After the giant outburst this weekend over Amazon’s arbitrary removal of GLBTQ materials from the sales ranking with the reasoning that they were “adult” oriented, the retail giant repented.  They said it was a “glitch”, even though they knew and were TELLING people as of February 2009 that they were doing it.  WTF people?

So, if you search for books like “Unfriendly Fire” or even the children’s themed (to help little ones explain differences in family makeup) “Heather Has Two Mommies”, they are no longer marked “ADULT”, and once again are part of the mainstream books.

I would say thank you, Amazon.com, but I would rather say to them, SHAME ON YOU!

I have to admit it.  Amazon.com has gotten “sexy”.  They have the new Kindle, and have even gotten me to come back as a customer after five years.  They did some things a few years back that really ticked me off, and I left them for BUY.com and other places.

But today, I think I’m ready to once again close my Amazon.com account.  Damn the Kindle, damn the sexiness, damn the convenience.  Sometimes you have to stand up for your principals.  And as an aspiring writer, that includes censorship.  Take a read at the latest about what’s going on at Amazon.com regarding books for the GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning) community.  They have arbitrarily decided some items are “adult” in nature, while other clearly adult items are out there and proudly displayed and ranked.

Take the new amazing book by Dr. Nathanial Frank, “Unfriendly Fire: How the gay ban undermines the military and weakens America”.  I have not read it yet, but it is on my reading list.  It has been moved because someone at Amazon thinks it is “objectionable”.  The book listing here here; you’ll notice that the “sales ranking” is gone.  And doing a search for this exact title puts it WAY down on the list; even from Amazon’s own “suggest while you type” feature shows it.

The book

Book information

Okay – now comes the insane think that Amazon is doing.  I did a search for “vagina”, which Amazon’s useful suggestion search finished for me.  One of the first products that came up was this one.

And here is its product information, INCLUDING how well it ranks against other “VAGINA” personal sex toys.

How on Earth is Amazon justifying this?  This is utterly rediculous…  Time to cancel my account!

Okay, so sometimes satellite radio is more useful than 24 hour trance music…  This morning as I drove into the office and was listening to XM’s POTUS08, they had a guy from PolitiFact.com on to talk about some of Palin’s issues.  The issue that I am most interested about was the librarian scandal, because banning books and censorship is NOT a quality I look for in a person looking for a job in the White House.

The link to PolitiFact’s article on the scandal is here.  The facts remain, though:

• Palin did, on 3 different occasions (including one before she took office) ask about the possibility of banning books
• The one book that IS recalled as being in question (to be banned) is “Pastor, I am gay” by a local Wasilla author
• Palin did ask people to resign in a loyalty oath test, and was sued for it

So basically the story IS true, based on PolitiFact’s investigation.  Snopes went and found that the circulating list of books (which include some published after Palin took office, some after Palin left office) is totally false.  But the facts show there was at least one book she wanted banned, and that book tells you a lot about how she feels about gay people!