Daylight Savings Stupidity

Don't forget to set your clocks ahead an hour before going to bed! Also, drive carefully for the next few days, as there is evidence that suggests that tired drivers may not be as alert or more prone to take risks behind the wheel.

Losing an hour of sleep sucks, but being late to work Monday is even worse!

My name is Bon The Geek, and I approve of this message.

Last Call

And Slick Rick wins Kansas.  Because everyone else bailed.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, whose top two foes essentially conceded the state, will win Saturday's GOP caucuses in Kansas, CNN projected.

The victory came on the heels of three Santorum victories on Super Tuesday. His campaign said the Kansas win showed that tea party loyalists and conservatives continue to rally around him.

Santorum, campaigning in Springfield, Missouri, on Saturday afternoon, went after President Barack Obama, criticizing the president's stance on energy, health care, Iran and the debt. The Republican candidate also talked about entitlement programs.

"In the eyes of the president, America is a great country because government redistributes wealth," Santorum said.

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich abandoned plans to campaign in Kansas and instead focused on Tuesday primaries in Mississippi and Alabama. Texas Rep. Ron Paul campaigned in Kansas on Friday and Saturday.

With 99% of the Kansas vote tallied, Santorum had 51%, Romney, 21%, Gingrich, 14% and Paul 13%.

It's funny.  Jesus's message of  "Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me" is 2012 is now "socialist wealth redistribution" and should be shunned and hated along with those who practice it.  It irritates me that Republicans don't believe in America, they believe in whatever they can gain for themselves.

Oops! Extra Cheese Edition

(CNN) -- A mother of 10 who threw a birthday party for her 5-year-old daughter at a Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant in suburban Houston, Texas, apparently forgot about the girl, went home without her and failed to realize her mistake until the next day, police said Friday.

"She was remorseful. She was upset," Pearland police investigator Jeff Mink said by phone. "But the question still arises, how and why the child was left behind? And why it took so long for the mother to realize the child was still missing?"

A restaurant worker alerted police to the abandoned child at 10:50 p.m. Thursday, but the mother did not report her missing until 7:50 a.m. Friday, Mink said.

The woman left the restaurant at 10 p.m. with her other nine children and it wasn't until she was getting them ready for school the next morning that she realized her mistake, Mink said. He added that the mother, a relative and a friend were the only adults involved in hosting the event, which was attended by 19 children.

Every kid dreams of being left to enjoy a place like Chuck E. Cheese, to have the entire place to themselves. For this little girl it nearly came true.

Mother of ten? I do feel for the woman. I could barely manage three, but I would assume one has checks and balances in place. I still can't get into the car without doing a head count, but one slip is all it takes.

I don't quite know what to think about this one, folks. What about you, does a mother of ten get a break or intervention?

Zero Tolerance For Stupidity

JACKSON — A 16-year-old student who used pepper spray when two girls started a fight with her Thursday will face an expulsion hearing.

The two other students, a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old, involved in the fight have been suspended but will not face expulsion, said Jackson Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Ben Pack and T.A. Wilson Academy Principal Deven Moore.

"A fight in school is one thing. ... The law is another," Moore said of the girl who used the pepper spray. "She should not have possessed that in the first place, let alone used it."

Moore said the two students accused of fighting are not being charged with assault. The fight started over issues at school between the three girls.

Is this how we protect kids from bullying? Two girls attack one, they are both older, and she defends herself. There is no logic that allows for them to be suspended while the victim faces a far worse punishment.

Weapon free? Okay, but protect the kids while they're there, dammit. Otherwise, how can parents possibly send their kids to school and feel okay about it? What about kids who walk home? Pepper spray isn't a knife. You can't kill someone with it, and it would make sense for a concerned parent to give their kids something to use in case they feel threatened. As long as it isn't used against an innocent person, pepper spray (at least in my opinion) is an alternative to a weapon, a compromise that lets everyone feel safer without fearing a fatal or devastating outcome.

You know, like when two people gang up on a girl with the intent to do physical harm.

A Special Place In Hell: Let Us Kneel

Polk County deputies have arrested a husband and wife who they say made a 13-year-old boy kneel on the bathroom floor for nine hours a day for more than a week as punishment for bad behavior.

Deputies arrested Albert and Nancy Cusson, of Lakeland, on Thursday and charged them with aggravated child abuse.

Deputies said the Cussons made the boy kneel with his hands behind his back from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. for 10 days straight, ending Saturday. He wasn't allowed to stretch, take breaks, eat or use the bathroom in those nine hours, according to the report.

They never say what this boy did to deserve this punishment. Another child, a girl, was also forced to kneel for long periods, and sleep in the bathtub. Nancy Cusson made him a high calorie shake made from pureed meat and vegetables, and that was all he was allowed.

When told he would have to kneel for ten days, the boy ran away after a week of time served. He was incredibly sore from having sat on his knees on a hard floor, and was treated at a local medical center. There was no mention of the girl being treated, but she wasn't punished for nearly as long as he was.

If they did this, there is no telling what else these kids have endured. I notice the article goes out of its way not to refer to them as parents, or even foster parents, so I don't know their relationship with the child. Not that it matters in the end, but I was curious.

Follow The Money, Honey, To R-money

Probably not a shock to anyone reading this, but DC lobbyists overwhelmingly prefer Mitt Romney to his GOP opponents, judging by where they are putting their donations.

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney has cast himself as an outsider to Washington's political gridlock, and his rivals as insiders who have been part of the problem in the nation's capital.

But when it comes to financing his campaign, Romney has courted a key symbol of Washington's establishment: its lobbyists, the quietly powerful forces who are hired to try to influence government decisions.

And like financial titans on New York's Wall Street, the political insiders on Washington's K Street are investing heavily in a potential match-up between President Barack Obama and Romney.

Nearly 390 registered lobbyists and lobbying political action committees (PACs) have contributed more than $1.5 million to Romney's campaign and Restore Our Future, the independent Super PAC that backs Romney, according to a Reuters analysis of filings with the Federal Election Commission and the Senate Office of Public Records.

Now, why is that, you wonder?  Oh yes.  They're investing now for a big payout later due to his tax plan.

Under the plan, someone in the richest 1 percent of Americans would receive a $60,000 tax cut, while someone in the richest 0.1 percent — those making $1.7 million or more — would receive a $264,000 tax cut.

This analysis actually understates how much of the benefit would go to the wealthy under Romney’s plan, because the TPC included in its model a 20 percent reduction in the Alternative Minimum Tax, whereas Romney would abolish the AMT completely. Meanwhile, Romney’s cuts would cost $10.7 trillion over ten years, four times the cost of the Bush tax cuts.

Loot the treasury, crash the economy, get bailed out again, repeat.  The people who REALLY make the laws in Washington want them some Mitt Romney bad enough to spend millions for him.  When trillions are at stake, we call that a wise investment.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• US officials caution that despite the defection of Syria's deputy oil minister this week, there is no evidence of a Libyan-style mass exodus from the al-Assad regime.
• South Carolina GOP Lt. Gov. Ken Ard has resigned on the eve of being indicted on seven counts of misusing campaign money for allegedly purchasing iPads and trips for his family.
• Ohio's Department of Natural Resources says that disposal of fracking waste water in underground wells has contributed to earthquakes in the Youngstown area over the last year.
• The Federal Reserve is dumping cold water on banks repurchasing stock and paying dividends rather than keeping reserves of cash on hand as another round of stress tests are due nest week.
• Another hacker has hit Google's Chrome browser at the annual Pwn2win conference and could walk away with a $60,000 prize.