Thu, 07 Apr 2005

Not Just Indiana

I have followed with a sense of incredulous amusement the absolute fixation of the new Indiana government on daylight savings time - some of these guys are more obsessed with passing it than this old curmudgeon is obsessed with stopping it. It's gotten to the point that these people are ceasing work on infrastructure improvements, taxation, public works and nearly everything else in an attempt to ram DST down the throats of a Hoosier public that either doesn't want it or couldn't care less one way or another. And I can't for the life of me figure out why.

Few local links here (as the Indianapolis Star archives go offline after a few days) but the short story is that the bill to institute this nutty scheme was first passed, then died getting out of the House when the Democrats "pulled a Texas" and left the building, not allowing the chamber to gain a quorum. The bill was resurrected (over much more substantial and to my mind, important, legislation) and rammed through the House again - only to be amended in a fashion that it's supporters find impossible to accept - it would allow individual counties to opt out! So that's now in a conference committee, and faces a threatened court challenge!

But time stupidity is not just the province of the Indiana Legislature - apparently it's infected Congress as well.

Congress also is debating daylight-saving time. Wednesday, a U.S. House committee adopted an amendment by Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., that would extend daylight-saving time by two months...

"Extending daylight-saving time makes sense, especially with skyrocketing energy costs," Upton said. "The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use. It is that simple."

In that case, Rep. Upton, why don't we just move our clocks ahead by 12 hours and eliminate darkness entirely? Think of the energy savings!

The latest twist in the daylight-saving time saga calls for the House to vote today on the bill and let the Senate -- if the measure makes it that far -- deal with a provision that is illegal.

(link) [Indianapolis Star]

Update: Apparently I'm not the only paleo-conservative out there who thinks DST is a stupid ritual, with "the malodorous whiff of industrial policy". Lot's of good history in this article, too.

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