Every few years, a somewhat empty DST changing article comes out...

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2015/03/17 13:52 +00:00, original URI: http://www.siao2.com/2015/03/17/8770668856267196341.aspx


This blog post's title speaks for itself.

Last Thursday, Elahe Izadi (the Washington Post blogger and comedian) wrote a somewhat fluffy piece about how annoying and worrying people in the US find the annual "spring forward" rules of Daylight Saving Time to be on the paper's Blog site: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/03/12/a-bunch-of-states-want-to-get-rid-of-daylight-saving-time-is-your-state-one-of-them/

Now if you look at Ms. Elahe Izadi's other posts or her twitter account @ElaheIzada, it would be hard to not realize that she has some real quality work there, and the name Elahe is an Anglicization of both the Hebrew and Arabic words for "Goddess", which is also reasonably interesting (I am too shallow to look up which!), but this particular blog topic is an empty rehash of a dozen different states that have varying degrees of objections to DST and the fact that most of them never manage to go anywhere.

One fatal flaw in the various ways that the case can be argued is in the way that some state legislators are reportedly suggesting the idea of year long daylight savings time rather than year long standard time, which is the only option that federal law actually allows for, a point that the semi annual article usually tries to make a mention of.

Thankfully, Jason Schneider commented fully if dryly:

Individual states may remain on year-round standard time per the Uniform Time Act of 1966 in 15 U.S.C., Section 260(a), but may not institute year-round daylight saving time per federal law. All state laws are superceded per 15 U.S.C., Section 260(b). Any attempt by states to institute year-round DST through their own legislatures would be illegal. Why can't states select their own times? Daylight saving is a weights and measures issue and the weights and measures power is explicitly delegated to Congress in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. Article 6, Clause 2 of the Constitution itself provides for the supremacy of the Constitution itself and the laws of the United States if state law and federal law conflict.
That kind of goes to the crux of the problem in many states, not to mention the fact that television shows like The West Wing have made fun of in the past in episodes like 20 hours in America, which had Toby, Josh, and Donna missing a plane due to crossing over one of the invisible time zone lines in Indiana.

Nevertheless, a fun reminder of the insanity that is Daylight Saving Time!


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referenced by

2015/05/11 The 5 steps to ACTUAL calendar reform

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