Random Musings

TLC has canceled the Duggar's television program, months after the release of the reports that Josh Duggar is a child molester.

At work, I have the uncanny ability to say anything to the clients because most people … most people … like my sense of humor.

So, this happened … client comes in, and we've done business with her before and I am acquainted with her, so I step up to help her:

Bob: How are you doing today?

Client: I fucking hate people.

Bob: Um … okay?

Client: I’ve been dealing with fucking assholes all day long and I am at the end of my rope. How do you deal with fucking asshole clients?

Bob: You tell me … how am I doing so far?

What? Was that bad???

PS She laughed.

I thought the Confederate flag issue was a distinctly Southern issue, but it appears the lunacy extends out west …

Case in point: Republican, of course, Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, who sent out an email blast last week about the impending vote here in South Carolina to remove the flag. She defended the flag, calling it part of U.S. history, and saying Americans need to remember both the good and the bad parts of our shared history.

Um, Michele? You dim-bulb? That’s what we were saying about the flag, but we added that we don’t think it should be celebrated and flown over our statehouse. We all know its part of our history and needs to be remembered which is why the flag is being set up in a museum.

But Michelle is dumb, and she doesn’t get it, and she’s probably a bit of a toothless, cousin-fucking, racist hillbilly, even out there in Nevada, because now she has vowed to install a horn on her truck that sounds like the one in General Lee, the car from the TV show Dukes of Hazzard.

Hopefully the horn can at least drown out her idiotic, and stupid, rants.

This week’s Hot Men are, well to put it nicely, a couple of distinct choices. Neither one is classically handsome, but, for me at least, there’s something about each of them that gives me a tingle.

Rami Malek is the star of Mr. Robot and plays a nerdy, morphine-addicted, computer hacker. And, yeah, there’s something there … I’m guessing it’s the eyes, that I just find so attractive.

Then we have Justin Fichelson, a realtor and co-star of Million Dollar Listing: San Francisco. Again, not handsome in the usual context, but there’s something there; plus, he has kind of a cute little giggle.

So, you see, the mens don’t have to be beauties, or hotties, sometimes they just have to have something.

[Rami Malek, Justin Fichelson]

So, while Donald [t]Rump might be cheering, and bloviating, about being at the front of the GOP Clown Minivan, we also have some other news about The [t]Rump.

Out of all GOP contenders vying for the White House, [t]Rump is the weakest competitor against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Yup, in a nationwide survey, [t]Rump leads all of the GOP 17%, with Jeb! in second at 14%; but match up [t]Rump with Hillary and those numbers fall dramatically: he trails her by 17-points.

So, g’head GOP and Teabagger voters, put [T[]Rump up and then watch as he crumbles against Clinton.

[photo source]

So, in our home office, on the floor beside the desk, is a doggie-cat bed — it’s either one of those things depending on who’s sleeping in it at the time.

Sidenote: that photo was taken on one of those rare days when they shared the bed.

When I’m on the computer, Ozzo comes back with me and sleeps in the bed, but then Tuxedo, the Alpha Pet, sits on the desk, above the pet bed, hovering and staring like a gargoyle, literally scaring Ozzo out of the bed, at which time Tuxedo gets into it and  falls asleep.

Recently, though, Ozzo, who has been neutered, apparently grew some balls, and decided he wouldn’t give up his bed. So Tuxedo tried a new tactic.

He still stood on the desk staring at Ozzo, and then, suddenly, Ozzo would leap from the bed like something had bitten him. I coerced the dog back into the bed, only to have leap from it a few seconds later. this happened about five times before I took a look at the bed, and saw the ballpoint pens and giant paper clips that Tuxedo was pushing off the desk onto Ozzo to make him get out of the bed.

Best part? Tuxedo didn’t even want the bed … he just liked making Ozzo jump.

That cat!

Oh Camille Cosby … what-the-ever-loving-hell is wrong with you?

Camille has stood by her husband, accused serial rapist Bill Cosby, even in the face of nearly fifty women stepping forward to say he drugged them and raped them, but her latest response is the worst of all.

A source — and, yeah, I know, sometimes sources aren’t exactly truthful, but this time it fits in with Camille’s MO — says:

“Camille still doesn’t believe that Bill provided drugs and had sex with women without their consent. She’s well aware of his cheating, but she doesn’t believe that her husband is a rapist.”

So, she knows he’s a serial cheater, and has been throughout their marriage, but he would  never drug women; okay, have that opinion, but it’s what she says next that irks the hell outta me.

She says the sex was consensual; that these fifty women told Bill Cosby to drug them so he could have sex with them, or, as I see it, rape them.

Sure, maybe once, maybe, but fifty times? Open your eyes, Camille. You can still love him, if you choose, but your husband is a rapist.

[photo source] 

Gosh, I loathe weather-people. I mean, I’m sure it must get boring because, for the most part, the weather in most places doesn’t vary a great deal day-to-day, so they have to do something to make it seem ominous and threatening, or, at least, interesting.

This week, watching GMA over breakfast, the weatherperson was talking about the severe storms taking place in the Midwest — as they have for weeks, and have been doing this time of year, forever — and she said this:

“There were over 900 storm reports.”

Sounds innocuous enough, though it also sounds like there were 900 storms, and not 900 phone calls about, perhaps, one storm. I mean, look at it like this: say my house caught fire … goddess forbid … knock wood … hurl salt … spit to the right … and the fire department got calls from all twenty of our neighbors.

Is that reports of twenty fires, or twenty reports of one fire?

Use your words carefully weatherpeople. Sheesh.

[photo source]

Minute Rant: The Duggar Girls Are Still Victims ... Of Their Need To Be Famous

So, a couple of Josh Duggars’ victims — two of the sisters he ‘duggared’ while they slept — Jill Duggar Dillard and Jessa Duggar Seewald broke their silence about their older brother and his naughty ways with them when they were sleeping children and it’s as loony as one might imagine.

Jessa says:

"I think in the case of what Josh did, it was very wrong. I'm not going to justify anything he did or say it was okay or permissible. But I do want to speak up in his defense against people who are calling him a child molester or pedophile or rapists. That is so overboard and a lie really. People get mad at me for saying that, but I can say this. I was one of the victims. I can speak out and set the record straight here." 

First up, Jessa, he is a child molester, so don’t try to rewrite history, m’kay?  You were a victim as a child and apparently you are still a victim today because you seek to make his crimes seem really inconsequential and accidental; they aren’t. Creeping into the rooms of sleeping girls seven times and fondling them, both over and under their clothes, is not just a mistake.

It’s a pattern of abuse, that Jill says really makes no difference because she never knew it was happening, so I guess if a victim of molestation doesn’t wake up during the abuse, or, maybe she did wake up, but then blocked it out, then all should just be swept under the rug. But Jill goes further, saying that what happened to her was "very mild compared to what happened to some."

Well, aren’t we all so happy to know that you’re thrilled Josh didn’t go further and that groping you while you slept, both over and under your clothes, on multiple occasions, is kinda fine for you.

Let’s be clear, this lovely bit of acceptance at being sexually abused by their brother comes at a time when a spin-off of that Duggar show — featuring the daughters, including Jill and Jessa — is up in the air, so this all reeks of trying to salvage their Golden Egg of TV Fame; maybe the girls think if they just play down the fact their brother is a sexual predator they can still have a TV show and not have to get a real job.

Molested by their brother. Brainwashed by their parents. Trying to sell themselves to TV. Pretending to be devout Christians, and spewing their hypocrisy, because, had this been an outsider who climbed in a window and molested those girls, you can bet it would have been filmed and aired as a Very Special Episode.

Don’t put any of them back on TV. Ever.

My Two Cents: The Duggars ... Again

I knew it would only get worse for the Duggars and I seem to have been correct.

A new police report has been released detailing the sexual molestation of five minor girls by Josh Duggar, and the most damning revelation is that Josh told his father, Jim Bob, not one time, as the Duggars have suggested, but on THREE SEPARATE OCCASIONS that he’d been molesting his sisters — one of whom was just five years old at the time — and a family friend; and that there were at least SEVEN acts of sexual molestation.

What I find just as disgusting as Josh molesting these defenseless girls, is that even after telling his parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar waited another 16 months before speaking to anyone about the crimes.

Jim Bob claims in the report that the family talked about what happened with the minors — some of whom were his own children — and since only one had any memory of the molestation ... she said she woke up to find Josh 'taking her blanket away' — so nothing was done about it because, well, if the girls don’t remember their brother sexually assaulting them, then let’s just not talk about it, and do nothing about it.

Even worse is, at that time, the Duggars did not get Josh — or his victims — any form of counseling; in fact, to this day they refuse to say if the counseling that finally did occur came as a result of a court order after the Families In Need of Services and the Arkansas Department of Human Services became involved in the case.

For covering up Josh’s crimes, Jim Bob and Michelle could have been faced six years in prison, but this didn’t happen because, by the time an official police report was taken, in 2006, the statute of limitations had run out. So, let’s be clear: Jim Bob, Michelle, and Josh all broke the law and all got away with it. Great family values, and true Christians, but then they had a TV show to protect and an agenda — anti-LGBT — to carry on.

All this comes on the heels of a new interview with Joseph Hutchens — the police officer, now in prison for possession of child pornography — who says Jim Bob Duggar lied to him saying Josh had molested one girl, one time — as though that makes it better.

Josh Duggar, for his part, and only after the first police report emerged, issued this statement:

“Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends. I confessed this to my parents who took several steps to help me address the situation. We spoke with the authorities where I confessed my wrongdoing, and my parents arranged for me and those affected by my actions to receive counseling.”

Notice he never says he molested anyone, but that he just acted ‘inexcusably;’ funny that, since molestation is a criminal offense and not an inexcusable act. Oh, but he's suffered for his crimes, y'all; he was forced to step down from his job at the virulently anti-LGBT Family Research Council, and he had to move back to Arkansas from Washington DC with his wife Anna — expecting their fourth child — and their three children. 

And as for Anna; after the story broke, she reaffirmed her support for Josh, saying that he had confessed his “past teenage mistakes” two years before he proposed to her. So, he told her that he had molested children and she went ahead and married him and had children with him because, in her mind, pedophilia is just a teenage mistake.

And then Jim Bob and Michelle released their own statement:

“Back 12 years ago our family went through one of the most difficult times of our lives. When Josh was a young teenager, he made some very bad mistakes, and we were shocked. We had tried to teach him right from wrong. That dark and difficult time caused us to seek God like never before.”

Bad mistakes? A difficult time for the family? Young girls, children, were molested and they make it seem as though it was nothing at all. Sexual molestation of a minor is not a ‘very bad mistake,’ it’s a crime.

Of course, this is the same Jim bob Duggar who, in 2002, knowing that his son had molested several girls, including his own daughters, said incest and rape should be punishable by death. Unless, I’m guessing, you’re a Duggar and went away to Construction Camp.

And this is the same Michelle Duggar who, just last year, compared transgender individuals to 'child predators' even though she’d known for twelve years that her own sin was a sexual predator. But then, transgender is bad, and Duggars just make mistakes.

Last night Jim Bob and Michelle were interviewed by Megyn Kelly of Fox News … of course. Kelly said her aim is to get the entire story, but that details of the molestation are off-limits because, well, let’s continue to protect Josh Duggar, pedophile, for his ‘mistakes.’

Here’s some of what the Duggars spun last night …

Kelly, at one point, asked about Michelle Duggar about that robocall she made, and Kelly said she felt that it “suggested transgender people might want to go into the bathrooms of girls, locker rooms of girls, and that they may be child molesters.”

Michelle Duggar responded:

“I think that protecting young girls and not allowing young men and men in general to go into a girls’ locker room is just common sense.”

Well, let’s all get it that Michelle Duggar knows nothing about trans people except the lie the voices in her head tell. But Kelly pressed on, saying Michelle Duggar “injected child molestation into it.”

Well, then Jim Bob got his knickers twisted and said his wife used the word “pedophile” in that anti-LGBT robocall, and then explained what a pedophile is:

“Actually a pedophile is an adult that preys on children. Joshua was actually 14 and just turned 15 when he did what he did. I think the legal definition is 16 and up for an adult preying on a child. He was a child preying on a child.”

Oops, my bad. Josh Duggar is NOT a pedophile, y’all, and the Duggars want you to know that; he’s just a sexual predator and a child molester and a fondler and a fingerer and a pervert … but NOT a pedophile.

But what galls me is that when Megyn Kelly asked if the Duggars could understand the reactions of some people to the news, this is what Michelle said:

“I can understand that. But I know every one of us has done things wrong. This is more about, there’s an agenda. And there’s people that are purposing to try to bring things out and twisting them to hurt and slander.”

We’ve all done things wrong, but how many of us crept into our siblings rooms while they slept and sexually abused them? How many of us hid our child’s crimes and sent him away to Construction Camp instead of getting him help? How many of us broke the law? The Duggars did all of those things, and to continue to play the Poor Us card because now people are just being mean.

Go.Away. And that might happen, fingers crossed. The Duggars show, 19 Kids and Counting has been pulled off the network in the wake of this scandal, though TLC has not announced if they will cancel the program altogether; a spinoff, featuring some of the Duggar girls had been planned though it’s fate is also up in the air.

However, the show has been removed from Hulu, and major advertisers including General Mills, Jimmy Dean, Pure Leaf Iced Tea, Ace Hardware, David's Bridal, ConAgra Foods, Party City and Behr Paint will no longer advertise on the program, while other companies, including CVS, H&R Block, Ricola and Keurig have said they will no longer advertise on the network at all if the show returns to air. 

Look, it’s clear the Duggars aided and abetted a child molester, their own son, and waited just long enough so that no charges could be filed against him, for being a pedophile, and against them, for helping him hide his crimes. And let’s not forget their crimes as parents, when they allowed a known sexual predator back into their homes to sleep down the hall from the girls he sexually abused.

And let’s not let TLC off the hook, because, unless and until they take this show, and any spinoffs, off the air, they are also guilty of acting as though child sexual abuse is not a big deal, if the family involved brings in big ratings and big revenues.

It’s time all sides were held accountable — as much as Josh and his criminal parents can be since we actually have a statute of limitations of pedophilia in this country — and we stopped celebrating these kinds of families, and these kinds of television networks.

And it’s time we took our politicians, and religious leaders, who stand by child molesters and those who hide the crimes of child molesters, and fail to stand up for the victims. You cannot, and should not, ask to be the leader of this country while acting as though child sexual molestation is no big deal; you cannot, and should not, talk to me about God, when you stand in a pulpit and say that a few months of a building project is all the rehabilitation a pedophile need.

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