The passionate response of the jury has not been felt by legal experts, many of whom believe the decision against Drew sets a dangerous precedent. According to Groklaw's Pamela Jones (via Wired), because Drew was convicted of violating the oft-ignored terms of service, "I don't think it's overstating it a bit to say that unless this case is overturned, it is time to get off the internet completely, because it will have become too risky to use a computer. At a minimum, I'd feel I'd need to avoid signing up for membership at any website, particularly MySpace." Some federal law experts expect the ruling in the case to be overturned when it comes up in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, since they believe the interpretation of the law is a stretch.

But apparently the jurors for the case were not upset by the new interpretation of the decades-old Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to include violations of terms of service. "The thing that really bothered me was that (Drew's) attorney kept claiming that nobody reads the terms of service," Kunasz tells Wired. "I always read the terms of service. . . . If you choose to be lazy and not go though that entire agreement or contract of agreement then absolutely you should be held liable." Lori Drew has clearly been convicted in the court of public (and jury) opinion — but does her case hold up when held to emotion-free scrutiny?

Jurors Wanted To Convict Lori Drew Of Felonies But Were Stymied By Prosecutors [Wired]
Can Lori Drew Verdict Survive The 9th Circuit Court? [Wired]

Earlier: Megan Meier's Mother Talks To Today About MySpace Verdict
Lori Drew Verdict
MySpace Trial, Day 1: Megan Meier's Last Words
MySpace Trial, Day 2: Lori Drew Says, "It's Not Like I Pulled The Trigger"
MySpace Trial, Day 3: Lori Drew's Daughter Speaks
MySpace Trial, Day 4: Sarah Drew Says Megan "Was My Best Friend"

Though the jurors did not indicate which charge they're hung up on, Wired also makes the point that three of the charges are nearly identical, so it's likely that the conspiracy charge is the one they're struggling with. In addition, "Jurors can find Drew guilty of conspiracy if they conclude that she schemed with others in violating MySpace's terms, without necessarily committing a computer crime herself." However, some detractors of Federal prosecutor Thomas O'Brien still believe that Lori Drew should not have been charged in the first place. Reason Magazine's Jacob Sullum says:

The charges did not fit the facts of the case…[O'Brien] never presented any evidence that Drew saw MySpace's Terms Of Service, let alone agreed to them. Furthermore, O'Brien's interpretation of the law would make criminals of us all. Shortly after the indictment, Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor who later volunteered as a pro bono attorney for Drew, noted, "Since everyone who uses computers violates dozens of different TOS every day, the theory would make everyone who uses computers a felon."

The jury will reconvene at 9 a.m. to try to hash out that final charge and attempt to reach a unanimous verdict.

Lori Drew Jury Nears Verdict on Three Charges, Struggles With Fourth [Wired]
MySpace Jury Reaches Verdicts On Some Counts [L.A. Times]
Thomas O'Brien's MySpace Hoax [Reason]

Earlier: MySpace Trial, Day 1: Megan Meier's Last Words
MySpace Trial, Day 2: Lori Drew Says, "It's Not Like I Pulled The Trigger"
MySpace Trial, Day 3: Lori Drew's Daughter Speaks
MySpace Trial, Day 4: Sarah Drew Says Megan "Was My Best Friend"

• Megan allegedly called Sarah an "ugly lesbian," which is what prompted Lori Drew and her business assistant, Ashley Grills, to create the fake MySpace account in the first place.
• According to People:
  

  Drew's now 16-year-old daughter Sarah testified Monday that, on Oct. 16, she was with Grills and, "I told her not to send that last message" to Megan that said that the world would be a better place without her.
  "Did Ashley send that last message?" O'Brien asked.
  "Yes," Drew said as she wept.
  Two of the six female jurors dabbed at their eyes.
  "She was my best friend," the defendant's daughter tearfully recalled.

• Defense attorney Dean Steward said in his closing statements that Drew can not be guilty of a conspiracy because a conspiracy implies intent. Drew didn't even read the MySpace terms of use, so she could not have intentionally violated them. "Nobody reads these things, nobody," he said. "... How can you violate something when you haven't even read it? End of case. The case is over."
• More from Steward: "If you hadn't heard the indictment read to you, you'd think this was a homicide case…And it's not a homicide case. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a computer case, and that's what you need to decide."
• In addition, he added that there was no cyberbullying in this case because "Megan dished it out the same way that she got it," and Steward also said, "[Ashley] Grills, bless her heart, is pathetic."
• The prosecution focused on the tragedy of the case in order to sway jurors. According to the AP, "Lori Drew decided to humiliate a child," U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said. "The only way she could harm this pretty little girl was with a computer. She chose to use a computer to hurt a little girl, and for four weeks she enjoyed it."
• "The tragedy in this case is not just Megan Meier's suicide," U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said in his closing arguments to jurors, Reuters reports. "It's the fact that it was so preventable. If, as a 47-year-old woman Lori Drew was so upset that Megan Meier had called her daughter ugly or a lesbian, she could have gone over and talked to her mom and we wouldn't be here."

Judge Postpones Ruling On Lori Drew MySpace Trial [Wired]
Jury Gets Case Of MySpace Hoax Tied To Suicide [AP via MSNBC]
Cyber-Bullying Suicide Case Goes to Jury [People]
Jury To Deliberate In MySpace Suicide Case [Reuters]
Lori Drew Case Goes To Jury [Wired]

Earlier: MySpace Trial, Day 1: Megan Meier's Last Words
MySpace Trial, Day 2: Lori Drew Says, "It's Not Like I Pulled The Trigger"
MySpace Trial, Day 3: Lori Drew's Daughter Speaks

• Sarah Drew told the court that her mother Lori thought the MySpace hoax was a good idea only for the first two weeks of tormenting Megan. Sarah claims that Lori told her assistant, Ashley Grills, to delete the "Josh" profile at that time.
• According to the AP, " Sarah also said she tried to stop Grills from sending the final message. 'I was like, Ashley, no, don't send it,' Sarah said. 'She said she sent it and laughed about it.'"
• Sarah testified that she never saw her mother use the MySpace account, directly contradicting Grills.
• Also from the AP:
  

  Sarah said Megan confided in her on two occasions that she wanted to kill herself. "She was like, I don't know if I could live anymore," she said of one instance. "I told her not to do it." Sarah cried on the witness stand and nodded when O'Brien questioned her about why she didn't tell any adults about the suicide conversations. Defense attorney Dean Steward stood up and lashed out at the region's top federal prosecutor for badgering the teenage girl.

• After the prosecution rested its case on Friday, Wired reports, Drew's defense asked for an immediate dismissal based on Sarah's testimony that Lori Drew never read or agreed to the MySpace terms of use, and as a result could not have violated these terms. Furthermore, Ashley Grills accepted these terms of use, not Lori Drew.
• From Wired:
  

  Wu retired to his chambers to review transcripts of previous testimony and consider the motion. When he emerged 30 minutes later, he asked both sides to file written briefs on the issue. He allowed the defense to proceed with direct examination of its witnesses and said he'd give his decision about the motion to dismiss on Monday.

Daughter Defends Mom In MySpace Hoax Trial [AP via USA Today]
Judge Considers Throwing Out Lori Drew Case [Wired]

Earlier: MySpace Trial, Day 1: Megan Meier's Last Words
MySpace Trial, Day 2: Lori Drew Says, "It's Not Like I Pulled The Trigger."

• ...Just like Lance Armstrong, Hitler, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the other dudes with a single testicle.
• But as far as we know, those dudes have bellybuttons, unlike Karolina Kurkova, the no-navel icon.
• She may have a navel, but Lori Drew has no soul.
• Michelle Obama has a soul and, according to an obsessed Salon scribe, a big butt.

• Do vampires like big butts? Maybe we'll find out as Twilight mania takes over the nation.
• Vampires seem rather chivalrous, unlike many modern men, so at least they'd let your big butt in the cab first.
• Speaking of nether regions, one time Carrie Fisher's mom got her a vibrator for Christmas.
• A wrap dress will cover up your business (usually), but is it ever flattering?
• Victoria's Secret fashion show: covering your business in maribou since 1977.
• You guys. Thank effing Gawd it's Friday! So eat, read celebrity gossip on the internet and nap the day away. You deserve it!

• When Lori Drew helped set up the fake MySpace account because Megan had allegedly been mean to her daughter Sarah, she bragged to her hairdresser Christina Chu about it. Chu was so upset over Drew's callousness she had to retreat to the back of the salon.
• "After Meier's death, on the day of her wake, Drew showed up again to have her hair done. Chu asked Drew why she was going to the wake, given her role in the cyberbullying. Drew's response, Chu said, was, 'It's not like I pulled the trigger,'" Wired reports.
• In his cross-examination of Tina Meier, Drew's lawyer pummeled her on Megan's past internet behavior. According to Wired, before the Meiers' started monitoring Megan's internet usage closely, "Megan created a MySpace profile as an 18-year-old woman, and swapped sexually-charged banter with other users, he said, citing notes he'd obtained from Megan's psychologist." The lawyer pointed out that Megan had also violated MySpace's terms of service at one point by lying about her age.
• Drew's lawyer also pointed out that Megan was taking a trio of antidepressants when she died. "One of them, the antidepressant citalopram, has a reported side affect of contributing to suicidal behavior in children and adolescents suffering from depression, he noted."
• Ashley Grills, the then-18-year-old who was Lori Drew's assistant, said that the creation of the MySpace account was initially her idea, but that Lori Drew agreed and "thought it was funny," the L.A. Times notes.
• Grills said that Lori Drew was present when they agreed to the terms of service, but neither woman read them.
• From the L.A. Times:
  

  Grills testified that she, Drew and Drew's daughter were trying to figure out a way "to expose Megan" for rumors she'd allegedly been spreading about Sarah…She said Drew also helped formulate messages that were sent to Megan and at one point suggested that they have 'Josh' arrange a meeting with Megan at a local mall at which Sarah and her friends would 'pop out' and tease Megan.

• This part also hurts the case of MySpace fraud against Drew: the final contact between Megan and "Josh" took place on AOL Instant Messenger, according to testimony by Grills.
• Grills also testified that she had no idea that Megan had had emotional problems in the past, until Drew told her shortly after Megan's death, "We could have pushed her overboard because she was suicidal and depressed.'"
• When the Drew family and Grills got word that Megan had killed herself, they got off the internet and turned on the TV. Shortly thereafter, Wired reports, "Curt Drew started yelling at them to get rid of the MySpace account. When asked what Lori Drew did at that moment, Grills said at first she sat quietly and was consoling her daughter, then she, too, started yelling at them to delete the account and told them not to say anything to anyone."

Earlier: MySpace Trial, Day 1: Megan Meier's Last Words
Megan Meier's MySpace Hoax Tormenter: "I Just Wanted It To End"

• In his opening statement, prosecuting U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said that Lori Drew created the fake persona of Josh Evans to find out whether Megan was spreading rumors about Drew's daughter, Sarah, CBS News reports.
• O'Brien says Drew "fully intended to hurt and prey on Megan's psyche," and added thatshe "hatched a plot to prey on the psyche" of a 13-year-old she knew was "vulnerable, suicidal and boy crazy."
• "One of her plans was to print out the conversations and take it to Megan's school and let people make fun of this depressed 13-year-old girl," O'Brien also said.
• Megan's mom, Tina Meier took the stand. Reports CBS:
  

  Meier said after a name-calling exchange between Megan, "Josh," and two other girls in October 2006, she told a sobbing Megan, who was being treated for attention deficit disorder and depression, that she wasn't supposed to be online and shouldn't have gotten into the argument. "The last words she said to me were 'You are supposed to be my mom, you are supposed to be on my side,"' Meier said as she tried to hold back tears.

• According to the L.A. Times this was the final exchange between "Josh" and Megan. Josh: "The world would be a better place without you. Have a shitty rest of your life." Megan: "You are the kind of boy a girl would kill herself over."
• Lori Drew's attorney claims she "shut down the profile when she learned that Meier was becoming romantically interested and hinting that she wanted to meet Josh Evans," Reuters reports.
• Lori has pleaded not guilty to "one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without authorization. Each count carries a potential sentence of five years in prison," says CBS News.
• From the L.A. Times: "Lori Drew, dressed in a sweater and looking every bit the Midwestern mom, sat expressionless at the defense table during much of the proceedings."

Dead Teen's Mom Testifies In MySpace Trial [CBS News]
Woman Posed As Teen Online In Suicide Case: Attorney [Reuters]
Jurors Told Of Girl's Suicide At MySpace Trial [LAT]

Earlier: Are The Parents Who Myspace Tormented Megan Meier Ready To Atone? Um…
Feds Take On Megan Meier Case, Hope To Charge Evil Mom With Crime

Lori Drew is accused of using a fictitious profile on MySpace to drive Megan Meier, her daughter's former friend, to hang herself. She's pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without authorization. She's being charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which is usually used for hackers and high-tech crimes. But this Act has never been used in connection with a Web site's "terms of service" agreement.

Still, the most terrible part about this case is the fact that a 49-year-old woman tormented a 13-year-old girl to the point that the child took her own life. If the jury doesn't hear about the suicide, does the prosecution have a chance of winning?

MySpace Trial Judge: Suicide Not Relevant [CBS News]
MySpace Hoax Jury May Not Hear About Suicide [CNN]

Drew is being charged with violating federal statute as outlined in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, but this is the first time the Act has been used in a social networking scenario. USC law professor Rebecca Lonergan tells the L.A. Times, "It's a very creative, aggressive use of the statute. But they may have a legally tough time meeting the elements." Another California attorney, James Chadwick, thinks the state will have a tough time convicting Lori Drew on these grounds. "As tragic as it is," Chadwick said, "You can't start imposing liability on people for being cruel."

If Lori Drew is convicted she faces four counts, each of which carry a five year maximum jail sentence. The trial is set for July 29. Even if the case is a wash, the public shaming of Lori Drew has at least one positive outcome, the LAT reports. "In response to the case, Missouri legislators gave final approval to a bill making cyber harassment illegal."

Woman In Internet Suicide Case Pleads Not Guilty [LA Times]
Lori Drew Pleads Not Guilty In MySpace Suicide Case[WSJ]

• Whitney was the first "plus sized" contestant to win America's Next Top Model!
  
• Alexandra Michaels — a teen model who was sent home from Paris because she gained five pounds — spoke out against eating disorders in the modeling industry.
  
• Speaking of dressing up: Jezebel correspondent Emily Gould crashed a Stevie Nicks festival. There were wigs! And gays! And glitter!
  
• More good news for gays: it is now legal for them to get married in California.
  
• In other California legal news, Lori Drew got indicted.
  
• Even California girls should not wear this tacky crap from Urban Outfitters.
  
• Brats from My Super Sweet Sixteen get deported!

Classy!

Neighbor Indicted In MySpace Suicide Case [TheSmokingGun]
Women Indicted In MySpace Suicide Case [AP

Earlier: Previous Megan Meier posts can be found here

• "I heard Obama speak. He hit me with that he-just-got-done- watching-'Malcolm X,' and I swear to God, I'm like, 'Yo, Obama!' 'I'm Obama to the end now, baby!," says 50 Cent, who originally supported Hillary Clinton. He has since "lost interest." [MTV]
  
• One of the girls who tormented Megan Meier under the tutelage of evil mom Lori Drew is going to be on TV tomorow talking about how Lori turned out to be a crappy "mother figure." Um, yeah. [ABC]
  
• You know how after 9/11 the government consolidated all these government functions into the Department of Homeland Security, which was probably an expensive waste of time? Well they are sort of doing that with all the regulatory agencies that are supposed to keep track of how much money all of these sophisticated "security" things are worth so the economy doesn't find itself with a hole the size of the Russian economy in it. It will take a long time, and probably not work. [WSJ]
  
• Obama has his widest gap in the Gallup tracking poll of Democrats of any candidate since February. February! That is almost the month before last! [Wonkette]

• Oh, look who favors socialized medicine! The folks who provide it. Funny, that! Think they all got brainwashed by the happy British doctor in Sicko? [Reuters]
• Chelsea Clinton quotes Salt N Pepa. [Wonkette]
• Do Pennsyvlanians distrust women or black folks more? [AP]
• Paris Hilton is a "role model for young girls everywhere," according to Paris Hilton. [Redlasso]
• Finally, a pundit with the guts to take Hillary to task for this Bosnia thing. What would we do without you, Hitchens? [Slate]
• Did you hear about this whole "Earth Hour" thing? Yeah, don't worry, nobody did. [Time]

The site, of course, is no longer available, but, in an email to Los Angeles Times writer David Sarno, the elusive Jane, who is choosing to remain anonymous, explains her project thusly: " I attempted to create something as an artist, public perception changed that creation and so I killed it before it got out of hand. In my opinion it became much more interesting as a social experiment, but I couldn't fool myself into justifying it in that way; I'm not a sociologist."

And she shouldn't have been able to justify it, because the fact is that, art project or not, creating that site was a pretty shitty thing to do. As Sarno points out, "There is a kind of Internet suicide culture. Not of kids pretending they're going to kill themselves but for sometimes extremely depressed people who have nowhere else to go to get support. Not to mention meeting places for bereaved friends and families of suicides." Or maybe Jane should have asked Megan Meier's parents how they felt about it. Or possibly the many teens who committed suicide using the social network bebo.

Ultimately, the site was just a manipulative game that spun out of control. "People don't get to choose how the public perceives them and they can spend a lot of time and money trying to change that perception," Jane wrote to Sarno. "By keeping my identity away from 90DayJane, I get to skip all of that." And this is why the 90DayJane stunt is an allegory for internet culture as a whole: the most vile shades of human nature are in evidence on the internet because they're allowed to remain anonymous.

90dayjane's Cry For Attention [Los Angeles Times]
90dayjane And Me [Los Angeles Times]

With that out of the way, Faludi focuses in on whypeople hate Hillary so much, pointing to a culture in which only younger women are prized and writing that once women's "30-years-old freshness date has expired... [they] are out of luck — there's no matriarchy to step in to offer wisdom and hand over the reins." She also argues that Clinton, because of her age and her potency, gets associated with "mother" in a primal way, and that the country's penis-obsessed Portnoys subconsciously regard her as "the smothering, devouring American Mom whose power male writers have been shuddering under since at least the 1950's."

For all the hosannas over young women advancing in competitive sports or Katie Couric snagging the CBS News anchor slot, we continue to have no tradition and no real image of public female authority. As [Vanity Fair writer Leslie] Bennetts observes in her essay, 'A woman can become Speaker of the House, but Nancy Pelosi has to cloak her authority in gender mufti by describing her ability to order congressmen around as using her 'mother-of-five voice.' A female can't just be strong and forceful and direct in her decision making; she has to revert to being a mom, which we all know is her primary role anyway.'

Hillary and the Feminine Gaze, Up Close and Personal [NY Observer]

Earlier: 30 Women Hate On Hillary In 30 Different Ways

And while I'm reluctant to accept the Daily Mail's theories about the character or motivations of pretty much anyone with a vagina, it seems disturbingly clear that the problem here is not so much the "glorification of suicide" — which, let's face it, is old as time or at least def. Shakespeare — but the fact that, for the younger generation, the fanatical posing and uploading and friend-collecting and pixelated mirror-staring enabled by Internet "networking" can stunt a kids' development at the age and maturity level at which they first discovered started logging on. As one of the dead kids' moms pointed out:

I think the problem is they do not know how to speak like adults about serious issues like this. They can speak to each other on the computer but do not know how to express their emotions in other ways.

Yeah, I know, I'm fucking old. Which is why I'm going to just say it: can't we fucking BAN MYSPACE, and all its bastard social networking stepchildren, already? What redeeming social value do these sites have?
Pastimes like this make Halo look like the fucking Model U.N.

A Wild Child Surfed Her Way To Suicide And "Virtual Immorality" [Daily Mail]
How Friends Paid Online Tribute To Dead Youngsters [Guardian]

Explains Val Besag, an educational psychologist who's written a book, Challenging Girls, "Boys have a hierarchy based on physical power, girls have a hierarchy based on friendships." Ms. Besag recommends that teenagers watch Mean Girls to show how detrimental manipulation and backstabbing are. Ms. Tuck warns that bitchy behavior is "women's last barrier to triumph in the workplace."

On one hand, emotional abuse from bullying can mean tragedy for young women like Jade Prest — and Megan Meier. But can schools really have an impact? And truthfully, as bad as it gets, bullying (or being bullied) can be a time-tested rite of passage for many girls. And when you're 13 years old and being bullied by a group of other girls, isn't it possible that the interference of an adult will just make the situation worse?

Crackdown On Schoolgirl Bullying Epidemic [Guardian]

As the Soto and Rojas case was in court, MySpace announced new measures to help police sexual predators on the site. The company worked with attorney generals from several states to draft their agreement, which, according to the New York Times includes, "separat[ing] children's profiles from those of adults and seek[ing] ways to verify users' ages." They plan to create a "task force" to help police the site, but as Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal told the Times, "No measure is a panacea."

The important thing, it seems to me, about this new law is that it might be setting a precedent that ultimately helps the family of poor Megan Meier. The Times says that MySpace's agreement is built on an earlier Facebook agreement with the feds, both of which acknowledge that the companies "[bear] responsibility for protecting users." Lori Drew, Megan's adult MySpace tormentor, might not ultimately get comeuppance, but perhaps the Meiers can still sue the fuck out of MySpace for not doing more. Isn't MySpace culpable in these situations? Or is it just the risk we all take in a world with evil people and Internet access?

Stripper Duo 'Raped Girls' [New York Post]
MySpace Agrees To Lead Fight To Stop Sex Predators [New York Times]

Earlier:
Feds Take On Megan Meier Case, Hope To Charge Evil Mom With Crime
Megan Meier: Just Your Average, Small Dog-Loving, Depressed, Bipolar, A.D.D. Suburban Babi

Parents Tina and Ron, who met in second grade and married just out of high school, come across as unimpeachably sympathetic as ever; they reared Megan in a friendly subdivision free of laundry poles and aboveground pools and when she seemed to be striving for the "instant maturity look" too early, they enrolled her in a Catholic school where she wore a uniform and stopped "paying attention to her hair as much" and "worrying about undereye concealer." Then came Josh Evans...

Playing on Megan's susceptibility to underdogs, Josh's creators endowed him with a pitiable bio: "when I was 7 my dad left me and my mom and my older brother and my newborn brother...poor mom yeah she had such a hard time...finding work to pay for us after he left." His ambitions also seemed tweaked to Megan's desires. His answer to the section "Goal you would like to achieve this year" was "meet a great girl." The girl he was looking for happened to have long brown hair, like Megan. As for weight, Josh answered, "DON'T REALLY MATTER."

She stared directly at the camera, screwing her lips into the half-sulky, half-silly, exactingly lip-glossed pout that— whether designed to suggest vampiness or simply to mask the indignities of orthodontia— is a upiquitous affectation of american teen-age girldom.

MySpace, with its cluttered layout, can suggest an online incarnation of the broken-windows theory — surface disorder begetting actual chaos.

Hi . . . you might not know me . . . but [my friend] used to live in missouri and be friends with your wonderful daughter . . . [we] get made fun of too. being called whores etc . . . etc. but we're doing everything we can to stop bullying . . . because we dont want something this terrible to have to happen to anyone again . . . we're going to counciling . . . and i think we're really gunna start to make a difference.

Annals Of Crime: Friend Game [New Yorker]
Earlier: If You Can Handle A Really Depressing Teen Suicide Story Right Now
Are The Parents Who MySpace Tormented Megan Meier Ready To Atone?

Dozens of people allegedly have called local businesses that work with the family's advertising booklet firm, and flooded the phone lines this week at the local Burlington Coat Factory, where Curt Drew reportedly works.

"I posted that, where Curt works. I'm not ashamed to admit that," said Trever Buckles, 40, a neighbor whose two teenage boys grew up with Megan. "Why? Because there's never been any sense of remorse or public apology from the Drews, no 'maybe we made a mistake.' "

LA Grand Jury Issue Subpoenas In MySpace Case [LA Times]

The newspaper does identify the couple, Curt and Lori Drew. The Drews do not comment.

• This week we learned about poor 13-year-old Megan Meier, who committed suicide after being harassed on myspace by pretty much the worst people on the planet masquerading as parents and members of a civilized society.
  
• Also, some other misguided teenagers posted pro-ana messages on Teen Vogue's website.
  
• You know who else is proud of themselves for not eating? Models! Shocker!
  
• Earlier, Kanye West's Kanye West's mom died and it made us all want to sob like little, tired children.
  
• Then an ass-faced rapist won Big Brother: Africa and it made us stabby.
  
• But look on the bright side! We'll always have adorable Project Runway hippie Elisa and her pooing fabric.
  
• And the comment that covers pretty much all the bases we missed award goes to some brand-new person named Durgalicious. Welcome! And get procrastinating!
  
• [Obligatory invitation to turn to binge drinking]

Lori objects to the book on grounds of its "profanity," naturally. So if only to uncover this weird and awesome coincidence and the existence of this weird and awesome-sounding book, we're really happy we posted her name. Because, like, maybe if Megan Meier had read a book like the one the Rhode Island Lori Drew is banning, she wouldn't have hung herself over the Missouri Lori Drew's sick scheme. And maybe if the Rhode Island Lori Drew knew the real story of Missouri Lori Drew, who "killed a girl that no one liked," she'd understand the point of, you know, free speech... although, you're right, probs a stretch.

Controversial Story Yanked From Reading [The Call]
Earlier: Are The Parents Who MySpace Tormented Megan Meier Into Killing Herself Ready To Atone? Um...
If You Can Handle A Really Depressing Teen Suicide Story Right Now...
Related: When I Was A Loser: True Stories Of Barely Surviving High School [Amazon]

So I called the school I assumed Megan Meier had attended with their daughter, Dubray Middle School in O'Fallon, Missouri:

Me: Hello. I was wondering if this is the school Megan Meier attended?
Secretary: Who is this?
Me: I work at a website called Jezebel, and I was just calling because our readers were very interested in the case.
Secretary: I can't say anything.
Me: I was just trying to figure out what the schools were doing to teach kids about how to stand up to bullies, or to teach parents how to instill in their kids the ability to ignore mean people, stuff like that.
Secretary: I really can't say anything.
Me: Seriously?
Secretary: I'm sorry I can't say anything.
Me: Don't you care?
Secretary: I can't say anything.
Me: Oh, fuck you then.

Dear secretary: I am sorry. That was so unnecessary. Also, who do I think I am, Michael Moore?

Anyway, then I had a conversation with Steve "Pokin Around" Pokin, the columnist who broke the story of Megan's tragic story after her aunt called him up upon reading his slightly-less-disturbing tale of a teenage Myspace tormentor who eventually got charged with "littering."

Steve didn't really want to go too deeply into things, though he claimed that he was pretty sure not naming Curt and Lori drew was the right decision, to which I said, "Um, those fuckers will be named SOON ENOUGH." And when I asked him whether the Drews — he confirmed the names, though I'm not sure he meant to — seemed ready to take responsibility or atone for their actions in any way, he said, "I don't know. All I know about that is in the story."

I'm thinking that's a "not so much."

Now, the laws don't hold them responsible, though I'm pretty sure the laws would find a way of holding them responsible if they happened to be Allah-worshipers, though that's neither here nor there. In the end, if these people are just plain evil, the only thing you can do is try and teach your kids, "Hey kids, this is evil, so please do think about that next time you see a popular kid fling a booger on some harmless fat kid, or whatever this generation of kids do to pointlessly torture their peers, and fail to call him out on it."

In other news, Pokin informed me that Megan's parents were being interviewed this afternoon by CNN, so we'll watch for them in hopes they at least get their chance to pass this lesson along.