We Wuz Robbed

Two small retailers of baby products are suing Babies R Us for price-fixing.
Babyage.com and Baby Club of America say manufacturers were coerced by Babies R Us to demand a price minimum for their products.
The companies claim they were selling high-end items at a significant discount until the manufacturers told them if they continued to sell the products too cheap they would be cut off.
And they claim it goes back to Babies R Us which threatened to stop selling the products from any company that didn't demand a price floor for its products.
Also, attorneys filed six federal consumer class-action cases alleging shoppers had to pay more for baby goods because of the actions of Babies "R" Us.
The manufacturers in questions are Britax, Kids Line, Medela, Babybjorn, Peg Perego and Maclaren USA.
Personally, I'm outraged because we spent so much freakin money at Babies R Us, for those bastards to be ripping us off.

Biggest Scam Ever

I have been saying for years that the biggest scam perpetrated on the American public since one-hour martinizing is bottled water.
I don't understand why you would pay for something that you could get for free. And it's much easier to get it from the tap than from a store, and much better for the environment and 100 other reasons to just drink tap water.
Now here's one more: Aquafina is tap water.

Suckaz!

Down With the FCC!

Opie and Anthony joked about rough sex with Condoleezza Rice and now there is talk that the FCC will use this as an excuse to reject the XM-Sirius merger.
I want the FCC to reject the merger because it's clearly anti-competitive and harmful to the consumer.
It would be a terrible misuse of power, and a violation of the First Amendment for the FCC to consider the content of XM and Sirius when considering this merger.
And it's funny but I think most subscribers are hoping that the two sides merge. Either they are too short sighted to anticipate the price increase and the decreased need to pursue quality programming or they just don't care.

XM, Sirius Agree to Merge

The two satellite radio companies have agreed to merge.
If you own stock in either of the companies this is pretty good news, the stocks are up today (Sirius to about $4, and XM to about $16).
But if you are a customer you have other issues.
Will they be allowed to merge? I would guess no, but people more familiar with the matters say it's a possibility especially if they can convince the FCC that free radio and HD radio and other entertainment forms are their competitors.
If they do merge I would be worried about the following:
-a price increase. They might have to make a deal to not raise prices or to raise them slowly and incrementally in order to make the deal pass but I would imagine an increase to $14.95 per month is in the future

-programming. Will the combined company continue to be as aggressive pursuing new deals without another strong entity to steal them. Will the sports leagues, and Stern and Oprah be able to get such sweetheart deals at the end of their contracts without the leverage of another competitor

-your radio receiver. You will almost definitely need to get a new receiver in order to get the combined programming. Will you have to buy it? Will they give it to you free? Will they let you keep your old one and not offer you the new programming?

-your way of doing things. Billy loves that he can select 20 songs (like "Doin' da Butt") and be notified whenever those songs are on any channel. Will those features survive?

But the good part is combined programming. You can get NFL and MLB. You can get Howard and Oprah. Most of the music channels are redundancies but the orginal programming will all be under one umbrella.