Touchy subject

So I saw in a recent post at BeerMary’s Rant-O-Rama that Amazon.com is in trouble for selling a book about pedophilia.
She’s (unsurprisingly) really pissed, and is boycotting Amazon.com and encouraging her friends to do the same.
I thought about this for a while and quickly came to the decision not only not to boycott Amazon.com but that I’m actually impressed with their guts.
Now, I haven’t read the book, but looking at the reviews and summaries, I can take a guess at the book’s content/nature and go from there.
My instinctive reaction: I don’t think the availability of books about sex should be curtailed. Possibly if they describe complex forms of bondage they should have a “don’t try this at home without x/y/z precautions” note, but otherwise, no.
BeerMary said (in a response to a comment on the entry): “I don’t think free speech included being able to give people a manual on how to hurt other people. I also don’t think that directions on making pipe bombs should be distributed to the general public for the sake of “free speech”… or manuals on how to kill your husband and not get caught… etc, etc.”
Now, as I understand it, the book in question is aimed at the nonpediphilic community, in an attempt to get us to ‘understand’ and even accept pedophiles. That’s not exactly a manual on how to seduce a child and get away with it.
But even if it were, there’s no comparison. Pipe bombs are something else – it’s tricky to build a pipe bomb. It’s easy to seduce someone. This book will not create/ease the life of pedophiles, but it might be a good way for those of us against pedophilia to arm ourselves and the children we love against its author and proponents.
I am glad to see Amazon.com carrying this text because it fits with their policy of carrying books which some of their employees may object to. Check out what a spokesperson for Amazon had to say in this article.
As someone who wants to be able to read books which I know some people object to (books like Harry Potter, for starters, and books on alternative sexuality and religion for finishers), I’m glad Amazon.com is willing to take the risk and carry controversial texts.