To tell you the truth, this whole thing rather stunned me. I know the government has regulated daylight saving time (on and off) since the First World War, but this latest modification strikes me as unnecessary and somewhat — I know no better word — socialistic. Here’s the government, the government for crying out loud, deciding on its own when the sun should come up. I mean, it’s bad enough that the feds tap our phones and keep changing the definition of torture so that even the rack would not apply, but now they just come in (without a warrant or anything) and take away an hour of morning sunlight. It’s enough to make a conservative out of a person. I’m thinking of subscribing to the Weekly Standard (How’s the war going, boys?) or joining one of those right-wing Christian groups that hate the government, evolution and, I suppose, me. On second thought, maybe not.
“Socialistic”, huh? While this column is quite hilarious on one level, (that’s why I linked to it, by the way) this night owl must disagree with the morning bird about government regulation. Here in the D.C. area (and indeed, throughout much of the State of Maryland) power rates are going up — in part — due to demand beginning to outstrip supply (Yes, I know that there are plenty of other reasons for the spike in power rates, but supply vs. demand is also one of them.). Japan learned long ago that when resources are scarce, then the Government must step in and regulate the allocation of those resources. Because energy is becoming increasingly scarce, it is entirely proper that the Government step in to regulate its use (in this case, through daylight savings).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031200990.html