyone go visit the family website to enjoy the pictures. I names are priceless: Joshua, Jana & John-David (twins), Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, Jedidiah & Jeremiah (twins), Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, Jennifer (and #18 due in January 2009!). Seriously? Jinger? Joy-Anna? Jessa? Any bets on the name of #18? I think I can guess the first letter. If it were up to me I would name #18 Jerkoff, for what his father should do more of.. I’m just livid that these fuckwits are consuming my oxygen.

Narcissistic? As I recall, all these kids are being home-”schooled”. They have started a cult, not a family.

And if they are viewed as a freak show … then God must will it, meaning that God is more cynical than any TV producer alive or roasting in hell.

This is only true if you assume that everything that happens is in accordance with God’s will, which is not the majority view even among fundamentalist Christians.

Personally, I imagine God doing a facepalm every time the name Duggar is mentioned, but then I’m a bit of a heretic.

If it’s a boy it should be Jor-el (I think that’s Biblical) …

It’s not their fault to be sure, but the five lads in the front row look as though they would be just as comfortable sitting on Edgar Bergen’s lap.

UM, I almost don’t like admitting this, though this is likely the first place I can without hanging my head, but I haven’t ever watched a reality show. No Survivor, no Idol, noDinging, Dancing, or Gambling with the Stars, none. I think their message – that the way to get ahead is to screw and cheat and lie and backstab is terribly detrimental to our society.

And I fear we are fighting a war of attrition. It seems that it is the real hard core churchy-folk that have these, um, herds, and the reality based community has their 1.7. The amth is not in our favor.

OK, the MATH is not in our favor.

But if we can convert all those wholesome, well scrubbed boys and girls to a life of homosexuality, then we can offset the mathematical advantage.

what kind of insane woman would want to marry into this cult. I guess I kind of answered my own question. This many pregnancies puts a woman at high risk for uterine rupture, hemorrhage and death. I wonder how jim bob would do as a single parent. I guess OK since the kids are raising themselves. Just think he could get a new younger model and start all over. ( How many years was MASH on TV?)

Well, that’s assuming (as these Quiverfull types do) that all these kids are going to turn out to be keepers of the faith. Ignore, for the moment, the notion that the older one (particularly the girls) may not be eager to start families having spent half their lives as stand-in parents themselves; let’s talk science. Studies have shown that when women have a lot of sons, the younger boys are more likely to be homosexuals. (The hypothesis I’ve heard is that this has something to do with testosterone depletion in utero, but never mind that) This can be seen in families with as few as three boys. The Duggars have either ten or eleven (Is “Jinger” a boy’s name? Or even a name?). Ponder that.

Which makes me wonder: Are all your fans desperate for peace and quiet like abogato and I, and just want everybody to STFU?

Umm… This one certainly is!

Yes, I for one certainly wish everyone would STFU, go away & leave me alone. And I’ll return the favor. Especially keep to yourself the “time to get up,” “find a job” sort of thing.

And that being said, I suspect “Jinger” is pronounced “Ginger.” Not that I’ve ever seen this travesty, in spelling or on telebision.

like sliding a hotdog down a hallway.
(hat tip to wobblybits)

I don’t watch “reality” shows either — except I HAVE watched “Dancing with the Stars” a few times, and it’s not about cheating and backstabbing. My reasons are a little different: I just react very badly to being told that a bunch of TV-actor wannabees are “real people,” when they’re obviously just the rejects from a zillion auditions. Real “real people” aren’t all pretty like TV people, and I think that message — that you don’t count unless you’re attractive — is even worse than the message about cheating.

Oh my God, the Duggars have a reality show. I think I’m going to be sick.

Let’s see, the girls will be in the house cleaning and cooking while the boys are taking out garbage and mowing the lawn. In the evening mommy and daddy practice making babies because you can’t have too many of them. And on Sunday, church. Yuck.

I know a family here, 8 kids, all names start with “J” too.
Hence the girl named Jenera.

what, no “Jenna,” as in the Not NotJenna?

Jenera? What kind of a fucking awful name is that? Was the allusion to “generic” just too hard to pass up when you have that many kids?

This is why I don’t watch reality TV and only look at the tabloids when I’m in line at the grocery store.

Today’s today, who knows what will be happened tomorrow ? business,clink here.