I have a number of devout Christian friends. It doesn't bother me that they believe deeply. If they find satisfaction from their beliefs, I'm all for it. But I do notice that they seem to get a great deal of joy out of complaining about imagined slights. I came across one today, though, that I think takes the absolute cake. Disney is apparently making a 10 Commandments movie. Can't complain about that, right--I mean, evil Hollywood putting the Bible on center stage. I got a kick out of reading one Christian site complaining that the advertisements took 'God' out of the ad. Here's the original text: "With Ben Kingsley, Christian Slater, Alfred Molina and Elliott Gould. ... chosen by God." Disney replaced "chosen by God" with "from Promenade Pictures." Now, I don't know about you, but if I were devout, I'd a lot rather hear that Promenade had selected those actors than that God had done it. How arrogant would it be to claim that God personally selected a group of actors? Clearly it's a no-win. The same people will be offended no matter which choice Disney makes--if it left the text unchanged, Disney set themselves up as God--clearly blasphamous. If they changed it, they 'took 'God' out of a movie about the Bible,' clearly worth complaining about. It seems ironic to me that a group of people who constitute a huge majority, who regularly impose their values, judgements, and tastes on the rest of us still somehow manage to see themselves as perpetual victims.

I've posted a review of UP CLOSE AND DANGEROUS by Linda Howard. Howard is a fine author and I gave two of her earlier novels 4 Star ratings. Dangerous doesn't quite click, though, although it is well written and has some fascinating moments. Here's my review: www.booksforabuck.com/rompages/rom_2007/up_close_dangerous.html. I'm still reading ATHENA FORCE: VENDETTA by Meredith Fletcher.

I'm going to make SPRING RAIN ON THE WIND the www.BooksForABuck.com book of the day. The Cherokee Nation is under pressure from land-hungry whites when Bedelia (Spring Rain) decides to rediscover her Indian heritage. What she doesn't know is that her power, handed down through multiple generations of talents, is sought both by an English wizard and an Indian shaman. Action, history, magic and romance collide. Only $3.99. Learn more, read the excerpt, or buy the entire eNovel here: www.booksforabuck.com/rompages/rom_2007/spring_rain.html. (Available in HTML, Adobe Acrobat PDF, Mobipocket, Palm Reader/eReader, and Microsoft Reader (LIT) formats.) Here's the cover:

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