Safe at Home 4: Where the thread names change, but the Arndts stay the same

[Palimpsest]

I'm not comfortable with dxing Rick (or anyone else) with any form of dementia or mental illness from my armchair.  Not do I think there is any solid evidence of recent deterioration.

The man has been as eccentric as shit for years.  He's been a religious nut obsessed with keeping his children safe at home playing softball for years. He's been making VV for years. He's been taking the kidults for long drives for one-on-one time and filming their conversations in the car for years.  And he has been rambling interminably and incoherently on podcasts and videos ... for years.  It has been a life-long "ministry."

Now excuse me for having been dragging my right leg and shuffling for two days.  My knee is swollen and hurts.  I fell over the dog recently.  I took early retirement from my job but continue to work.  I misplaced my car keys last month but I do know what they are for.  And I forgot my reading glasses were on the top of my head yesterday.   So sue me, I don't think I have dementia.  Yet!  

 

[Carm_88]

Oh I think Rick is quite possibly a garden variety religious whackadoodle. Doesn't mean he hasn't gotten whackier as time as passed though. 

[JenniferJuniper]

I don't think Rick has dementia.  He's always been a crazy religious nut, but let's face it, he has accomplished a lot.  Nice, huge house with acreage in a very pretty rural location (and as he points out endlessly - just 8 miles to the St. Louis airport!) with an endless supply of personal servants helpmeets employees house elves offspring to run his businesses and allow him all the time for naval gazing, day dreaming, fantasy film-making, pontificating, proselytizing, and softball he could possibly want.

Not a life I'd want, but I'd never have been able to pull it all off if I had.   So backhanded kudos to Pastor Rick.

But I do think he's bored out of his mind at this point and has a desperate need for attention outside of his family. And there's no question he has some delusions of grandeur and narcissistic tenancies.  So these poor, often very sad FB women (some may be trolls, but I think most aren't) are giving him something he's not getting from his life.  It's also totally bizarre that he keeps inviting them to the homestead for their 40th anniversary party.  (See the canoe!  You can use it when you come visit!  You really can!  You can meet the ducks! You can meet each other!)  

I think Rick is a pastor desperately in need of a congregation. 

 

[Lisafer]

55 minutes ago, JenniferJuniper said:

I think Rick is a pastor desperately in need of a congregation. 

 

Oh please Rufus, no. That man doesn't need to have sway over any more lives than he already does.

@Palimpsest I agree that we can't actually diagnose. I didn't mean to do so. I see indications of possible mental illness, indications that make me very nervous, but I acknowledge that I am not a psychiatrist and that I don't know Rick in real life, so I could be totally off. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about that earlier. 

[nokidsmom]

6 hours ago, Palimpsest said:

The man has been as eccentric as shit for years.  He's been a religious nut obsessed with keeping his children safe at home playing softball for years. He's been making VV for years. He's been taking the kidults for long drives for one-on-one time and filming their conversations in the car for years.  And he has been rambling interminably and incoherently on podcasts and videos ... for years.  It has been a life-long "ministry." 

I agree with this.  I am not comfortable with diagnosing anyone but in the case of Rick, what he is doing now is what he has been doing for years.    I suspect that he might be worse now simply because of decades spent living in his own head.  I also tend to agree that retiring early might not have done him any favors because he doesn't, well frankly, get out more and into the real world. 

I have no idea what prompted his early retirement, but my bet is on that he simply passed on the responsibility for providing for the family to his sons once they were old enough so he could film his eternal project and pursue his "ministry".  And softball. 

[Fallsview]

I watched a couple of "Pastor Rick's" facebook lives yesterday and struck me as super weird is that he feels he has to do these whilst driving around in his car. So there he was—wasting gas, driving at night around his property with snow falling in bitter cold weather— talking to a handful of lonely women who "need prayers". Why couldn't do this from inside his house? Obviously, the family all knows he's doing this so he's not trying to hide it....This guy's biggest urge in life is to constantly demonstrate how deep and spiritual he is, no matter how much time or money he wastes in doing it.

[Petronella]

23 minutes ago, Fallsview said:

I watched a couple of "Pastor Rick's" facebook lives yesterday and struck me as super weird is that he feels he has to do these whilst driving around in his car. So there he was—wasting gas, driving at night around his property with snow falling in bitter cold weather— talking to a handful of lonely women who "need prayers". Why couldn't do this from inside his house? Obviously, the family all knows he's doing this so he's not trying to hide it....This guy's biggest urge in life is to constantly demonstrate how deep and spiritual he is, no matter how much time or money he wastes in doing it.

That's a really good question. I wonder if it the filming-while-driving started out as a way to get some privacy when the kids were young, and he's just retained a primal attachment to it.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

11 minutes ago, Petronella said:

That's a really good question. I wonder if it the filming-while-driving started out as a way to get some privacy when the kids were young, and he's just retained a primal attachment to it.

He used to use the drives to do one on one time with the kids individually so maybe the car is just where he gets into that headspace.

[JenniferJuniper]

On 1/31/2019 at 1:59 PM, Fallsview said:

This guy's biggest urge in life is to constantly demonstrate how deep and spiritual he is, no matter how much time or money he wastes in doing it.

And he's not even demonstrating how deep and spiritual he is.    You only need to watch/listen to one drive and you've seen/heard them all.  He talks about the exact same things every time, almost in the exact same order.   See the porch.  See the ducks.  See the mud.  See the neighbor's trash can.  Can you see the skyline?  Let me shine the car lights on the big crucifix in the cemetery.  Yes, I'll pray for your sister.  Blah, blah, blah lift her up,  Jesus.  You are all welcome to come out here for our wedding reunion.   Peter, are you listening?   Did you know in NY they can abort babies after they are born?  (I'm not making that one up; he said that.)

Of course I don't find any fundies inspirational, but this guy has absolutely nothing for anyone.  

[Elegant Mess]

Does anyone have an idea of how the Arndt prayer rooms work, and why they have thirty-four of them?  Is each room dedicated to a certain subject, or something?

[MarblesMom]

Came by yet another live FB tonight and have a few comments:

His parents came over, and he ended up sitting in his vehicle doing this feed.  For someone in their 60s, time to stop hiding from the parents.  Don't like 'em, don't invite them over.  Hiding in your van is so 14 year old you.

He said something about "killing babies OUTSIDE the womb" and I don't even know what to say about that.

He is sitting on his driveway in the dark ... can I post a shot of this?  He looks like a floating head in the dark.

[socalrules]

How old are his parents if he is in his 60s? For someone so family-oriented you would think he would want to spend as much time as possible with his parents. 

I wonder if the nightly drives/videos are basically compulsive and he can’t stop doing them. Maybe the whole if he stops something bad will happen. Then again, maybe Cathy won’t allow him to make videos in this house so he does it in the car. 

[Briefly]

10 hours ago, MarblesMom said:

He said something about "killing babies OUTSIDE the womb" and I don't even know what to say about that.

 

That is actually something I heard from more than one person I would consider to be rabidly pro-life.  Pro-life as in militant and not necessarily someone who would have any concerns about the baby once it was born.  The example one person used was China with the one-child policy, either an abortion that resulted in a live birth or a girl when the parents wanted a boy - but it was used as part of an anti-abortion argument.  One person in particular was in nursing school, and she was firmly convinced that all doctors who performed abortions were evil and that they all performed them up to full-term just for the money.  That may be why he said that.

[gustava]

49 minutes ago, Briefly said:

That is actually something I heard from more than one person I would consider to be rabidly pro-life.  Pro-life as in militant and not necessarily someone who would have any concerns about the baby once it was born.  The example one person used was China with the one-child policy, either an abortion that resulted in a live birth or a girl when the parents wanted a boy - but it was used as part of an anti-abortion argument.  One person in particular was in nursing school, and she was firmly convinced that all doctors who performed abortions were evil and that they all performed them up to full-term just for the money.  That may be why he said that.

He may be referring to the current brouhaha in Virginia, also.

[Palimpsest]

4 hours ago, Briefly said:

That is actually something I heard from more than one person I would consider to be rabidly pro-life. 

Yup.  It is an old and misinformed anti-choice argument.

Rush Limbaugh was yapping about it a few days ago.  As @gustava says, in response to the NY bill and this guy: https://freebeacon.com/issues/northman-on-40-week-abortion-bill-infant-would-be-delivered-and-then-a-discussion-would-ensue-between-the-physicians-and-the-mother/

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/after-birth-abortion/

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

10 hours ago, Palimpsest said:

Yup.  It is an old and misinformed anti-choice argument.

Rush Limbaugh was yapping about it a few days ago.  As @gustava says, in response to the NY bill and this guy: https://freebeacon.com/issues/northman-on-40-week-abortion-bill-infant-would-be-delivered-and-then-a-discussion-would-ensue-between-the-physicians-and-the-mother/

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/after-birth-abortion/

I'd love to see what some of these superb readers (  ) would make of Jonathan Swift's 1729 essay, generally known by the title, A Modest Proposal. Since it doesn't cover the "pre-born", I wonder if they might agree with his suggestions? (PDF of the essay available here:)

Spoiler

https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-hms-tmobile-us&ei=biZZXMDbN4ej8APmsaHgBw&q=jonathan+swift+a+modest+proposal+pdf&oq=jonathan+swift+a+modest+proposal+pdf&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp.1.0.0j0i22i30l2.331662.332942..334016...0.0..0.214.726.0j2j2......0....1.IakU4FhO3XA

 

[Carm_88]

On 2/4/2019 at 12:37 AM, MarblesMom said:

Came by yet another live FB tonight and have a few comments:

His parents came over, and he ended up sitting in his vehicle doing this feed.  For someone in their 60s, time to stop hiding from the parents.  Don't like 'em, don't invite them over.  Hiding in your van is so 14 year old you.

He said something about "killing babies OUTSIDE the womb" and I don't even know what to say about that.

He is sitting on his driveway in the dark ... can I post a shot of this?  He looks like a floating head in the dark.

That picture may haunt my dreams. 

[Naga Viper]

I'm actually kind of tempted to make that Rick pic my avatar. But (1) I still like the one I have now and (2) it does feel like the abyss gazing back at me.

[Briefly]

Oklahoma senator Joe Silk has re-introduced legislation, for the third time, that would make it a felony crime. Felony homicide, specifically.  He is on record as saying that a woman who has an abortion should get life in prison.  No word as far as I know about the doctor, just the woman being punished.  I'm sure he would punish the doctor as well, but I have not heard anything about that.  This may not be the right thread for it, it's just that with the discussion about Dear Old Dad Rick and his comments I was reminded of it.

[Lisafer]

39 minutes ago, Briefly said:

Oklahoma senator Joe Silk has re-introduced legislation, for the third time, that would make it a felony crime. Felony homicide, specifically.  He is on record as saying that a woman who has an abortion should get life in prison. 

What a goddamn motherfucking son of a bitch. 

Pardon my sailor mouth.

[Carm_88]

1 hour ago, Briefly said:

Oklahoma senator Joe Silk has re-introduced legislation, for the third time, that would make it a felony crime. Felony homicide, specifically.  He is on record as saying that a woman who has an abortion should get life in prison.  No word as far as I know about the doctor, just the woman being punished.  I'm sure he would punish the doctor as well, but I have not heard anything about that.  This may not be the right thread for it, it's just that with the discussion about Dear Old Dad Rick and his comments I was reminded of it.

Dumbass piece of shit. 

[gustava]

20 hours ago, Carm_88 said:

That picture may haunt my dreams. 

Has he had a stroke or is it just the lighting????

[Carm_88]

26 minutes ago, gustava said:

Has he had a stroke or is it just the lighting????

The lighting. The floating head look isn't good for anyone. 

[Naga Viper]

Oh, I don't know—it worked all right for Freddie and the boys.

Though obviously, I realize Rick is no Freddie. Let alone these guys:

Spoiler

 

 

[Georgiana]

Rick looks like he’s about to mentor some Power Rangers. Maybe THAT’S what the Arndt kidults have secretly been up to?

If I wasn’t on mobile, I’d photoshop him in: