A note on Daylight Saving Time

I remembered that it was Daylight Savings Time today … but our servers didn’t.  This happens twice a year, literally like clockwork.  Our technical staff will work on this, but for a good part of the day, our times will be an hour off.

Does DST serve any purpose these days?  Americans are more or less split on the question, with a plurality believing that the program isn’t worth the semiannual hassle it creates:

Daylight Saving Time begins early tomorrow morning, but, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, 47% of Americans don’t think the time change is worth the hassle. Forty percent (40%) disagree, and 13% more aren’t sure.

These figures are unchanged from our survey last October, when Daylight Saving Time for 2009 ended.

The internals on this Rasmussen poll are rather entertaining. That 40% in support is exactly the same among Republicans, Democrats, and independents. White voters and black voters are nearly identical in reaction, 42/45 and 41/43 respectively. We’ve achieved unity! The only age demo that shows support over opposition is the 50-64 age group at 47/46. Younger voters have the most forceful reaction, with approval only garnering 26% against 55% disapproval.

I’d say it’s an anachronistic attempt to manipulate time for an issue (darkness) that technological development has already defeated. Since it’s a big government program, instead of assessing it rationally, we just keep expanding it. However, I’m willing to stipulate that I may just be grouchy from having lost an hour of sleep, too.

Update: You learn something new every day. It’s Daylight Saving Time, not Savings, which a couple of commenters point out below. I’ve adjusted the headline accordingly.

• Pew: Plurality of Democrats support DOJ’s phone-records dragnet against the Associated Press while GOP, indies oppose
• “Experienced Democrats” whispering that it might be time for Holder to go
• Pelosi: These Republicans are too consumed with “evasions” to worry about the real issue, which is … jobs

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