Happy Easter!

I'm starting Easter right, with a clean kitchen and empty dishwasher. Today is more of a test than yesterday - I'll actually be cooking today.

A part of me wishes I could celebrate this day the way I always have, with joyfully smug hymns about how I know the truth whatever other people might think. But since this year I'm one of the other people, I'm going to turn it into a mini-Thanksgiving instead.

I'm grateful that nobody's going to come to arrest me for typing what I typed above.
I'm grateful for spring flowers, bursting into bloom even as I type.
I'm grateful for excited kidlets waking up to the smell of chocolate hidden in plain sight all around the main floor.
I'm grateful for cute - and reasonably cheap - new dresses for each of them.
I'm grateful for my husband, even now dealing with a cranky youngest daughter to get her ready for the Easter-egg hunt.
I'm grateful for good work that needs to be done, and for the skills I bring to it.
I'm grateful for the health I've enjoyed most of my life and the health that is returning to me.
I'm grateful for a clean kitchen and the energy to make and keep it so, and for the abundance of food in this house and this country that will make it messy for a time each day.
I'm grateful for my extended family.
Last but not least, I'm grateful for the wealth of friendship I enjoy, online and off, in good times and bad. Few are so rich.

In which Amazon loses my business.

Others have documented this better than I could hope to. If you're on twitter, it's #amazonfail and it's the number one trending topic at this moment.

Long story short: with no clear rhyme or reason, and certainly without any kind of coherent justification that stands up to scrutiny, Amazon has removed the sales rankings of a whole bunch of books that fall under the categories of gay, lesbian, homosexual, etc. When you search Amazon based on topic, the results that come up are listed according to their sales ranking, which means that removing the sales ranking makes it near-impossible to search for those books unless you know specifics like the author's name or the title of the book.

It's important to note that many of these books are not adult content. Picture books about kids with two mommies, history books about famous gays throughout history, and young adult fiction dealing with kids who realize they're gay, have all had their rankings removed. Meanwhile, if you search for "pornography," three of the five top hits are actual porn. Can we say double standard?

There are letter-writing campaigns already in progress. I'm holding off until I see the reaction - if their reaction is to immediately undo all the wrong and apologize, I probably won't yank my business entirely. Anything else? Yeah, going elsewhere. Amazon may have the lion's share of the market but they don't deserve to keep it if this is what they're going to do with it.

EDIT: It took most of the day, but it's starting to hit mainstream media. As an aside, I hatehatehate the justification that "private businesses can do whatever they want with their products." That's true to a point, but they've entered into a contract with the people who sell them that product, and actions like this one seem to unilaterally change the contract - or at least the expectations that come with Amazon, one of which is sales rankings. OF COURSE those authors have the right to be pissed, and so do their fans!

Google bomb

For those who like this particular protest method: Amazon Rank. I cannot begin to count the number of ways this is awesome.