Saturday, February 28, 2009

Toys Toys Toys overcharges for Webkinz Emperor Dragon

I used to think that Toys Toys Toys at the Eaton Centre had decent prices, because on their price tags they list what is suppposedly the usual price, and then their price, which is lower. I am now a lot less trusting of their tags, having done more comparison shopping.

[Photo: Webkinz Emperor Dragon priced $29.99 at Toys Toys Toys.]The most egregious example I know of is their pricing on the Webkinz Emperor Dragon. It should cost about $15, the same as the other Webkinz. But Toys Toys Toys has jacked the price up to almost twice that: $29.99! (Sighted a couple of weeks ago.) They did something similar with the Webkinz Whimsy Dragon, though I don't think the price was quite this bad. My son had saved up enough money to buy the Whimsy Dragon, and we were both pretty upset when we saw that Toys Toys Toys was charging significantly more for it. (Luckily, he found it at the normal price at Indigo, also in the Eaton Centre.)

It seems to me that the Bionicles at Toys Toys Toys are priced a bit higher than elsewhere too. I will not be visiting this toy store very often in the future, and when I do I will check prices elsewhere first!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Will "pro-life" advocates helps support the Suleman octuplets?

Nadya Suleman, single mother of six who recently gave birth to the longest surviving octuplets, has said that she decided to have so many embryos implanted so they wouldn't be destroyed. The "culture of life", which claims that an embryo at any stage of development, or even a morula is equivalent to a baby, should get some of the blame for this mess (obviously Suleman and her doctor are responsible as well).

For some reason, I haven't seen any pro-life organization stepping up to provide any kind of support, moral or financial, for Nadya Suleman's family, who exist because of Suleman's pro-life ideals. Pro-Life News currently has only one article about Suleman, and it's a call for greater regulation of fertility treatments to prevent families like Suleman's.

The pro-lifers I have seen commenting on Suleman take issue with her not having a father on the scene. So what, they think that the embryos of single women aren't babies? (And before anyone claims that single women shouldn't conceive: she was married when they were conceived.)

Monday, February 23, 2009

Pepsi supports Human Rights Campaign—the horror!

The American Family Association is campaigning against Pepsi for supporting the Human Rights Campaign and PFLAG. According to AFA, HRC and PFLAG "promote the homosexual lifestyle in the workplace". They make it sound like these groups are organizing gay orgies in the office, but looking at their websites, they aren't promoting "the homosexual lifestyle" (whatever that is), just seeking basic fair treatment that heterosexuals take for granted.

AFA has also released a video, It's Not Gay, featuring an "ex-gay" man, Michael Johnston, who it turned out was having sex with men while working as an "ex-gay" advocate (he is now ex-gay again, or is that ex-ex-ex-gay?)

I don't get why these "family" groups get so worked up about homosexuality. It seems to me that homophobia breaks up more families that acceptance does--how many people are rejected by their homophobic parents for coming out? How does that strengthen families?