Thanks as always to The Other McCain, Pirate’s Cove, Bacon Time and Whores and Ale for the Rule Five links, and thanks once more to our pals over at The Daley Gator for the story link!
The weekend just past saw us banging back into Daylight Savings Time, an utterly stupid and useless artifact of times gone by. Recently PJMedia’s Rick Moran had this to say on the topic:
Recent polls show that 63% of Americans want to get rid of altering the clock altogether and maintain daylight saving time year-round.
As of now, 18 states have passed laws or resolutions making daylight saving time permanent, and there are currently 28 states considering the change. But while states can adopt standard time year-round, there would need to be changes by the federal government in order for states to adopt daylight saving time.
A bipartisan group of senators, including Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Ed Markey (D., Mass.), reintroduced legislation in March 2021 to make daylight-saving time the year-round standard. The legislation would allow similar laws passed in states including Florida, Georgia, Delaware, Oregon and Louisiana to take effect. But the bill hasn’t made much progress in the past year.
“Switching in and out of daylight-saving time is outdated,” Mr. Rubio said in a video message Thursday, renewing calls for action. “Let’s just lock the clock once and for all and put all this stupidity behind us.”
The reason for the changing clock has lost its significance. Studies have shown that there is little in the way of energy savings from flipping the clock, nor is there a bump in economic activity. The statistical quirk of the increased number of cardiac incidents may have other explanations that don’t have anything to do with the time.
As far as I know Alaska isn’t considering any change, which is too bad, because the whole thing is just stupid. The clock is an arbitrary measure in any case; just pick one time and stick to it. Much of the world already does this.
We’re already kind of at odds out here, being an hour behind Pacific time; noon here is 4:00PM on the East Coast, which is where much of the industry I work in is located. On the other hand, I can take a remote gig with a company in Japan and be fully engaged with their people while basically working a second-shift schedule here.
But messing with the clock twice a year just complicates things. It’s stupid. It’s arbitrary. The reasons for doing it in the first place were bullshit and didn’t work. It’s time for the whole Daylight Savings crap to end. I don’t care which time they pick, but pick one and stick to it all year. Enough is enough.
