The Fed just started printing more money.

Can we call it a depression now?

How many of you remember Megan Meier? She killed herself in 2006 after battling depression, and at first her case looked really unfortunate, but ordinary. Until the ugly truth about her death came out, and her parents learned that their daughter died because she had been taunted and tormented on the Internet to the point that she decided to commit suicide. Again, tragic, but perhaps not so abnormal…until you find out that the ringleader of the bullying was an adult woman who created a false social networking profile for the specific purpose of tormenting Megan.

Lori Drew, the woman who taunted Megan Meier to death, went on trial last week for cyberfraud. It’s a pretty groundbreaking case, and it could make a huge difference in how we treate cyberbullying cases in the future. I’ve been following the trial, and some of things that are coming out of that courtroom are truly horrific, like the fact that Drew was gloating over Meier’s emotional state, and that she disavowed all responsibility for the girl’s death, saying “it’s not like I pulled the trigger.”

We’ve all been 13, and it’s a shitty age. It’s even harder when you’re already fighting depression, and people manipulate and torture you. I don’t think I would have survived that, and I don’t blame poor Megan for not being able to survive it either. It’s hard to remember in retrospect, but you feel so alienated, alone, and helpless at 13 that you don’t realize that there are people around you who want to  help you. Who can help you. So you try to deal with the situation on your own, and sometimes, like Megan Meier, you just can’t.

I’ve always said that children can be far crueler than people give them credit for, sometimes even crueler than adults, because children don’t have the same boundaries and understanding that adults are supposed to have. I can’t believe that an adult, a woman who should theoretically be responsible and over her teenage hormones, would ringlead something like this. I’m not surprised that she managed to wrangle a posse of teens to help her execute this plan, but I’m still boggled that she initiated it, let it get as far as it did, and now wants to pretend that she is not responsible for the death of a 13 year old girl who just wanted, desperately, to be loved.

The Internet can be a cruel and vicious place, and it seems to be a medium ideally suited to bullying, which probably explains why cyberbullying cases seems to be cropping up more and more. I used to be involved in social networking a bit, but I realized that I didn’t really like it, and I didn’t like the way it was going, and the way that people used it, so I dropped out, deleted all my profiles and separated myself from that world. And people still ask me “oh, are you on such and such a site,” or they say “you should really have a such and such profile,” and when I say “no, I’m not interested,” they start blankly back. I wish that Megan Meier had been able to resist the peer pressure of social networking like I have, because maybe she would be alive today.

When I first read about Megan Meier’s case, I felt heartsick, and furious. And so I’m pleased to see that Lori Drew is being held accountable for her heinous actions. I’m not normally a fan of rampant punishment, but I think she should be imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole for what she did, and to send a message to people like her who might think that it’s fun to be cruel. It’s not fun. It’s evil. And all of the people involved in this deadly hoax should be heavily penalized for it, including those who could have said something but instead turned away and did nothing.

Bullying on the Internet is just as hateful as bullying anywhere else, and I firmly believe that we have a moral obligation to step forward and stop it. When you see something wrong, whether it someone pretending to be someone else on the Internet or someone hitting a child, you need to do your part. To fail to speak is to be complicit.

Missiongathering is my new favourite church. If I lived in San Diego, I’d totally go to their services. Bravo for having the courage to refute the idea that Christians are united against marriage equality.

In shocking news, the “downturn” (don’t call it a recession!) will have an effect on the number of Americans living in poverty. Really. I had no idea!

Want to invest in a bad market? Here are some tips.

Just in time for Christmas, the Pentagon is changing the definition of combat-related injuries and screwing soldiers out of medical care and disability payments.

2009 is going to be a watershed year for trans activists in Pennsylvania. Or so they say.

Here’s a novel idea: instead of penalizing gang members, why not rehabilitate them so that they can contribute to society, and find an alternative to the gang lifestyle.

I know you all want to blame Bush for the economy, but Clinton deserves his due, as I have been saying for years.

Dessert recipes! For charity!

Got cancer? Why not just wait and see if it goes away? (Disclaimer: we haven’t yet figured out how to test cancer to determine if it’s the going away kind or not. Please consult a doctor if you have cancer, not the Internet.)