The Duggars WILL return to reality TV. Pretty sure that's sign of the Apocalypse.

Courtesy of Christian Post:  

Fans of the TLC series "19 Kids and Counting" will be happy to know that the series will be back for another run. 

The stars of the series recently suffered through some scandals when it was revealed that Joshua Duggar took part in AshleyMadison.com, a website that serves as an online dating site for married men. With the family known as devout Christians, the news of Joshua's infidelity led to the show's cancellation. 

By the way the participation in the dating website is the ONLY reason given for why the show was originally cancelled.

There is no mention of Josh Duggar sexually abusing his sisters, the family's attempt to cover that up, or the fact that Josh Duggar physically abused a porn star.

How very Christian of this news outlet to provide cover for the Duggars once again.

Well so much for TLC or the Duggar family learning anything from this experience.

19 Kids and Counting has been officially cancelled.

Courtesy of US Magazine:  

Almost two months after news broke of Josh Duggar's molestation scandal, TLC has canceled his family's reality show, 19 Kids and Counting, the Associated Press reported on Thursday, July 16. 

"After thoughtful consideration, TLC and the Duggar family have decided to not move forward with 19 Kids and Counting. The show will no longer appear on the air," the network said in an official statement, adding that "the recent attention around the Duggars has sparked a critical and important conversation about child protection." 

TLC's cancellation puts an end to months of speculation about the fate of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar's famously large brood. The couple and their kids first rose to fame back in 2008, and finished their 10th season of 19 Kids this past May. 

In addition to canceling the show, the network has teamed with two child-protection organizations to raise awareness about child sexual abuse. They're planning to air an hour-long documentary about the issue next month. 

So if you have ever wondered exactly what line a crappy reality show had to cross in order for TLC to cancel it, the answer is "diddle your sister."

Gee I wonder what all of those conservatives who raced to Josh Duggar's defense will say about this?

Huckabee? Palin? Anybody?

One of Josh Duggar's non-family molestation victims is preparing to file a lawsuit against him. Hmm, I guess somebody didn't pray hard enough.

Courtesy of In Touch:  

A non-Duggar family molestation victim is preparing to file a civil suit against Josh Duggar, sources tell In Touch magazine exclusively in the new issue on newsstands today. 

The shocking development means that Josh and his parents Jim Bob and Michelle could be forced to give depositions and testify about Josh’s molestation scandal. The Duggars likely will have to answer every question as they will not be able to invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination because the criminal statute of limitations has expired.

You know methinks the Palin family and the Duggars are in some kind of Christian  hypocrisy competition and the Duggars just pulled ahead.

The article goes on to mention that Duggar family is STILL under investigation by the Department of Human Services which means that we may learn a whole lot more about sexual abuse and molestation within this supposedly wholesome Christian family.

Do they even make enough popcorn for this kind of thing?

Jill Duggar and her hubby want money so that they can flee the country.

Courtesy of Radar Online:  

Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard say that God is telling them that it is time to get out of America! 

In a statement on their family blog, Dillard said, “God has put a desire in our hearts to serve Him internationally for longer than the typical short-term mission trip… It’s something we’ve prayed about together in an effort to seek God’s plan for our lives in His service.” 

This decision comes shortly after the revelation that Jill’s brother Josh had allegedly molested her and her sister when they were children.

Of course the husband makes it sound like he has no choice because God "put a desire in our hearts to serve him internationally."  

The term "put a desire in our hearts" sounds really icky and sort of like bullshit to me.

But what do I know I'm a heathen?

I mean to my cynical mind this just seems like a really convenient way to be out of the line of fire when the next devastating revelations about your family hit the internet. But once again...you know...heathen.

Actually I might be willing to donate a dollar or two to this cause, but only if I could be assured that they would never return, and after establishing a base camp in some country where diddling your sister was perfectly okay, would then call for the rest of the Duggar family to join them.

Jim Bob Duggar was once a Senate candidate back in 2002. Wanna guess what his views were on incest and rape back then?

Courtesy of Gawker:  

Jim Bob’s platform on his campaign website—preserved via web cache—states that he believes “rape and incest represent heinous crimes and as such should be treated as capital crimes.” Jim Bob offered this belief to explain his position on abortion (only acceptable if both the mother and the baby were going to die anyway, of course)

So the take away is this:

"If a woman is raped, the rapist should be executed."

And of course this:

" Rape and incest represent heinous crimes and as such should be treated as capital crimes."

Interesting. Especially considering the fact that 2002 and 2003 were the years that Jim Bob's own son Josh was committing these same "heinous crimes" against his own daughters.

And just when I thought I would never see another heretofore unimagined level of hypocrisy.

And just when I thought this picture could not get any creepier.

Four of the six Christian homeschooled brothers who molested their younger sister for a decade plead guilty.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

Four homeschooled brothers pleaded guilty Thursday to molesting their younger sister from the time she was 4 years old until she was almost 15 – and their parents and two other brothers still face charges related to the case. 

The oldest brother confessed in December 2012 to molesting the girl after becoming a born-again Christian, and a pastor from the Baptist church in Wake Forest, North Carolina, contacted authorities the following day. 

“He confided in his pastor and his pastor told him that was wrong and not the way normal families are,” said Perquimans County Sheriff Eric Tilley. 

Eric Jackson, then 25, told authorities that he and all five of his brothers had sexually abused their younger sister for a decade, and authorities say their parents knew but did nothing to stop the abuse. 

An elder at Hope Baptist Church, which Jackson and another brother attended, compared the pattern of abuse to other “horrible” sins such as adultery and homosexuality. 

“If Jesus had not saved Eric, perhaps the devastating culture of this family could have continued, even to more generations,” wrote elder Scott Brown. “But the gospel transforms and shines light in dark places. Jesus was the source of light that caused things to be brought into the light.”

So Jesus could bring things to light after the fact but could do nothing to prevent this child's abuse? 

Not a terribly impressive deity is he?

Still I am going to give this pastor some credit for not helping to hide the secret as the Duggar family's religious advisers seem to have done.

However in this case just like the last, it is the parents who most deserve our disgust.

They knew about this and did nothing to protect their children, both the molesters who will now serve time in jail for their offenses, and the molested who will serve a life sentence in a prison from which there is not parole.

Gee two different Christian homeschooled families, kept apart from their contemporaries, and now revealed to have serious episodes of incest and sexual abuse.

Anybody else noticing a pattern?

What the future could hold for America if the religious Right Wing get their way.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:

A 10-year-old pregnant with her stepfather’s child will not be allowed to get an abortion because the government of Paraguay doesn’t believe that her life in immediate danger. 

On April 23, the unnamed girl was reportedly checked into the hospital by her mother. She complained of stomach pains and tests showed she was already 21-weeks pregnant. Earlier this week, her mother apparently requested her daughter be given an abortion, and when it was revealed that her stepfather impregnated her, the mother was taken into custody. 

Doctors requested permission to perform the procedure. In Paraguay, abortions can’t be performed in the case of rape or incest, and only if the government decides that a life is in danger. In this case they decided it wasn’t.

So not only did this innocent child suffer the trauma of sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather, but now she is expected to carry his baby to term. Which for a ten year old child is a prospect fraught with danger. 

For those who do not think this can happen in America, you are right.

For now.

But if the religious conservatives get what they ultimately want, incidents like this will start to take place right here in the US of A.

As a matter of fact if Mike Huckabee were to be elected, we could be dealing with this as early as 2017.

This courtesy of a New York Times article from 1996: 

Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas today refused to authorize a Medicaid payment for an abortion for a 15-year-old girl whose stepfather has been charged with incest, despite a Federal judge's order that such payments were required by Federal law.

Frightening isn't it?

And it is not only abortion that the Religious Right wants to do away with. It's also access to birth control.

From a book by Robert Boston called "Taking Liberties": 

The hierarchy of the Catholic Church lobbied to restrict access to all contraceptive devices and medications. Many Protestant leaders did as well. Most Protestant denominations would later drop their opposition to birth control. The Catholic hierarchy never did. 

It’s important to understand that church officials sought to ban birth control even for married couples and non-Catholics and that this continued until the 1960s. In addition, the laws that church officials pushed to pass didn’t just outlaw birth control, they also forbade information about birth control. Well into the twentieth century, in some states, a married couple could ask a doctor for advice about how best to limit the size of their family and be told that he could not legally distribute such information. Laws like this were common throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century in New England states, which had a strong Catholic tradition.

Today these anti-contraception ideas have spread from the Catholic church and metastasized within the Evangelical community as well. 

They don't often publicize with the same ferocity with which they oppose abortion, but the Hobby Lobby case opened a preview into what they are ultimately fighting to attain.

Total control over a woman's reproductive system, which they see as a birthing center for God with which no man, or woman, has the right to interfere.

So do I need to remind you again why it is of the utmost importance to make sure to elect a President who will choose Supreme Court Justices that are pro-choice?

I didn't think so.

Alaska's Senate Majority Leader attempting to pass legislation that will essentially make abortion unattainable for the women of our state.

Courtesy of KTUU:  

Medically necessary abortions would be defined as those needed to avoid serious risk to the life of the woman under a bill introduced in the Alaska Senate. 

The measure, from Senate Majority Leader John Coghill, says the state health department may not pay for abortion services unless they are medically necessary or the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest and the rape or incest was "promptly reported" to law enforcement or public health authorities. 

The Alaska Supreme Court has held that the state must fund medically necessary abortions if it funds other procedures deemed medically necessary for people in need. A legislative legal opinion last year, however, said it's not clear what makes an abortion medically necessary, and that it's likely only further litigation will provide greater clarity.

Only allow access to abortions for those that are raped? And only for those where the rape was "promptly reported?" What state does this neanderthal misogynist think he represents?

This is Alaska, where victims of rape and incest are more often than not in tiny villages with only one or two safety officers on hand, and where getting a State Trooper out there can take many hours if not days. And while they wait they are quite likely living with their attacker, if they are victims of incest, or surrounded by the perpetrator's family members who will pressure them into shutting up.

Coghill's proposed bill is an attack on women in this state, especially poor or native women, and should signal the end of his political career for all time.

If you are a woman in Alaska it is time for your voice to be heard loud and clear.

Here is Coghill's contact information. Don't bother trying to be respectful, he certainly has no respect for you.