By improving education, equality, and economic opportunity the population will reduce.
A blank assertion which (without significant elaboration) is unlikely to be correct.
From the CDC:
"National Center for Health Statistics"
Mother's Educational Level Influences Birth Rate" ...
"Educational attainment is a very critical factor in accounting for lifetime fertility differentials. Women with 1 or more years of college have sharply lower lifetime fertility than less educated women, regardless of race or Hispanic origin. Women with college degrees can be expected to complete their childbearing with 1.6-2.0 children each; 1.7 for non-Hispanic white, 1.6 for non-Hispanic black, and 2.0 for Hispanic women. For women with less education the total expected number of children are: 3.2 children for those with 0-8 years of education; 2.3 children for those with 9-11 years of education and 2.7 for high school graduates."
"Adolescent Sexual Health in Europe and the U.S.--Why the Difference?" ...
"In these nations, societal openness and comfort in dealing with sexuality, including teen sexuality, and pragmatic governmental policies create greater, easier access to sexual health information and services for all people, including teens. Easy access to sexual health information and services leads to better sexual health outcomes for French, German, and Dutch teens when compared to U.S. teens."
Associated Press (05.10.04)
California's teen birth rate has fallen from 11th nationwide in 1991 to 21st in 2002. The drop of more than 40 percent is attributed to a state-sponsored program that provides information about abstinence and birth control. The pregnancy figures cited by California Wellness Foundation, which runs a statewide teen pregnancy initiative, were included in a brief the foundation gave California lawmakers last week in Washington. The drop exceeds the 30 percent decline in teen pregnancies nationally
during the same period.
SINGAPORE - Alarmed by a falling birth rate and its impact on the economy, Singapore badly wants its well-educated, career-oriented women to have more babies.
So, at 2.1-something children per female (your figure), that would class America as not being a developed nation.
The US is a special case, as I said "As the US is becoming more religious I wonder how much religion influences this as some of them call their followers to "multiply"."
Going through the rest of your reply, I see more arguments and one "table", I wish/. would allow html tables, you ran off on a spreadsheet with numbers you made up, without any real data. As I provided links to data as well as links to articles on how some governments are concerned about declining birthrates due to improvements in economic opportunities, educations, and or equality c
It's not just money. People kill others by neglect because they have no idea what their consequences mean. A man killed another one by tossing him off a boat, not thinking that it might be hard for the latter to swim 5 miles to the next shore. "5 miles? That ain't far" was his reasoning in court. He simply had no idea what he's doing (doesn't change the verdict, 2nd degree murder is 2nd degree murder).
In a way I can see where that guy's coming from "5 miles" isn't far for some. Though not right on the coast where I grew up we could be at the beach within an hour, 1/2 hour really, and I loved swimming. We'd go to the beach and I'd get in the water and start swimming out. The only problem I had was with the drift, I had to keep an eye out on a landmark so I wouldn't drift too far along the beach. While in the army we prepared to go to the Panama Canal for Jungle Warfare training and we were tested for water worthiness, if we could stay in water without drowning and the test was we had to stay in a pool for half an hour. What a joke I thought but some in my unit had trouble staying in the water for only a few minutes. While we were there some of us spend a couple of hours swimming out into the canal, some of those ships seemed hugh.
One of the reasons I see in that is that we keep our kids sheltered until they're 18, then dump them into the world. We don't prepare our kids for the world. We keep them away from reality, keep them in Teletubbyland for as long as we can and don't show them that the world is a quite unpleasant and dog-eat-dog place.
This may be true for some parents but not for all. Unfortunately those parents who don't want to parent are pushing for the nanny state.
I'm even fairly sure that this woman didn't even have the foggiest idea what she's doing. She had no idea what she's doing to that kid. Or that it could end like that.
How do I know? I was one of those sheltered kids.
But you weren't that woman, and that woman knew the girl had psychological problems.
Which doesn't reduce the population, it only reduces the rate of population growth.
By improving education, equality, and economic opportunity the population will reduce. The replacement rate or fertility rate to maintain a steady population is more than 2 children per female. However in developed nations where there is equality and educational as well as economic opportunities the birth rate is below 2 births per female. As it is now where the population is growing the fastest, Africa, is also where there is a lack of economic opportunity, education, and equality. By increasing, improving, these 3 factors in Africa the population will decline there. Admittedly it won't happen instantaneously but within a short tyme it will. It may take 20 or 30 years but it can happen. China and India are good examples. Until these 3 factors improved there, China and India had the highest population growth rates. However now that both nations have improved their birth rate has dropped. Some will cite China's One Child per Family policy, but while it may of helped, it does not explain India's drop in birth rate.
I think America is still one of the relatively small number of first world countries with intrinsic population growth.
Without immigration it appears the US population is increasing slowly, in the US I found this on the rate of Fertility:"
The U.S. average fertility rate is currently 2.1335 births per woman, the U.S.'s highest fertility rate since 1971. (For comparison, the United Kingdom's fertility rate is 1.7, Canada's is 1.4, and Germany's is 1.3.)" This may lead to an increase in population but if so it's real low. As the US is becoming more religious I wonder how much religion influences this as some of them call their followers to "multiply".
The way I deal with people is this: if they're a casual acquaintance, I wont tell them anything particularly negative.
I just say "all right" or "ok" most of the tyme.
The advantage the white lie has is that if nothing else, it cheers the other person up, which in turn can cheer you up. And eventually if you tell the lie enough, you begin to believe it.
For a while after my accident when I saw friends and others I knew I'd say just how I felt which was usually rotten. But after a while of having friends say I needed to be positive I started saying "good" or "great". And while it improved my mood some I could never get over it that I was just fooling them and myself. So I eventually went to saying "ok".
Of course, if you have a chronically low mood, along with losing interest in activities you previously had interest in; loss of your sense of humour; increasing social isolation; change in eating or sleeping patterns; or fatigue or other malaise, you should see a doctor to see how they can help.
As part of the therapy I was in I saw a psychiatrist who gave me a prescription of an antidepressant. Around the same tyme I spent a weekend doing some volunteer work. I met some people through it and was feeling real good for a while but I lost contact with them and went downhill again afterwards. While I'm an INTP and Introverted I still need physical contact, people I hang out with however after having moved to get the therapy I needed I haven't been able to make and keep new friends. Whereas before moving I was a member of different clubs or groups and hung out with a number of the same people over the years I haven't even spent tyme with anyone in years. I hardly even see my sister now, she's too busy. If things keep going like they are I fear I will become some sort of mean old grouch.
Of course, that is if you haven't done so already. If you have and what they did isn't working - tell them!
I had to stop therapy because I couldn't afford it. When I was last in therapy I went there 3 days a week for 5 hours a day. Eventually I was told I had to pay for it myself, insurance was paying but they stopped, however if I had to pay it would have cost $100 an hour or $1500 a week and there's no way I could afford it. A year later I started taking classes in college, one or two classes a semester, which helped but again because of financial difficulties I had to drop out. Heck because of my disability I need to see a doctor but I haven't seen a doc in more than 6 years. I haven't even seen a dentist in more than 9 years yet my teeth are cracking and falling apart, the gum is growing over the roots left from some teeth.
In the meantime, a no-holds barred, frank conversation with a close friend can go a surprisingly long way;
That I know of my closest friend, er someone I used to call a friend at least, is more than 1500 miles away. The last I saw one was more than 6 years ago, just days after the last tyme I saw a doc.
And none of those areas want wind gennies mucking up their scenery. A lot of lawsuits have been filed over the last decade based on "loss of appearance" in a community.
That's a problem with some who call themselves "environmentalists", they care about the environment as long as it's not in their backyard. I saw this a long tyme ago living in Florida. I met and talked with a bunch of transplants, those who moved there from out of state, who said they moved there to live in and enjoy nature. However when an alligator is found in their swimming pool built on what used to be a wetland they get all upset. Or they will when they see a gator eat their dog.
Yeah, that surely teaches them. Mostly that society doesn't want you. And, well, if society doesn't want me, I have no moral obligation to keep it from harm, or cause no harm to it.
That's exactly what this person showed society, she was intentionally mean to this 13 year old girl. The pressure of ostracism may lead to the person being ostracized to reform, but then again it can make the person vindictive. One size does not fit all, this being so some tactics that work with some will not work with others. But as far as I'm concerned whatever happens to this person more than likely will never equal what she did.
Ostracism only leads to more problems. People don't enjoy being shunned.
This person should have thought of that before she did much worse.
I'd be kinda scared by a mob of disgruntled, overprotective parents.
So am I but some children need more protection than others. Some have abilities others don't, the same with vulnerabilities. So as I said above one size does not fit all.
That is not really accurate considering how much space wind farms take up.
Did I ever say anything about how much space would be needed? All I recall saying is that there a bunch of places good for wind farms, including the Rockies and that the Rockies alone has enough potential for wind it could provide all of the 48 continuous states with electricity.
Have you any idea how many hundreds of miles of coast line would be taken up by wind farms to match one major nuclear power plant.
No, do you? Or are you doing what you accuse me of, "Artful misdirection"?
When you're next having a rotten month, tell someone that asks you "How are you doing?" exactly how you are doing. Watch them flounder
I know that reaction. After I became disabled when someone asked me how I was without thinking about it I'd tell them exactly how I felt and eventually people stopped asking me. So even now when asked I just say "ok" or some such most of the tyme. My brother-in-law started telling people not to ask me because I'd just say "ok". This is compeatly different than how I used to be, one lady wrote about how no matter how bad things were I could always get her to smile. There weren't many things that could get me down, now I'm almost always down.
Let me explain. Megan had problems and felt bad about herself? Why? (actual question, not a setup) She was beautiful. Where were her parents? How in the fcuk could a beautiful girl like that grow up not believing, *knowing* she has value.
What can a parent do for a child with Attention-Deficit Disorder? Her parents already had her on medication and she was seeing a therapist. In one of my first post about TFA, I said the mother should share some of the blame because the girls asked her for help but she didn't help her. Since then though I have learned the mother had to take another daughter to an appointment at an orthodontist's office and that when the girl called she told her to log off of MySpace but she didn't.
Oh, Megan felt bad about herself because of the above mentioned reason, she had ADD. She was also overweight, and was battling depression.
Teach them how to use it - not in the technological sense, but for their life - and everybody will be fine. Funnily this would involve that you sit doen with your 5 year old child and find online friends together with it. You can prevent bad things from happening by guiding your child, and when it is old and experienced enough it can go alone
While I agree about reaching children how to use the net, I disagree you can prevent bad things, instead all you can do is teach them how to recognize and deal with the bad things they eventually will run into.
1) Nowhere in everything I read was there anything listed which could be called probable cause on the accused mothers part. Nothing in all of it describes why she would even really dislike the girl in question.
The police report - without using the mother's name - states:
"(She) stated in the months leading up Meier's daughter's suicide, she instigated and monitored a 'my space' account which was created for the sole purpose of communicating with Meier's daughter.
"(She) said she, with the help of temporary employee named ------ constructed a profile of 'good looking' male on 'my space' in order to 'find out what Megan (Meier's daughter) was saying on-line' about her daughter. (She) explained the communication between the fake male profile and Megan was aimed at gaining Megan's confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter and other people.
"(She) stated she, her daughter and (the temporary employee) all typed, read and monitored the communication between the fake male profile and Megan.....
I don't know about you, but I would rather withhold information if it means protecting someone's safety or reputation. Internet or not, it's just a shitty thing to do to another human being.
I would rather have info needed to protect my child from a despicable person like this.
This woman is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
This is only true in a court of law, it's not true in the court of public opinion. I'll give an example: I believe Bush is guilty of desertion when he went AWOL in the Air National Guard. There's that's my public opinion, now for my opinion in a court of law. As it is now I would have to have a lot more info if I were on a jury in a court case before I could say "guilty". With what I know now I would have to vote "innocent". And I don't even like Bush!!!
The reason the police and the press don't always publish everything is bloody simple.
But even more important, it is to keep information from becoming common knowledge to aid the investigation. The less details of the case are known to the general public the more likely a suspect can be pinned down on having knowledge they couldn't have unless they were involved.
They had no reason to publish anything, they weren't going to charge anyone, but now with all the publicity the DA is reopening the case.
By publishing for instance what was said right before the suicide, the woman in question can no longer be indentified as the person who sent it if she shows knowledge of what had been said. Before she could only have known what was in the messages if she had seen them, when they were sent. Now, she can just claim she read it somewhere.
In a police report she admits what she did so there is no need to prove she did it.
But the most important thing here is, innocent until proven guilty.
Seeing as how she admits she did it she is GUILTY. As for the "innocent until proven" that's only true in a court of law, it's not true in the court of public opinion.
Frankly, if she deserves to be punished, then so do they.
It's amazing how you can equate an adult who torments a 13 year old kid with problems leading her to kill herself, with anyone who let's people know who did the tormenting.
By all means report that "the mother of one of the girl's friends" has been accused of this, but personally identifying information should rightly be prevented from being published in any medium whether it be a newspaper or a blog until the accusation has been found to be true.
BS. I have the right decide if I want to do business with someone who'd despicable, I can't do that if I don't know. The only tyme a person's name should not be published after being accused of something like this is if the person is child. Children, including Megan Meier, are society's most vulnerable member of society and they should be protected, but an adult should be ostracized for doing something so despicable even if it isn't a crime.
You have no right to know it until it has been confirmed. It should be left to the courts to decide whether what she did was wrong, not some ill-informed lynch mob with a knee-jerk reaction to whatever tidbits the media chose to publish today. *IF* she is found guilty of wrongdoing then you have a right to know. If the court finds her innocent you have no right to know that she was even charged - that is how "innocent until proven guilty" should work.
That's true in a court of law but not true in the court of public opinion. For instance I have said, and say again here, I believe Bush is guilty of desertion when he went AWOL while in the Air National Guard. However if it ever went to court and I was on the jury I would need a lot more facts before I could vote "guilty", as it stands now I would have to vote "innocent".
Typical to blame everyone else but those responsible. Why didn't the girl's parents raise her to have more self respect than that? Hell, just repeating the phrase "sticks and stones..." daily would have prevented this because that's all it is, some girl who's parents never taught her to ignore the stupid things people say. I'm the parent of a special needs child who gets far more verbal abuse than this stupid girl ever would yet she's not trying to kill herself. Letting a child get that old without teaching her to have at least a little self respect is pathetic.
You say "Typical to blame everyone else but those responsible." Yet throughout the rest you do exactly that.
What do you do if we later find out the Myspace guy really did exist, and it wasn't the neighbor lady?
"Six weeks after Megan died, on a Saturday morning, a neighbor down the street, a different neighbor, one they didn't know well, called and insisted that they meet that morning at a counselor's office in northern O'Fallon."
"The woman would not provide details. Ron and Tina went. Their grief counselor was there. As well as a counselor from Fort Zumwalt West Middle School.'
"The neighbor from down the street, a single mom with a daughter the same age as Megan, informed the Meiers that Josh Evans never existed."
"She told the Meiers that Josh Evans was created by adults, a family on their block. These adults, she told the Meiers, were the parents of Megan's former girlfriend, the one with whom she had a falling out. These were the people who'd asked the Meiers to store their foosball table."
Besides that, there's really no way they could've known the little girl would commit suicide.
"According to Tina, Megan had gone on vacations with this family. They knew how she struggled with depression, that she took medication."
She created a MySpace account. Not illegal. She lied in the data entered. Also hopefully not illegal, because our prisons would overflow if it was. She appeared as someone from the opposite sex. See answer to prior statement. She got a teenager to get romantically inclined with the person she created. Dunno if that's illegal, it would not be here. Said teenager commits suizide. While that's illegal in some countries, it's the teenager who did something illegal, not her.
Would you say the same thing if it had been a 70 year old man?
There's a large difference between the name being possible to find by going to the right places, and having it plastered all over the place. What is the purpose? The only purpose I can see of posting their identity is that people hope that "someone" is going to do something with that information.
Slashdot Mirror
Poor fans won't pay for music whether it is easily available or not.
So poor fans aren't real fans?
FalconHere is the way I see it. College universities can set it up so filesharing, and other heavy bandwidth activities, get lower prioritization.
And what if the files being shared are for classes?
FalconI'd rather see universities do bandwidth priorization, where file sharing receives the lowest priority amongst all traffic.
And what if shared files are for classes?
FalconBy improving education, equality, and economic opportunity the population will reduce.
A blank assertion which (without significant elaboration) is unlikely to be correct.
From the CDC:
"National Center for Health Statistics"
...
"Educational attainment is a very critical factor in accounting for lifetime fertility differentials. Women with 1 or more years of college have sharply lower lifetime fertility than less educated women, regardless of race or Hispanic origin. Women with college degrees can be expected to complete their childbearing with 1.6-2.0 children each; 1.7 for non-Hispanic white, 1.6 for non-Hispanic black, and 2.0 for Hispanic women. For women with less education the total expected number of children are: 3.2 children for those with 0-8 years of education; 2.3 children for those with 9-11 years of education and 2.7 for high school graduates."
Mother's Educational Level Influences Birth Rate"
"Japan birth rate off record low as economy improves"
"Adolescent Sexual Health in Europe and the U.S.--Why the Difference?"
...
"In these nations, societal openness and comfort in dealing with sexuality, including teen sexuality, and pragmatic governmental policies create greater, easier access to sexual health information and services for all people, including teens. Easy access to sexual health information and services leads to better sexual health outcomes for French, German, and Dutch teens when compared to U.S. teens."
"Study urges action to raise birth rate"
FERTILITY: While most Taiwanese are married by the time they reach 40, well educated women are more likely to stay single, the latest study shows"
"California Reduces Teen Birth Rate Through Sex Education"[pdf]
Associated Press (05.10.04)
California's teen birth rate has fallen from 11th nationwide in 1991 to 21st in 2002. The drop of more than 40 percent is attributed to a state-sponsored program that provides information about abstinence and birth control. The pregnancy figures cited by California Wellness Foundation, which runs a statewide teen pregnancy initiative, were included in a brief the foundation gave California lawmakers last week in Washington. The drop exceeds the 30 percent decline in teen pregnancies nationally during the same period.
"The Chinese Economy"
Desperate for a baby boom
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SINGAPORE - Alarmed by a falling birth rate and its impact on the economy, Singapore badly wants its well-educated, career-oriented women to have more babies.
So, at 2.1-something children per female (your figure), that would class America as not being a developed nation.
The US is a special case, as I said "As the US is becoming more religious I wonder how much religion influences this as some of them call their followers to "multiply"."
Going through the rest of your reply, I see more arguments and one "table", I wish /. would allow html tables, you ran off on a spreadsheet with numbers you made up, without any real data. As I provided links to data as well as links to articles on how some governments are concerned about declining birthrates due to improvements in economic opportunities, educations, and or equality c
It's not just money. People kill others by neglect because they have no idea what their consequences mean. A man killed another one by tossing him off a boat, not thinking that it might be hard for the latter to swim 5 miles to the next shore. "5 miles? That ain't far" was his reasoning in court. He simply had no idea what he's doing (doesn't change the verdict, 2nd degree murder is 2nd degree murder).
In a way I can see where that guy's coming from "5 miles" isn't far for some. Though not right on the coast where I grew up we could be at the beach within an hour, 1/2 hour really, and I loved swimming. We'd go to the beach and I'd get in the water and start swimming out. The only problem I had was with the drift, I had to keep an eye out on a landmark so I wouldn't drift too far along the beach. While in the army we prepared to go to the Panama Canal for Jungle Warfare training and we were tested for water worthiness, if we could stay in water without drowning and the test was we had to stay in a pool for half an hour. What a joke I thought but some in my unit had trouble staying in the water for only a few minutes. While we were there some of us spend a couple of hours swimming out into the canal, some of those ships seemed hugh.
One of the reasons I see in that is that we keep our kids sheltered until they're 18, then dump them into the world. We don't prepare our kids for the world. We keep them away from reality, keep them in Teletubbyland for as long as we can and don't show them that the world is a quite unpleasant and dog-eat-dog place.
This may be true for some parents but not for all. Unfortunately those parents who don't want to parent are pushing for the nanny state.
I'm even fairly sure that this woman didn't even have the foggiest idea what she's doing. She had no idea what she's doing to that kid. Or that it could end like that.
How do I know? I was one of those sheltered kids.
But you weren't that woman, and that woman knew the girl had psychological problems.
Falconie the birth rate declines.
Which doesn't reduce the population, it only reduces the rate of population growth.
By improving education, equality, and economic opportunity the population will reduce. The replacement rate or fertility rate to maintain a steady population is more than 2 children per female. However in developed nations where there is equality and educational as well as economic opportunities the birth rate is below 2 births per female. As it is now where the population is growing the fastest, Africa, is also where there is a lack of economic opportunity, education, and equality. By increasing, improving, these 3 factors in Africa the population will decline there. Admittedly it won't happen instantaneously but within a short tyme it will. It may take 20 or 30 years but it can happen. China and India are good examples. Until these 3 factors improved there, China and India had the highest population growth rates. However now that both nations have improved their birth rate has dropped. Some will cite China's One Child per Family policy, but while it may of helped, it does not explain India's drop in birth rate.
I think America is still one of the relatively small number of first world countries with intrinsic population growth.
Without immigration it appears the US population is increasing slowly, in the US I found this on the rate of Fertility: " The U.S. average fertility rate is currently 2.1335 births per woman, the U.S.'s highest fertility rate since 1971. (For comparison, the United Kingdom's fertility rate is 1.7, Canada's is 1.4, and Germany's is 1.3.)" This may lead to an increase in population but if so it's real low. As the US is becoming more religious I wonder how much religion influences this as some of them call their followers to "multiply".
FalconThe way I deal with people is this: if they're a casual acquaintance, I wont tell them anything particularly negative.
I just say "all right" or "ok" most of the tyme.
The advantage the white lie has is that if nothing else, it cheers the other person up, which in turn can cheer you up. And eventually if you tell the lie enough, you begin to believe it.
For a while after my accident when I saw friends and others I knew I'd say just how I felt which was usually rotten. But after a while of having friends say I needed to be positive I started saying "good" or "great". And while it improved my mood some I could never get over it that I was just fooling them and myself. So I eventually went to saying "ok".
Of course, if you have a chronically low mood, along with losing interest in activities you previously had interest in; loss of your sense of humour; increasing social isolation; change in eating or sleeping patterns; or fatigue or other malaise, you should see a doctor to see how they can help.
As part of the therapy I was in I saw a psychiatrist who gave me a prescription of an antidepressant. Around the same tyme I spent a weekend doing some volunteer work. I met some people through it and was feeling real good for a while but I lost contact with them and went downhill again afterwards. While I'm an INTP and Introverted I still need physical contact, people I hang out with however after having moved to get the therapy I needed I haven't been able to make and keep new friends. Whereas before moving I was a member of different clubs or groups and hung out with a number of the same people over the years I haven't even spent tyme with anyone in years. I hardly even see my sister now, she's too busy. If things keep going like they are I fear I will become some sort of mean old grouch.
Of course, that is if you haven't done so already. If you have and what they did isn't working - tell them!
I had to stop therapy because I couldn't afford it. When I was last in therapy I went there 3 days a week for 5 hours a day. Eventually I was told I had to pay for it myself, insurance was paying but they stopped, however if I had to pay it would have cost $100 an hour or $1500 a week and there's no way I could afford it. A year later I started taking classes in college, one or two classes a semester, which helped but again because of financial difficulties I had to drop out. Heck because of my disability I need to see a doctor but I haven't seen a doc in more than 6 years. I haven't even seen a dentist in more than 9 years yet my teeth are cracking and falling apart, the gum is growing over the roots left from some teeth.
In the meantime, a no-holds barred, frank conversation with a close friend can go a surprisingly long way;
That I know of my closest friend, er someone I used to call a friend at least, is more than 1500 miles away. The last I saw one was more than 6 years ago, just days after the last tyme I saw a doc.
FalconAnd none of those areas want wind gennies mucking up their scenery. A lot of lawsuits have been filed over the last decade based on "loss of appearance" in a community.
That's a problem with some who call themselves "environmentalists", they care about the environment as long as it's not in their backyard. I saw this a long tyme ago living in Florida. I met and talked with a bunch of transplants, those who moved there from out of state, who said they moved there to live in and enjoy nature. However when an alligator is found in their swimming pool built on what used to be a wetland they get all upset. Or they will when they see a gator eat their dog.
FalconYeah, that surely teaches them. Mostly that society doesn't want you. And, well, if society doesn't want me, I have no moral obligation to keep it from harm, or cause no harm to it.
That's exactly what this person showed society, she was intentionally mean to this 13 year old girl. The pressure of ostracism may lead to the person being ostracized to reform, but then again it can make the person vindictive. One size does not fit all, this being so some tactics that work with some will not work with others. But as far as I'm concerned whatever happens to this person more than likely will never equal what she did.
Ostracism only leads to more problems. People don't enjoy being shunned.
This person should have thought of that before she did much worse.
I'd be kinda scared by a mob of disgruntled, overprotective parents.
So am I but some children need more protection than others. Some have abilities others don't, the same with vulnerabilities. So as I said above one size does not fit all.
FalconThe difference is that a 70 year old man doing the same would be called a predictor by some.
FalconThat is not really accurate considering how much space wind farms take up.
Did I ever say anything about how much space would be needed? All I recall saying is that there a bunch of places good for wind farms, including the Rockies and that the Rockies alone has enough potential for wind it could provide all of the 48 continuous states with electricity.
Have you any idea how many hundreds of miles of coast line would be taken up by wind farms to match one major nuclear power plant.
No, do you? Or are you doing what you accuse me of, "Artful misdirection"?
FalconWhen you're next having a rotten month, tell someone that asks you "How are you doing?" exactly how you are doing. Watch them flounder
I know that reaction. After I became disabled when someone asked me how I was without thinking about it I'd tell them exactly how I felt and eventually people stopped asking me. So even now when asked I just say "ok" or some such most of the tyme. My brother-in-law started telling people not to ask me because I'd just say "ok". This is compeatly different than how I used to be, one lady wrote about how no matter how bad things were I could always get her to smile. There weren't many things that could get me down, now I'm almost always down.
FalconLet me explain. Megan had problems and felt bad about herself? Why? (actual question, not a setup) She was beautiful. Where were her parents? How in the fcuk could a beautiful girl like that grow up not believing, *knowing* she has value.
What can a parent do for a child with Attention-Deficit Disorder? Her parents already had her on medication and she was seeing a therapist. In one of my first post about TFA, I said the mother should share some of the blame because the girls asked her for help but she didn't help her. Since then though I have learned the mother had to take another daughter to an appointment at an orthodontist's office and that when the girl called she told her to log off of MySpace but she didn't.
Oh, Megan felt bad about herself because of the above mentioned reason, she had ADD. She was also overweight, and was battling depression.
FalconTeach them how to use it - not in the technological sense, but for their life - and everybody will be fine. Funnily this would involve that you sit doen with your 5 year old child and find online friends together with it. You can prevent bad things from happening by guiding your child, and when it is old and experienced enough it can go alone
While I agree about reaching children how to use the net, I disagree you can prevent bad things, instead all you can do is teach them how to recognize and deal with the bad things they eventually will run into.
Falcon1) Nowhere in everything I read was there anything listed which could be called probable cause on the accused mothers part. Nothing in all of it describes why she would even really dislike the girl in question.
The police report - without using the mother's name - states:
"(She) stated in the months leading up Meier's daughter's suicide, she instigated and monitored a 'my space' account which was created for the sole purpose of communicating with Meier's daughter.
"(She) said she, with the help of temporary employee named ------ constructed a profile of 'good looking' male on 'my space' in order to 'find out what Megan (Meier's daughter) was saying on-line' about her daughter. (She) explained the communication between the fake male profile and Megan was aimed at gaining Megan's confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter and other people.
"(She) stated she, her daughter and (the temporary employee) all typed, read and monitored the communication between the fake male profile and Megan .....
FalconI don't know about you, but I would rather withhold information if it means protecting someone's safety or reputation. Internet or not, it's just a shitty thing to do to another human being.
I would rather have info needed to protect my child from a despicable person like this.
FalconThis woman is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
This is only true in a court of law, it's not true in the court of public opinion. I'll give an example: I believe Bush is guilty of desertion when he went AWOL in the Air National Guard. There's that's my public opinion, now for my opinion in a court of law. As it is now I would have to have a lot more info if I were on a jury in a court case before I could say "guilty". With what I know now I would have to vote "innocent". And I don't even like Bush!!!
The reason the police and the press don't always publish everything is bloody simple.
But even more important, it is to keep information from becoming common knowledge to aid the investigation. The less details of the case are known to the general public the more likely a suspect can be pinned down on having knowledge they couldn't have unless they were involved.
They had no reason to publish anything, they weren't going to charge anyone, but now with all the publicity the DA is reopening the case.
By publishing for instance what was said right before the suicide, the woman in question can no longer be indentified as the person who sent it if she shows knowledge of what had been said. Before she could only have known what was in the messages if she had seen them, when they were sent. Now, she can just claim she read it somewhere.
In a police report she admits what she did so there is no need to prove she did it.
But the most important thing here is, innocent until proven guilty.
Seeing as how she admits she did it she is GUILTY. As for the "innocent until proven" that's only true in a court of law, it's not true in the court of public opinion.
FalconFrankly, if she deserves to be punished, then so do they.
It's amazing how you can equate an adult who torments a 13 year old kid with problems leading her to kill herself, with anyone who let's people know who did the tormenting.
FalconDon't even print the things that don't need to be printed.
And who gets to decide what's worthy of being printed? You? Me? Them? I prefer Freedom of Speech, which includes the press and the internet!!!
FalconBy all means report that "the mother of one of the girl's friends" has been accused of this, but personally identifying information should rightly be prevented from being published in any medium whether it be a newspaper or a blog until the accusation has been found to be true.
BS. I have the right decide if I want to do business with someone who'd despicable, I can't do that if I don't know. The only tyme a person's name should not be published after being accused of something like this is if the person is child. Children, including Megan Meier, are society's most vulnerable member of society and they should be protected, but an adult should be ostracized for doing something so despicable even if it isn't a crime.
FalconYou have no right to know it until it has been confirmed. It should be left to the courts to decide whether what she did was wrong, not some ill-informed lynch mob with a knee-jerk reaction to whatever tidbits the media chose to publish today. *IF* she is found guilty of wrongdoing then you have a right to know. If the court finds her innocent you have no right to know that she was even charged - that is how "innocent until proven guilty" should work.
That's true in a court of law but not true in the court of public opinion. For instance I have said, and say again here, I believe Bush is guilty of desertion when he went AWOL while in the Air National Guard. However if it ever went to court and I was on the jury I would need a lot more facts before I could vote "guilty", as it stands now I would have to vote "innocent".
FalconTypical to blame everyone else but those responsible. Why didn't the girl's parents raise her to have more self respect than that? Hell, just repeating the phrase "sticks and stones..." daily would have prevented this because that's all it is, some girl who's parents never taught her to ignore the stupid things people say. I'm the parent of a special needs child who gets far more verbal abuse than this stupid girl ever would yet she's not trying to kill herself. Letting a child get that old without teaching her to have at least a little self respect is pathetic.
You say "Typical to blame everyone else but those responsible." Yet throughout the rest you do exactly that.
FalconWhat do you do if we later find out the Myspace guy really did exist, and it wasn't the neighbor lady?
"Six weeks after Megan died, on a Saturday morning, a neighbor down the street, a different neighbor, one they didn't know well, called and insisted that they meet that morning at a counselor's office in northern O'Fallon."
"The woman would not provide details. Ron and Tina went. Their grief counselor was there. As well as a counselor from Fort Zumwalt West Middle School.'
"The neighbor from down the street, a single mom with a daughter the same age as Megan, informed the Meiers that Josh Evans never existed."
"She told the Meiers that Josh Evans was created by adults, a family on their block. These adults, she told the Meiers, were the parents of Megan's former girlfriend, the one with whom she had a falling out. These were the people who'd asked the Meiers to store their foosball table."
Besides that, there's really no way they could've known the little girl would commit suicide.
"According to Tina, Megan had gone on vacations with this family. They knew how she struggled with depression, that she took medication."
FalconShe created a MySpace account. Not illegal. She lied in the data entered. Also hopefully not illegal, because our prisons would overflow if it was. She appeared as someone from the opposite sex. See answer to prior statement. She got a teenager to get romantically inclined with the person she created. Dunno if that's illegal, it would not be here. Said teenager commits suizide. While that's illegal in some countries, it's the teenager who did something illegal, not her.
Would you say the same thing if it had been a 70 year old man?
FalconThere's a large difference between the name being possible to find by going to the right places, and having it plastered all over the place. What is the purpose? The only purpose I can see of posting their identity is that people hope that "someone" is going to do something with that information.
Have you ever heard of ostracism?
Falcon