Sociopath

Ok, I admit maybe I have some kind of sick fascination with this story. It is just so surreal.

[And also, maybe I'm just the kind of person that is intrigued by superlatives. Things that pique my interest are often the extremes one finds in this world. Notice my post down below on the Patriots (best football team ever (maybe)). My possibly unhealthy degree of interest in the doings of Judge Gonzales (worst Attorney General in history) and his boss, Preznit George W. Bush (most awful democratically elected world leader in my lifetime). Etc.]

And now we have the most despicable human being. Or at least a strong candidate.

Witness one Lori Drew, who did the following:

1. In response to her daughter Sarah, age 13, getting into a juvenile tiff with her BFF Megan (also age 13) from down the street, Lori (age 48) created a fake myspace identity which purported to be a "good-looking" male (age 15) named "Josh".

2. Lori then went online as "Josh" and befriended Megan, later forming a romantic online relationship with her, all ostensibly for the purpose of "monitoring" what Megan (the friend) was saying about Sarah (the daughter).

3. As the tiff between Megan and Sarah escalated in real life (or "meatspace" as the myspace crowd apparently calls it), Lori used her alter ego Josh to draw Sarah closer, and then, deciding that Sarah needed "a taste of her own medicine", savagely broke off the relationship, telling Sarah that "the world would be better off without you", in response to which Sarah, a person known to be suffering from clinical depression, promptly went upstairs to her bedroom and hung herself.

4. The End.

5. Or not. When, after Lori's machinations in this sordid drama came to light (as these things will do), the close-knit community understandably turned against Lori. The authorities got involved. Investigations were pursued. Newspaper articles were written. This, after Lori had, in the intervening several months, pretended concern and grief toward Megan's family over their daughter's suicide, going to great lengths to hide her role in same.

6. But and so then in response to the tight-knit community turning against her, Lori then determined that the best course of action would be... wait for it... to create yet another teenage online identity (Kirsten, exact age undetermined), who was ostensibly a schoolmate of Sarah and Megan, and who was in possession of certain heretofore unknown "facts" about the situation that she was constrained to "report" to the world via her blog entitled... wait for it... "Megan Had It Coming."

7. Though the provenance of the blog in question is somewhat in doubt (see the second update to my post below), it appears to my somewhat trained internet discernment skills, to actually have been published by the actual Lori Drew.

8. In addition to the, shall we say, provocative title, the blog contains many interesting nuggets. In the first of three posts to the blog (which is peppered with pseudo-teen slang such as "whatev" and "pwnd") , "Kirsten" makes the following claims:

(a) she was "friends" with Megan,
(b) Megan was not "this innocent girl" that everyone made her out to be,
(c) Megan was a "fat" "psycho" "drama queen" who often "freaked out" over nothing,
(d) Megan was also [insert numerous other shallow character assassinations here],
(e) Megan was a total "bitch", who was "soooooo shallow" and "talked shit" about everyone, to the point where she "had it coming with all the shit she did", and
(f) "I don't think Lori Drew is so evil as everyone says."

9. In the second of the three posts, "Kirsten" posts various comments from supporters (probably other sock-puppets), which continue the character assassination of the dead 13 year old in the most explicitly vile and abusive terms, annotating the comments approvingly with stuff like "OMG INTERNETS! lolololololol" and "Here's another smart guy who has a good grasp on what we're saying. Way to pwn them!" and "Smart girl you rock!".

10. In the third of the three, "Kirsten" informs us: "It's time I dropped the charade. Yes, I made this blog. Yes, I'm Lori Drew." This is followed by a long and detailed recounting of the whole nefarious plot, into which are interspersed meandering, self-serving justifications galore, allegations of media conspiracies, astounding vilifications of Megan, ludicrous pretensions to her own victimhood, and angry diatribes against Megan's parents and the people who "defamed" Lori by divulging her role to Megan's parents.

11. Lori then, in response to the predictably venomous (and voluminous) commentary, posted dozens of pathetic and insane comments which were, apparently, meant to defend herself against the "irrational" and "unbalanced" mob who were, at that very moment, posting hundreds upon hundreds of comments describing in explicit and disturbing detail the various ways in which they hoped her life would end (or be prolonged, on a basis so gruesome and disgusting that sweet death would become her fondest, most heartfelt desire). (note: it is truly shocking the depths to which pure, uncensored hatred can drive the human imagination.) (further note: I am not an easily shocked person, but sheeeeyaat. some of the things I read in that comment thread are gonna haunt me.)

Smoking Gun coverage is here.

The blog purportedly* published by Lori Drew is here. (don't count on it being there much longer though.)

*as I noted below, if Lori Drew didn't write this blog, then she is merely a terribly misguided, supremely self-centered person, a bad parent, and someone who desperately needs to rethink her life. If, on the other hand, she did write this blog, then I think her commenters -- even the most shocking and outrageous of them -- may indeed be right on the money.