Christmas is coming.

It won’t be long before we are bombarded with ads on the TV for children’s toys. Christmas after all is only 100 or so days away.

Wait till you see what Santa’s helpers have come up with this year.

As technology marches on we now have a doll that can recognize voices, identify objects and…wait for it…show emotion.

This little cyborg is called Amazing Amanda and it’s very scary.

Invented by a childless 65 year old toy designer named Judy Shackleford the 100 dollar doll bears about as much resemblance to Chatty Cathy as your new car does to a horse and buggy.

When you bring this little creature to life for the first time it yawns, opens its eyes and begins asking questions. As the kid responds it voice prints the child’s speech and then knows who Mommy is. If someone else speaks it says, “You don’t sound like Mommy.”

It not only talks and listens but has Disney like animatronics so if you ask it to make a funny face it smiles and its eyes shine. Ask it to cry and the lower lip comes out and the eyelids droop.

But wait there’s more. It might ask for a cookie (included in the purchase price are fake cookies and other items) and if you give it a rock it will tell you a rock is not a cookie. The damn thing is smarter than President Bush!

The senior citizen designer of this plastic fantastic doll says girls tell dolls all the time that they love them.

This doll acts like she loves you too.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.