19 Freakin' Kids and Counting

Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar ~ before her uterus became a clown car

If you're like me, this news might make you throw up a little bit in your mouth.

Forty-three-year old human populating machine Michelle Duggar gave birth to her 19th child, a 1 lb. 6 oz. girl named Josie Brooklyn. In case you haven't been paying attention to their previous 18 kids, all their names start with the letter "J". The baby was way premature; in fact, when I first read the headline I misread it and thought it declared that the baby arrived 19 months early. In actuality, Josie was due in the spring.

Now here's the deal. These folks have a show on TLC, The Learning Channel a/k/a The Litter Channel, which once upon a time pretended to teach the viewers various things. Now it just shows how to exploit folks with miscellaneous oddities, and please don't get all over me for using the word 'oddities.'

The Duggars have been blessed with 18 healthy children. Now that the missus is entering the twilight years of her fertility, we can only anticipate that Josie's birth is just the first of future difficult pregnancies and births.

My guess is that TLC is not going to get the viewing audience to warm up to pregnancies that clearly endanger the mother's health and may be just the beginning of children born with birth defects. Everything is so happy, snappy perfect in their lives! What if little Jujubee has cerebral palsy? Or tiny Jerusalem is born without arms?

Count me out.