TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

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  • Teen testifies against Lori Drew

    Woman Testifies Against Lori Drew in MySpace Hoax Case:

    19-year-old Ashley Grills is the girl who actually created the fake MySpace profile of ‘Josh Evans’ that led to the suicide of Megan Meier. She’s been granted immunity by the California grand jury in exchange for her testimony against Lori Drew, the 47-year-old woman believed to be behind the whole nefarious plot against Megan Meier.

    Grills admitted for the first time publicly that she created the profile of Josh Evans, and she told Roberts that she wrote the cruel words, “the world would be a better place without you,” that may have pushed Meier over the edge.

    Grills said that she was trying to end the “relationship” because she felt that the joke had gone too far.

    “I was trying to get her angry so she would leave him alone and I could get rid of the whole MySpace,” Grills said.

    Or you could have apologized to Megan and told her the truth.

    Anyway, it sounds like Lori Drew wanted to take it even further…

    “She was wanting to meet him and me and … me and Lori’s daughter were both telling Lori that we thought it was going too far ’cause none of us can meet her, none of us are guys,” Grills said.

    “And she [Lori Drew] was like, it’s fine, you know, we can set her up. We can have her go meet him at the mall and go there and just laugh at her, and I thought that was wrong,” Grills continued.

    Lori is 47. Megan Meier was 13. I think it goes without saying that this is not the behavior of an adult.

    With any luck, the grand jury will hopefully start the process to bring justice for Megan Meier.

  • Va. attorney arrested in craigslist child prostitution sting

    Attorney Arrested for Answering Child Sex Ad:

    29-year-old attorney Adam Bryant has been arrested in a craigslist undercover sting where undercover detectives placed an ad on craigslist from a father that was offering his 13-year-old daughter for sex. Bryant offered $1000 and was arrested when he arrived at the predetermined meeting place.

    Investigators are also saying that Bryant has been in contact with child prostitutes since 2006.

    How is this a victimless crime again?

  • $30M MySpace lawsuit not dead yet

    Family seeks revival of MySpace suit over alleged sex assault:

    The Texas family that had tried to sue MySpace over their daughter’s sexual assault are trying to get the suit revived.

    The victim, only known as Julie Doe was 14 when she was sexually assaulted by then 19-year-old Pete Solis. Solis had met his victim over MySpace. He’s now in prison for the sexual assault.

    However, the family of Julie Doe sued MySpace for 30 million dollars. The lawsuit was summarily dismissed. Now the family is asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to overturn the dismissal.

    As much as I sympathize with the family for what their daughter went through I just have to reiterate that MySpace is not at fault and this comes off as just a grab for money.

  • FastMail FTW

    For the past week or so I’ve been comparing other free services to Gmail and extolling Gmail’s virtues. However to be honest with you I actually stopped using Gmail for the most part after I wrote the first post. I didn’t mislead you dear reader because I did not switch to a free e-mail service. I just went back to a service I had been using since 2002, FastMail. I like FastMail so much I actually pay to use it.

    The reason I love FastMail so much is it’s old school e-mail. No Ajax to bring things to a grinding halt. Most importantly when I delete my e-mails from FastMail I know they’re deleted, unlike Gmail. I’m usually not one of those privacy zealots but I find it a little creepy that even if you delete your emails from Gmail they’re still not ‘deleted’. And personally I never cared for the conversation mode of Gmail. The fact that you could not turn it off was, well, a turn off.

    FastMail doesn’t have unlimited aliasing but has enough for my needs.

    Fastmail also does one thing that Gmail doesn’t. Multiple signatures for different aliases.

    It also has a plethora of available skins including my favorite Infinite Blackness.

    The main reason I stopped using FastMail to begin with is because I couldn’t be notified of my FastMail from the iGoogle start page. Now there’s widget for iGoogle that checks your POP mail so now I can.

    It was fun Gmail, then you got too slow.

  • Sharpton earns the wrath of bloggers that matter

    Women not tolerating Sharpton’s rape rant:

    It seems that I’m not the only one who found Al Sharpton’s comments in the Dunbar Village rape suspects distasteful.

    It seems that Sharpton has also gotten on the bad side of a group of black female bloggers.

    “Sharpton bills himself as a spokesman for the voiceless,” wrote Tonyaa Weathersbee in BlackAmericaWeb.com “Too bad this time he decided to lend his voice to the ones who needed it the least – and guarantee that more raped black women will continue to suffer in silence.”

    Remember, Al Sharpton thinks it’s a disgrace that basically a gang who raped a woman and forced her to have sex with her 12-year-old son should be out on bail because some white teens from Boca Raton that raped two girls after getting them drunk are out.

    “Am I the only one that sees some GLARING DISTINCTIONS in these two cases that have absolutely nothing to do with the race of the defendants or am I missing something?” wrote blogger Arlene Fenton.

    Fenton organized a letter-writing campaign against the local NAACP, Sharpton and his National Action Network for using the west Boca case to make victims of the Dunbar Village teenagers.

    “It is breathtaking that the National Action Network brain trust can’t seem to comprehend the difference between a home invasion by masked gunmen who torture, rape, sodomize, cut, burn, and beat their victims for THREE HOURS and culminate the event with crime against nature committed against a 12-year-old child … and a case involving NONE of those facts,” Fenton wrote.

    Of course, being the politician that he is Sharpton is backpedaling…

    Sharpton, who spoke with Fenton and Weathersbee on his radio show this week, now claims he never wanted the Dunbar rape suspects to be free pending trial.

    Well, at least some bloggers got to Sharpton even if it wasn’t this northern white boy. Ladies, you have my sincere thanks.

  • G-Mail vs. Hotmail

    Today I’m going to see how Hotmail stacks up against G-Mail.

    I’m actually a little surprised by Hotmail. It’s been a while since I used it regularly.

    + Fast.

    + Choice of skins including black.

    + Sort of aliasing.

    / Forwarding but it’s all or nothing.

    + Can stay logged in all day

    – Ads in tagline

    Bottom Line: I’m actually impressed with the way Hotmail has improved over the years.

    Trench’s Rating: 4 out of 5. The tagline ads prevent it from a better score.

  • Mumia escapes death again

    No death for Mumia Abu-Jamal — at least for now:

    When I first saw the headline I was angry. Convicted cop killing scumbag Mumia Abu Jamal, birth name Wesley Cook, has been spared the death penalty again. Back in 2001, Abu-Jamal’s death sentence was overturned by U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. because Yohn felt that the 1982 jury that convicted Abu-Jamal…

    …may have mistakenly believed it had to agree unanimously on any “mitigating” circumstances — factors that might have persuaded jurors to decide on a life sentence instead of death.

    Because you know he was there at the time. Oh wait, no he wasn’t.

    Anyway, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld Yohn’s decision. While I’m greatly disappointed that the Third Circuit didn’t reinstate Abu-Jamal’s death sentence I’m happy that the Free Mumia crowd is looking at this as a huge defeat since they think he’s innocent.

    Not only that but like the headline says this isn’t over. Even though I think Abu-Jamal will be dead of natural causes before he actually sees the needle.

    And if he gets commuted to a life sentence I actually don’t have much of a problem with that anymore. That is if they put him into the general population. How many two-bit thugs do you think would be gunning for one of the most infamous inmates in the country?

    Hopefully, Tony Allen who is more knowledgeable about this particular scumbag will have more insight soon.

    And remember kids, if you see anyone holding or displaying a Free Mumia sign don’t forget to ask them for your free Mumia.

  • FDA probes allergy drug’s suicide link

    Link

    Now I’m sure some asthma sufferers are going to get all huffy and puffy over this. Pun intended by the way. But I’ve been on Singulair for years. As a matter of fact, I even quit smoking while on Singulair and I have not had any suicidal thoughts.

    I realize that this is anecdotal evidence from only one person but I’ll start listening to what the FDA says about drugs when they take actually dangerous drugs like Accutane and Ambien off the market.

  • How to Fight a Health Insurance Denial

    Link

    As someone who has worked on both sides of the healthcare industry, I can vouch that this article is the real deal.

    I’ve been wanting to write something like this for years now but never got around to it.

    Now I don’t have to. 🙂

  • G-Mail vs. Inbox.com

    Today’s runner up to G-Mail is Inbox.com. Great name for a free e-mail provider by the way.

    + Fast interface. I mean super fast. Leaves G-Mail in the dust.

    + Aliasing. All the aliasing you need.

    + Good interface

    + Can stay logged in all day

    – No forwarding

    – Every time you delete an e-mail it asks if you really want to delete it and there’s no way to shut it off.

    – When you delete an e-mail it takes you to the previous e-mail.

    – Occasional ads in tagline but they’re so obnoxious it makes it really annoying. And all they advertise to is their own stuff.

    – They advertise for their own screensavers and stuff. SiteAdvisor says there is no spyware but it still feels sketchy.

    – Lots of complaints about whole accounts being lost.

    – Lack of feedback and limited documentation on service.

    Bottom Line: Inbox.com has the potential to be a G-Mail killer if they lost the tagline ads and addressed fears about lost accounts.

    Trench’s Rating: 3 out of 5. So close but yet so far.