Daylight Saving Time

Its Benjamin Franklin's fault. He had a lot of good ideas and inventions, but Daylight Saving Time was his dumbest idea. Government has been "jacking around" with the time ever since.

For years there was no uniform consensus until 1918 when the U.S. formally adopted An Act to Preserve Daylight and Provide Standard Time for the U.S. That law proved to be so unpopular that it was repealed in 1919 with a Congressional override of President Wilson's veto.

Daylight Saving Time became a local option and was continued in a few northeastern states until WW II when President Roosevelt instituted War Time (Daylight Saving Time) from February 1942 until September 1945. From 1945 to 1966 there was no federal law regarding Daylight Saving Time. States and localities were free to choose whether or not to observe it and choose when it began and ended. This caused a lot of confusion. On one 35-mile stretch of highway between Moundsville, WV and Seubenville, OH every bus driver and his passengers had to endure seven time changes.

Thus, The Uniform Time Act of 1966 was signed into law by President Johnson creating Daylight Saving Time to begin the last Sunday of April and end the last Sunday of October. The federal law was amended in 1986 to begin Daylight Saving Time on the First Sunday of April. Then, The Energy Act of 2005 extended Daylight Saving Time beginning in 2007 to start the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday of November.

I don't really care how they determine the time just so government can settle on a final agreement, but I do object to being told I am saving daylight when all reason tells me I'm doing nothing of the kind. I even object more to the implication I am wasting time if I stay in bed after sun up. I further resent the government pushing me to bed earlier so I'll get up earlier to make me healthy, wealthy, and wise in spite of myself. Its only government that thinks by cutting twelve inches off the top of a blanket and sewing it onto the bottom makes a longer blanket. And, they want to run our health care?