Arkansas Blog

They have every right to live the way they choose. I say save the snark for Donald Trump's hair.

It is free country and everyone is free to have as many spring offs as they can support. That is what freedom is all about.

Now if people were free to marry whom ever they like.

I say Michelle for Secretary of Labor.
.

Jan 1, 1970 the world population was 3,912,218,000.

May 1 2008 the world population = 6, 808, 602, 000.

This 38 year increase is more population growth than the world experienced for the period
1750 to 1950.

The next big war will be over water.

Cute kids and innocent ones, too. I don't condone the way the parents exploit their family (my sainted spouse thinks it's an outrage), but it's their lives to live.

I don't know.......... I agree we should be able to live our lives as we choose, but I find it hard to believe this brood isn't at present or may someday cost us all a lot. The whole thing smacks of commercializing your children and making them your avenue to further your business ventures which might go nowhere if you didn't have three eyes or two heads or some other oddity.

I know it's none of my business, but I don't like it even a little bit - makes me very uncomfortable for all those kids growing up in that environment where your being becomes commercialized.

Ducks in a row.

How would you ever be in the mood after dealing with all those kids all day long? And there can't be that much privacy in their home.

Levee, it must be more than just instinctual with the Duggars. I know a woman who attended high school with Mrs. Duggar and she tells me Michelle has been pg every year of her life since graduating. However, I must add the family is well-managed from what personal reports are passed along to me. Preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner each day is a feat for sure. But you must wonder what the future holds for the family of 19 since the bread-winner was earning the family bread from real estate.

What would be a weekly conservative food budget for a family of 19? Note: none appear overweight.

Makes me think of Stepford wives/cults and the abuse being uncovered in Texas about
the Mormon ???? church.
I was embarressed when my mom had her 3rd, and last, baby when I was 15.
Poor kids to have parents show them off kinda like circus clowns.

Cool. This gives me an excuse to link to my blog post about the Duggars. Sorry if you've already seen it, but it's the closest I've ever come to actual humor...

Good job, Arch!

L Wood, you are right on the money re: water. I've told my husband for years we need to find a piece of land with underground springs. People are gonna pay big bucks for water.
My inlaws live in AZ. They have to haul water in 500plus gallon size tanks!!

duggars.. I don't like the fact they put all the kids in the spotlight. What if JohnBoy doesn't want his picture made? Do they force them to participate in publicity stunts??
I have two at home and there is no such thing as privacy, never peaceful and quiet.
The sex life how can that be good?? We all know how pieces and parts stretch and droop and sag after having one kid much less 17. I wouldn't think there would..oh never mind

Now, now, ALiJB,,,you know I don't droop and sag............well, maybe rolling up the old
tits to stuff in the bra, they do seem to go south with each passing year but, Durango and
his nephew said that didn't matter to them.

What the Duggars do with and to their children is neglect and borders on abuse. Mrs. Duggar is not the one that prepares the meals and takes care of the kids. The older kids take care of the younger ones. All the children have household chores to support the family. The kids even had a major hand in building the new house. All of this can be seen on the many Discovery Channel documentaries. People everywhere talk about standing up and protecting abused and neglected children but few call out the Duggars for their barbaric behavior and neglect of their children.

jastro,
were you being sarcastic or do you really consider doing chores child abuse?

"Durango and his nephew said that (sagging tits) didn't matter to them."

jazzy, you sweet, sexy, sassy little New Orleans via Camden, Ark., girl, you! I've offered before and hereby do again to hep ya roll those boogers up (or in) any time assistance is needed or desired. Unbeknownst to you, both you and they have made stunning appearances in a number of my XXX-rated Technicolor dreams of these recent spring evenings. It is amazing, love, the acrobatics you and I have performed, acts that would put to shame anything the Duggers might muster. Just call them (un)dress rehearsals on my part. Exciting news! So invigorating have been my dreams about you, jazz, that I've even taken the wheel again, thus have fired my driver, nephew Edwin (who ran his mouth too much, anyway). Need I remind you of my number? It is unchanged: 1-800-I'm-On-Fire. (If the phone doesn't ring, will it still be you?)

No Moxie, I don't consider it child abuse to have kids do chores. First of all I said in my opinion, the way the Duggars treat their children is neglectful and BORDERS on abuse. One of the other posters talked about how well the mother managed and took care of the family. My point was according to the documentaries the children bare the responsibilities for doing the chores, not the mother or father. The mother is always too busy taking care of an infant to do much more. I certainly consider it neglect when there are so many children that the mother can't take care of all of them and must rely on the older children to take care of the younger ones. There is no possible way physically or emotionally that the Duggars can nurture, and care for that many children. According to one of the documentaries, one of the rewards for a child doing its chores is the child gets to spend alone time with its mother! That is neglectful. Spending time with your mother shouldn't be a reward for work. Once again, I believe the situation is certainly child neglect. The parents neglect the children just because of the number children verses the number of hours in a day at a minimum. In my opinion the neglect is worsened when the older children bare the brunt of raising the younger children and all the children are forced to work due to the irresponsibility of the parents.

The Duggars are an embarrassment. I resent the Discovery Channel for giving them the attention they are getting.

Jastro, you must be kidding...

Sure, their family is a little odd. Okay, so they're a lot odd -- when compared to the rest of us. But let's see... they have clean clothes, three square meals a day, a roof over their heads, as well-rounded an education as any home schooler out there and a family that genuinely loves them. There are thousands of kids in Arkansas who are left to wish and pray to be that neglected and abused.

You say that the older kids take care of the younger ones... And that they have chores... And that they helped build their house. Congratulations, you just described a large number of people who grew up in the rural south up until about 30 or 40 years ago. I wonder if they called it abuse then.

I don't know, Coz, there's a lot more to life than three squares and a roof, even though I know that to the hungry it might look great. Maybe these kids will be model citizens, but maybe they will have life long scars from assembly-line parenting. I realize these people have broken no laws and I don't want the government to interfere in private lives, but I sure as all get out wish these people had gotten a clue after 9 or 10 and realized that emotionally this really is abuse. I think they passed odd 10 kids ago and have earned the title sicko.

Rev. Wright emailed me and asked me to ask how all this would play if the Duggars were black folks? Would the Discovery Channel have a series on them? Would people give them vans? Would people line up to help them build their Motel 6 house?

Does the God of white folks want a black woman to pop out 17 kids? Are we sure the God of white folks wants a white woman to do the same? Would the Peabody Little Rock let in a family of 19 black folks on Mother's Day and throw them a big party? Do you think they'd let Mamie & Hoke and their 17 black young'uns near them ducks? I have my doubts.

Enjoy Duggars! When China takes over in 10 years they're gonna take a dim view of all them kids, specially that passel of girls. The land of ONE MALE CHILD per couple meets the Duggars? It could be very ugly.

However, at the moment we're supposed to think this is a free country. It's her vagina, snot mine. Breed away and may the force be with ya. Ron Jeremy, Seka, and Marilyn Chambers made a fortune with their sex organs in the last century, so why would I care if the Duggars do the same here in the '00s? Just remember to cover up the poor tired dear when it's over, Jimbo old buddy.

Think I will reserve comment until the Duggar children enter society and prove they are employable with the education they have received, OR, have they just learned how to make $$$$ from TV/ What do you think?
Personally, I am so happy, happy, happy I didn't have to birth all those children.

Ah, the miracle of childbirth!

We humans started, so they tell us, with Adam and Eve, and look where it's got us. Cain and Abel - are their sisters ever mentioned?

Uh, no.

So, wait a minute. Cain and Abel screwed their Mother, Eve, to start populating the Earth? Screwed their sisters, Tiffany and Britney?

Yep. It's Biblical. Infallible. Deal with it.

So God created Men and Women. Result? Offspring. And offspring of offspring. And so on, ad infinitum.

From Adam and Eve Cleaver, we now have nearly 7 billion people.

Clearly, God's plan is to overpopulate Earth's resources until the global economy goes south and everybody starves to death.

Figures. Since God impregnated the underage virgin wife of an old man in a dream ("Right, Joseph.") and set it up so the kid gets betrayed and murdered at 30.

Thanks, Father.

I'm not sure what the Duggar family, and their ilk, are trying to prove.

All I know is their collective carbon footprint, and their offsprings', is more destructive to earth than tyrannosaurus rex's.

Michelle, sugar, four words: "No glove, no love."

Seriously, honey. The world has enough of your biscuits. Turn off the oven and find a more productive hobby.

Basket-weaving. Tie-dye. Floral arrangements. Adoption. ANYTHING but popping another unneeded child into the world just because you can.

For God's sake, cross your legs.

I hear a lot of people bitching about the population but no one ever does anything proactive about it. If just 17 people so concerned about how the Duggars are destroying the planet would jump off a bridge - problem solved. Sometimes it starts with you.

Okay, seriously. Every argument thrown against the Duggars is equally effective when turned around and used to describe other alternative families that I gather most people on this blog have no problem with. Emotional scars because they only sometimes get to spend alone time with their mom? What about children in two father housholds? They get no time with their mothers whatsoever. Single women who choose to adopt or go to the sperm bank? Those kids are denied a lifetime of daddy time as well. Whatever "welfare" the Duggars get will most likely be more than made up for when these 17 people start paying into Social Security for a lifetime. And also, isn't contraception and abortion available to everyone in this country? So really, all children on welfare didn't HAVE to be born. Aren't these the arguments conservatives use? So we're just gonna turn around and use them on the Duggars?

And by the way, saying "I support their right to live how they want but I still think it's bad for these reasons..." is still being self-righteous.

Peace out!

Well...anyway you cut it, the Duggars turn my stomach. That's not a family, that's an assembly line primarily designed for daddy's ego. How much time can they actually spend with each of their children...not too much between breeding/birthing and selling.

I am impressed, however, that Michelle can still walk around without her uterus hitting the ground.

The Discovery Channel should be ashamed.

Hey Mox, here's what I'm doing about population growth: not having any kids. JB and his litter probably don't believe that we are wasting the resources of our delicate planet, so why not keep having kids? I'll bet they produce more garbage (and no recycling) in 2 days than I do in a month. BTW, if you've ever seen the episode where the older boys build the house, you'd see several OSHA violations that would get a contractor shut down, but since they're doing it for themselves, it's just "cute". Uh huh.

And while birth control is *mostly* available (some doctors won't prescribe it, some pharmacists won't fill the scrip, some women don't have money for a doctor OR a pharmacy), if JB and his friends (Jim Holt) had their way, it wouldn't be. I do not support the way they live, but I think the decision to be responsible should come from them. I don't think it should be legislated.

I thought it was all about the right to choose with liberals.

Now the right to choose is seemingly second-fiddle to someone's carbon footprint, to read Norma write it.

Moreover, according to Norma, a child is unneeded. What a wrenching decision Norma's mother had to make.

I think it's cowardice to say that another human being shouldn't have been born while you yourself walk around breathing up our air. I'm a liberal but dang it, I couldn't agree with Arkansas Red anymore on this one.

* any more

I almost hate to bring up the *latest* news on the Duggars--number eighteen is on the way!

Good gosh...of course family size is a matter of personal choice. When we start dictating family size...China will have won. No matter how polluted the world or how complex our environmental problems, telling someone a baby can't be born for societal good is abhorrent.

The Duggars made another NBC Today appearance. Yes it was announced that Michelle is once again pregnant. Screen shot on the blue name.

Moxie, you have a point, but I still think this is worse than other alternative households because it's deliberate and unconditional. These people didn't find 17 children to adopt who had no home at all and would be quite happy with two fathers rather than none, or two mothers for that matter. Your argument about SS also doesn't work because this is a religion to these goof-balls, so their daughters will probably follow mom's lead and turn into babyfactories and never pay into SS, but they will draw just like those who work.

As for the hypocrisy of disliking what they do while defending their right to do it - that's pretty much what libs do. The ACLU defends the rights of rabid anti-gay protestors while libs defend gays. My neighbor has lots of guns and just before hunting season he will fire into the air a few times - guess he loves the sound or is checking the trigger - and I hate it and wish he would move, but if the ATBF showed up, providing he wasn't breaking any laws, I would help him defend his home.

I may fight hard for laws slowing the proliferation of guns, and I may fight hard for laws protecting the rights and safety of gays, but I want the government to strictly follow the law - not my whims. I don't want them or anyone else deciding what the rest of us can say or do without concern for law - sounds too much like Bush/Cheney style of governing.

Okay, Ci.Ci, you're right. There's nothing wrong with disliking what someone does as long as you defend their right to do it. That's what this country is about.

However... II still thing everyone's wrong about the welfare of these kids. I think they have perfectly good lives despite what your instincts might tell you. I speak with some experience as I am the result of generations of families not quite as large (my grandmother's family was the largest - 16 kids - but 10 to 12 kids was the norm for all the rest of my grandparents and great-grandparents). I'm the youngest of five kids which is small by comparison but larger than most of my friends' families. Having talked to my grandparents and great aunts and uncles about it, I can assure you that growing up in a large family is terrific by most survivors' accounts.

Okay, I haven't commented on the blog before even though I peruse its contents every day to see what's going on in Arkansas politics. I am compelled to comment on this string for various reasons. It seems to me that repugs condemn african americans for purportedly having more children to go on welfare. (their opinion). Seems to me that the Duggars have more children to keep their names in the spotlight and get compensation for continually giving birth year after year. I didn't watch the documentary because I believe that would give credence to them for so obviously pandering for attention; however, I'm sure they get compensation for it. Does anyone really think that the Duggars are putting up the cash to stay at the Peabody? Did they have to cancel brunch for everyone else or do they get their own dining room? I was planning on going there myself to have a nice brunch, but I think I'll pass.

That being said, of course they have every right to have as many kids as they want. I stopped at one because I wanted to give my child everything and be as attentive as possible. One of my friends has 5 children. I thought she was insane. I talk to her almost every day and she is constantly trying to mediate, clean, care for, do homework, etc. They all have their own set of chores, as well, but she barely has the time to spend with each one individually. Add 13 and I'm damn sure that you probably only check in weekly with a babe at the tit. Additionally, for those that did watch the documentary, did she have a real doctor? I can't imagine a doctor condoning that much use of her uterus. My friend with 5 had to have her insides rebuilt after the last one and her doctor told her she had to get her tubes tied or she could do some real damage. What about the health consequenses to Michelle?

These kids are probably going to turn out fine. While I find their choice painfully arrogant and egotistical, I defend their right to do as they choose. And while I also find it offensive that they have sold their story to the media, that is also their right, as is mine to choose not to watch.

The worst thing that comes out of this, though, is that they will probably all vote Republican.

Any one that calls someone that preaches the stuff that "Wright" does a "Reverand" seems a fool to me?
And as for the Duggars; its not child abuse because kids are helping mama and daddy take care of the house. This tells me they are learning responsibility and respect for other people. And to take advantage of an opportuntity eventhough it puts them in the lime light; Which of us would not do the same?

Get over it jastro and Norma and get on with your own lives.

I think they'd look a lot better if they dressed up the women folk in Mormon Meemaw dresses.

Man...I can't even think of a smartass comment anymore. I think it's because it stopped being funny after they hit the double digit mark on their excessive reproduction. I'm sure at least a few of these kids are gonna have some serious mental issues, if they don't already. Drug addiction for at least one of them = guaranteed. And, if you look at the odds, at least one of the boys is gay and two or three of the girls is bisexual, which is gonna make mommy and daddy sooooooo proud.

Duggars!!!! This isn't the 18th Century anymore. You don't need to have a bunch of kids to work your cotton farm. The world is overpopulated as it is, and if everyone started doing this, we would probably be at war over clean water and food within 6 months. If it's true what they say and the next big world war will be over water, I think we should mobilize the Arkansas National Guard against your family first. If the average person uses 3000 gallons of water each month, that means your family uses 720,000 gallons of clean water each and every year. That is equal to 584 million SIX PACKS of soda. That's the maximum daily usage for the city of Winchester, Ohio. That is as much water as it takes to fill 14 Olympic-sized swimming pools. So, don't spout off about how this is your personal decision and it doesn't effect everyone else. Go get your wife's tubes tied.

"Any one that calls someone that preaches the stuff that "Wright" does a "Reverand" seems a fool to me?" - Wes

Have you heard some of the stuff that comes out of white pastor's mouths? Jeremiah Wright is a lightweight compared to Hagee, Robinson, and Falwell (but they can say those things, because they're white Republicans, right?).

Just out of curiosity, what is the size of the economic stimulus check that Jim Bob & Michelle will be getting from the President ?

Michelle is now 41 years old. Given that it appears she and Jim Bob ain't gonna stop until she hits the white picket fence with the "Menopause" sign on it, they are now officially gambling not only with her health, but the health and quality of life of any children she might have from here on out. God forbid, but she's pretty much bound to push out a kid with developmental and/or physical problems sooner or later. That's just selfish and wrong.

One word comes to mind: YUCK!

I have no problem with kids doing chores. That is part of being in a family and ensures that your kid won't grow up to be a total lazy ass.
What I have a problem with is the kids doing EVERYTHING and the older children raising the younger ones. I promise you, there is gonna be resentment and a few kids getting the hell out of Dodge 1st chance they get.
Besides with that many kids they have to be at least 1 or 2 gay children in the mix, wonder what happens when they come out? Will there by a Discovery Channel special? Maybe an announcement on ABC?

It just looks like a circus freak show to me. .. and hell yeah they deserve ridicule as much as they deserve the right to manufacture children in an assembly line process.

imagine the family fights over the remote! One kid gets to ride shotgun every 17th day... soon to be eighteenth.

Imagine the kid who says "Mom said i could" and the others saying, "which ones Mom, oh yeah, the one in the hospital hatching another one."

The oldest kid has spent two years of their life with a mother nursing a six week or younger baby... another two years with a mother in the last six weeks of pregnancy.... I would definitely call that borderline intentional neglect.

DO the Duggars own their on name tag /label machine?

How do they keep up with their own socks and undies?

"I have no problem with kids doing chores. That is part of being in a family and ensures that your kid won't grow up to be a total lazy ass.
What I have a problem with is the kids doing EVERYTHING and the older children raising the younger ones."

Ditto. The all the children especially the older ones are baring the brunt of this. Wes, nice come back!!

One of the sad things is that the kids cannot grasp a different life. On one of the Discovery specials, one of the little girls (7-9 years old) was asked "what would you be doing right now if you weren't doing your jursidictional (their word for "chores")?" She looked panicked and said "But I HAVE to do my jurisdictional!" The question was repeated..."well, but what if you weren't doing it, what would you do instead? Would you play outside? Would you do something else?" It really seemed to me that she could no comprehend making a decison for herself on how she would like to spend her time. That says a lot. And it's sad. And it easily could be avoided.

Yes! If only she'd never been born she wouldn't have the dilemma of not knowing what life would be like if her life was different. Brilliant!

All I can remember is Mrs. Duggar was a cheerleader in high school. *grin*

"Any one that calls someone that preaches the stuff that "Wright" does a "Reverand" seems a fool to me?" - Wes

Have you heard some of the stuff that comes out of white pastor's mouths? Jeremiah Wright is a lightweight compared to Hagee, Robinson, and Falwell (but they can say those things, because they're white Republicans, right?).

Are using If youare sugesting that consider even these jokes to be reverands then you are truly a fool.

Sorry about that devilsadvocate I was carrying on another conversation.

"Any one that calls someone that preaches the stuff that "Wright" does a "Reverand" seems a fool to me?" - Wes
Have you heard some of the stuff that comes out of white pastor's mouths? Jeremiah Wright is a lightweight compared to Hagee, Robinson, and Falwell (but they can say those things, because they're white Republicans, right?).

Let me try to answer you this way.

If you are suggesting that I call these jokes reverent then you are just as foolish.

One of the sad things is that the kids cannot grasp a different life. On one of the Discovery specials, one of the little girls (7-9 years old) was asked "what would you be doing right now if you weren't doing your jursidictional (their word for "chores")?" She looked panicked and said "But I HAVE to do my jurisdictional!" The question was repeated..."well, but what if you weren't doing it, what would you do instead? Would you play outside? Would you do something else?" It really seemed to me that she could no comprehend making a decison for herself on how she would like to spend her time. That says a lot. And it's sad. And it easily could be avoided.

I agree that kids need to be kids, they need to learn how to have fun and if that is an issue here then I can and do say there is a problem. But I must say that at least she did say she had chores to do. Look at our society today more and more kids are learning to depend on a welfare state to take care of them in later times. I would rather see kids that have learned a useful skill such as building a house and keeping it repaired; than to hear of another welfare mother who is pregnant again. Now lets not go off the deep end and say that I said we should not those in need. If there is a physical problem and some one can not work by all means lets chip in and help out. I have been between jobs and needed food stamps a time or two, but I have never gone more than a few months until I found another job. If someone can work yet chooses not to then they don't need my help.

Hurry and pull out Jim Bob. Oh no, you were too late again!

Proof positive that when it comes to birth control, white people shouldn't practice the rhythm method.

I don't know how they find the time to have all the sex it takes to get that many babies. He must be a Klingon and everytime she walks by....

Alright already -- whose supporting this family? How much of my tax money is being used to raise this nutty family?

If God wanted families to have more than one baby Jesus would have had 17 brothers and sister's -- or did she/he?

If God wanted families to have more than one baby Jesus would have had 17 brothers and sister's -- or did she/he?

James was his brother and the bible does mention "brothers" and "sisters" plural. But it is not specific as to the number.