Stop Daylight Saving Time Now!

Pick a clock setting and leave it there. 

I suggest, at either spring or fall equinox, at high-noon, set each time zones clock to 12:00 adjusted for its zone; and then never adjust clocks forward or back ever again.

The new law could be called; Common Sense Time (CST) or Starlight Conservation Time (SCT); anything less stupid than insinuating we are saving time. 

Changing clocks doesn’t change how much light or dark there is in any day during a year. 

Human physiology is diurnal.  Humans are healthiest when they are active in natural daylight and inactive in the dark of any day.  Inferred generally from Relationships between sleep, physical activity and human health  Greg Atkinson, Damien Davenne, Physiol Behav. 2007 February 28, Published online 2006 October 25.

I’ll get to false claims that energy is saved by pretending time has changed.    

Daylight Saving Time has been around for most of this century.  In 1918, in order to conserve resources for the war effort, the U.S. Congress placed the country on Daylight Saving Time for seven months in 1918 and 1919.  The law, however, proved so unpopular that it was later repealed.

When America went to war again, Congress reinstated Daylight Saving Time on February 9, 1942.  It remained advanced by one hour year-round until September 30, 1945 (It should have stayed that way).  

From 1945 to 1966, there was no U.S. law about Daylight Saving Time.  So, states and localities were free to observe Daylight Saving Time or not.  This, however, caused confusion -- especially for the broadcasting industry, and for trains and buses.  Because of the different local customs and laws, radio and TV stations and the transportation companies had to publish new schedules every time a state or town began or ended Daylight Saving Time.  (The above paragraph from http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/boundaries/a_savingtime.html is absolute baloney; all organizations and businesses can standardize whatever schedule they choose.  I think they were extorted by the government then, much like we are today).

The American law by which we turn our clock forward in the spring and back in the fall is known as the Uniform Time Act of 1966.  The law did not require that anyone observe Daylight Saving Time, but if observing Daylight Saving Time, it must be done uniformly.

By 1966, some 100 million Americans were observing Daylight Saving Time through their own local laws and customs (numbers don’t make right, they frequently indicate mass hysteria, folly or falsehood).  Congress decided to step in end the confusion and establish one pattern across the country.  The Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S. Code Section 260a) created Daylight Saving Time to begin on the last Sunday of April and to end on the last Sunday of October.  Any area that wanted to be exempt from Daylight Saving Time could do so by passing a local ordinance.  The law was amended in 1986 to begin Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in April.

Spring forward...Fall back....  It's ingrained in our consciousness almost as much as the A-B-Cs or our spelling reminder of "i before e...."  And it's a regular event, though perhaps a bit less regular than the swallows coming back to Capistrano.  Even birdbrains have enough sense to regulate their own activities by the length of sunlight available and temperatures.

In 2005 and 2006, Daylight Saving Time begins for most of the United States at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April.  Time reverts to standard time at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.

Beginning in 2007, Daylight Saving Time is extended one month and begins for most of the United States at: 2 a.m. on the Second Sunday in March until 2 a.m. on the First Sunday of November.

The new start and stop dates were set in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.  This is just another case of senseless government interference when they should restrain themselves to much more important matters.

Daylight Saving Time -- for the U.S. and its territories -- is NOT observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and by most of Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona) All peoples with good common sense.

Other parts of the world observe Daylight Saving Time as well.  While European nations have been taking advantage of the time change for decades, in 1996 the European Union (EU) standardized a EU-wide "summertime period”.  The EU version of Daylight Saving Time runs from the last Sunday in March through the last Sunday in October.  In the southern hemisphere where summer comes in December, Daylight Saving Time is observed from October to March.  

Equatorial and tropical countries (lower latitudes) don't observe Daylight Saving Time since the daylight hours are similar during every season, so there's no advantage to moving clocks forward during the summer.  Note: nor is there any advantage in any other latitude. 

Energy Savings; more government baloney!  Even if it saved the 1% their badly flawed studies claim, it did nothing about the 99% and it did nothing to encourage domestic, or market driven renewable and sustainable energy production

Light and dark periods rule, not clock settings.  The same purported saving or more can be obtained by changing organization and business schedules, and personal choices of individual activity in concert with the seasons.  No silly nanny-state laws are necessary. 

Safety is an issue.  Having children stand a bus stops or workers operating heavy equipment in the dark, twice a year because clock changes is much less “safe” than adjusting scheduled work or school start and stop times. 

I’ll be changing my behavior with the changing seasons and length of natural and artificial daylight.

I will not be changing my clocks to pretend the sun has come up or gone down earlier or later.

I will encourage and participate in national efforts to repeal any form of Daylight Saving Time and prevent the return of any government efforts to reestablish any such silliness. 

Stop Daylight Saving Time Now!