Maryannaville™

From the CD: Closed on Account of Rabies

The Raven
By Edgar Allan Poe (1845)
Recited by Christopher Walken
Click here to listen

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door —
Only this, and nothing more.”

“The dire reality: Washington is not God. It cannot save the world. It cannot prevent the next depression. Hard to believe?”
Read on, McDuff

*Courtesy of Information Clearing House

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers about a scheme to extort money by callers who falsely identify themselves as FDA officials. The agency has received several reports of calls to entice consumers to purchase discounted prescription drugs by wiring funds to a location in the Dominican Republic. No medications are ever delivered, but an “FDA special agent” calls to say that a fine of several thousand dollars must be sent to an address in the Dominican Republic to prevent imprisonment or other legal action. The FDA suspects that the scheme began with the theft of personal information from consumers who previously purchased drugs through the Internet or by telephone or who were victims of credit card fraud.

Complaints or other information about this scheme should be reported to the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations at (800) 521-5783.

As some of you may well know, there are a number of us who are following the Lori Drew case. Opening arguments began yesterday on October 19th. It is posted below today’s report. Follow the hot links provided to the original source for more information on each day’s update. Blog.Wired’s reporter, Kim Zetter has been assigned to the case.

October 20, 2008
LOS ANGELES — Two months before she committed suicide in 2006, a 13-year-old girl at the center of a landmark cyberbullying was the happiest her parents had seen her in a long time.

Tina Meier, testifying in a U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon, described to jurors how her daughter Megan was diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder and depression in the third grade and had spent years taking prescription medication to battle low self-esteem exacerbated by bullying schoolmates.
Dead Teen’s Mother Testifies about Daughter’s Vulnerability in MySpace Suicide Case

October 19, 2008
LOS ANGELES — The woman accused of making unauthorized use of MySpace to inflict emotional harm on a 13-year-old girl, who then committed suicide, “fully intended to hurt and prey on Megan Meier’s psyche,” a prosecutor charged Wednesday, as opening statements began in the first federal cyber-bullying trial.

After some initial problems finding unbiased jurors, a jury of six men and six women was finally impanelled in the trial Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutor Thomas O’Brien immediately launched into his opening argument, in which he previewed the case he plans to present in the days ahead.
Lori Drew Intended to ‘Prey’ on Girl’s Psyche

*The jurors were told that the case should last five days.

Related:
R.I.P. Megan Meier

“All failures are so because they lack social interest.”
*Alfred Adler

“If you wish to know what a man is, place him in authority.”
*Yugoslav proverb

“He is his own best friend, and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy, and is afraid of solitude.”
*Aristotle

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”
*Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Stubborn and ardent clinging to one’s opinion is the best proof of stupidity.”
*Michel de Montaigne

“One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways.”
*Bertrand Russell

Nationwide Protests against Proposition 8 will be taking place on November 15th. Take and make your stand in your community- Join Us! A list of Prop 8 Protest locations are listed by state by state at: NoOn8Campaign.org

If you don’t see a location near you and want to participate in the rally in your local area along with other concerned citizens, leave a comment then start planning and gathering in your hometown.

Related:
More groups ask California Supreme Court to Overturn Prop 8
Utah Legislators Call Mormon Leadership’s Bluff on LGBT Rights

With tonight’s news, I’m “here in Camelot” and am trusting that the Obama household will be dreaming wonderfully as they dream tonight once tonight’s excitement allows them to sleep restfully. Just think. Soon, Malia Ann (8 years old) and Sasha (5 years old) will be playing and scampering about with their new puppy in the White House.