#amazonfail weekend.

Forget about Easter. This weekend is all about how Amazon lost out to the world of hypocritical know-it-all-betters. If you haven't heard about it yet, Amazon has removed every item referring to gay, lesbian and other non-conformist life-choicers from their rankings, thus making it almost impossible to find anything relating to the GLBT subjects. This includes listing a kid's picture book about a girl with 2 mothers as 'adult content.'

Others have said it better, and you can check them out following these links:

Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman again [the man is truly upset]
Dear Author

In short, there are several explanations given by Amazon, including "This is a glitch" (which started in February, and exploded this month) and "Due to customer complaint" (in which light, watch Jackson in this vid ) and probably several others.

Amazon Rank is a Google bomb, or so the Smart Bitches tell me.

I think I can safely put it to you that this is the most blogged about subject on the web this weekend. Keep in mind, this is also the weekend that an adult man saw a court deny his 8 yr old wife the right to annul her marriage to him, and a father hired two hitmen to shoot his 21 year old medical student daughter through the head twice because she dared to don a mini-skirt.

In a way, I understand I should be happy that my almost-11 yr old step-daughter is now protected prom finding anything unsuitable if she inadvertently typed something "wrong" into the amazon search bar. Around this time of year, she might be tempted to type in "play bunny" (what with is being Easter and all that chocolaty goodness) which results in Playboy Bunny shoes and matching Bunny outfit, complete with the ears on results page 1. I'm in no way saying that EVERYTHING with a remote sexual content should be hidden, far from it. But if she can find those items that easily, I want her to find the book which explains a little about the kid in class with two mothers (or fathers) just as easily.

In this world some people have thought up this idea that we should protect kids from anything that could possibly hurt them. My step-daughter is an excellent example of this way of thinking. Of course, she's growing up in the cradle of this new line of protectionism, so she can't be blamed for it, and neither can her parents, really, but sometimes it takes a lot of effort not to push her too hard to take a risk sometimes. She has to grow up in a world where Amazon decides which kind of human relationships are good for her, where the braindead members of the Texas School Board make sure the breasts are blacked out in HS instructions on cancer self-examinations. As free-thinking parents, a tough job lies ahead to deliver this clueless and angst ridden (courtesy of the PTA-infested world) child into the real world.

Things like this really piss me off. Closed-minded people have every right to be the way they are as long as they don't force their opinion on me and everyone else who doesn't think like them. This latest stunt is just one in a long line of others, but at least this one is getting a lot of publicity because it hits the people in the publicity business the hardest. I sincerely hope they recover their brain capacity soon and offer up the biggest apology on the history of online bookstores, so we can put all of this nonsense behind us.



In personal news, I get to go to work for the first time in almost 2 years after playing a lot of part-time-stay-at-home-stepmom and part-time-child-care-assistant. I also fixed my brother's car with no help other than my father's hands (he insisted, DH advised that 4 hands should be used) and some tools we found laying around the house. I worked on a new project, neglected Scriptfrenzy, and did a little work towards the Jeans Skirt.
The highlight of the weekend was definitely the High Tea which was had with my bestest friends in the world, in honour of my last birthday, the 30th in a series of annual events. We had loads of fun, food and chatter (and don't forget the tea), and I can't hardly wait to see them again. In such a stupid world it's very good to surround oneself with those with their heads on straight. Also, we came to the conclusion it is a good thing that I have a job now. It was also established that in 5 years, we should have given birth to possibly up to 4 kids between us, at least one of us will have grey hair, and I will still be the only one able to make her own clothes. Of course, there will still only be one doctor as well. Luxemburg has been voted the location of the next weekend. Camping this time! looking forward to that too.

In conclusion, the big bad world outside is stupid, and all of you are great. But now I must do something about my hands. They look awful.