In my morning news browsing I came across this article:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/07/22/congress.daylighttime.ap/index.html
Apparently in an effort to save energy there are some lawmakers who are pushing to extend daylight savings time. I have a hard time expressing how much I hate this idea. I already hate dealing with daylight savings time. It is so hard to put kids to bed when the sun is still shining. I just don’t see why daylight savings time was instituted in the first place. What on earth does it gain for us? I have a hard time believing that it saves very much energy. And if it does I’d rather save it a different way. I have a hard time believing that daylight savings is biorythmically good for people.
This quotation from the article was particularly awful:
Upton noted that the extension means daylight-saving time will continue
through Halloween, adding to safety. “Kids across the nation will soon rejoice,”
said Upton, because they’ll have another hour of daylight trick-or-treating.
Could he possibly be more out of touch? Kids don’t want to trick-or-treat in daylight! They want it dark! He’ll just force hundreds of parents to allow their kids to stay up even further past bedtime so that the trick-or-treating can be after dark.
This is one of those issues that could fly through under the radar of most americans, but will significantly affect every individual in the country if it passes. I guess what makes me mad is this guy assuming that everyone is going to be overjoyed that he’s shifting their lives around.
EDIT Aug 8 2005: The measure passed. Grr. Also I’ve been reminded that I am extremely fortunate to live in a safe neighborhood where children can trick or treat after dark. In many many places dark means the end of trick or treat time because the streets simply aren’t safe. I’ll deal with it, but it won’t make me happy.
This is one of those things that just keeps coming up. Never gets passed, though.
Vorn
Oh good. That gives me a little more faith that not all congressmen are idiots.
Looks like they’re going to pass it this time though, due to the ‘terror’ incident which happened JUST as they were reviewing the Patriot Act. If I was conspiracy-minded, I’d have to say that the timing was too good to be true, or real, considering nobody died this time. I suspect they’ll tie DST to ‘security’ and ‘energy conservation’ reasons, even though I don’t really see any benefit to adding that hour of daylight that they say they’re adding if it’s dark outside; you still need to turn on the lights, which takes power… or for us up here, you need to warm up the house, which takes more power.
I hate DST with a passion, though mostly because it makes it even harder for me to sleep and confuses me greatly. I can understand why it would suck even more with kids, though.
I don’t care what time they pick, since it’s all arbitrary anyway, I just wish they’d pick a single time and stick with it year round. There is the same freaking amount of light no matter what they do, so let’s stop screwing with people’s heads and just stick with one time. I wish Indiana and Arizona had more than that single thing that appeals to me, because it’d be nice to live somewhere where it doesn’t change.
Yeah, Howard pointed out to me that increasing the amount of daylight that people are awake for only increases the amount of time Air conditioners are running. A/C uses FAR more power than electric lights.
Here in Tucson, we also have 350 days of sunlight and clear skies a year. Granted, the summers are a bear, but the winters are wonderfully pleasant.
Oh, and 4 bookstores within walking distance of my house. This town has more bookstores than I’ve ever seen, and I’m from Boston.
I must say that 350 days of sunlight and clear skies a year sounds absolutely dreadful to me. There are reasons I wouldn’t want to live in Arizona. I’m a person who longs to call the Pacific Northwest home. 🙂
Pretty much. About the only people who benefit from this are the people selling the power supposedly being ‘saved’ (they saved it from being unused), or the people who have to sell electronics (which will not have to have new code to tell them when DST starts and ends, if you’re dependant on equipment doing this automagically for you).
Ditto. You want to extend DST? Fine, go right ahead: MAKE IT YEAR ROUND. Let’s just stay on it!
I hate the arbitrary switching-back-and-forth nonsense.
Although I’m inclined to see Ms. Tayler’s view on hating DST period, because I don’t like trying to get up when it’s dark out, which is a real problem in the spring after DST starts, and in the fall/late summer before it ends.
Yeah. That’s what we Hoosiers thought.
Guess who goes on DST next year?
Bookworm would agree. Just get rid of DST. IMO, it’s just a pain to remember, and it messes up my internal clock for a few weeks.