Free Republic

Americans don’t get more daylight. Plants don’t enjoy an extra hour of sunshine. The only difference it makes is to harm our health. When you woke up this morning, were you groggier than usual? When the alarm sounded, were you a bear awakened in the middle of January? When you left home for work, did you grumble about the extension of darkness where just yesterday the glow of a preborn sun had been? If you answered “Yes,” congratulations! Your body was screaming that you had once again been scammed by daylight savings time (DST). DST is a fraud guarded by...

While Germany and Austria were the first countries to use DST in 1916, it is a little-known fact that a few hundred Canadians beat the German Empire by eight years. On July 1, 1908, the residents of Port Arthur, Ontario—today's Thunder Bay—turned their clocks forward by one hour to start the world's first DST period......Germany introduced DST in 1916. Clocks in the German Empire, and its ally Austria, were turned ahead by one hour on April 30, 1916—two years into World War I. The rationale was to minimize the use of artificial lighting to save fuel for the war effort.Within...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president submitted a bill Tuesday to end daylight saving time, putting an end to the practice of changing clocks twice a year. Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer said Mexico should return to “God’s clock,” or standard time, arguing that setting clocks back or forward damages people’s health. That would mean darkness falling an hour earlier on summer afternoons. “The recommendable thing is to return to standard time, which is when the solar clock coincides with the people’s clock, the clock of God,” Alcocer argued. Mexicans set their clocks ahead this year on April 3, and are...

At 2 a.m. local time on the second Sunday of March, clocks around the country will "spring forward" one hour to 3 a.m., marking the start of daylight saving time and the end of standard time. For decades, this shift has cost Americans a valuable hour of their weekend that they won't see again until clocks move back during the first Sunday of November. But an end to the tradition may be closer than ever before. According to USA Today, the federal government first enacted daylight saving to conserve coal during World War I in the spring of 1918. But...

There was a time before light became easier to produce in early American agrarian when Daylight Saving Time made sense. The utility of changing clocks twice a year has been long gone, but we’ve maintained it because changing it was a process. That process has begun. According to Reuters: The U.S. Senate voted unanimously on Tuesday to make Daylight Savings Time permanent, a move supporters say would make winter afternoons brighter and end the twice changing of clocks. The measure still needs approval from the U.S. House of Representatives and the backing of President Joe Biden. On Sunday, most of...

WASHINGTON - The Senate unanimously approved a measure Tuesday that would make daylight saving time permanent across the United States next year. The bipartisan bill, named the Sunshine Protection Act, would ensure Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year. But the bill still needs approval from the House, and the signature of President Joe Biden, to become law. “No more switching clocks, more daylight hours to spend outside after school and after work, and more smiles - that is what we get with permanent Daylight Saving Time,” Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, the original cosponsor...

The American Heart Association has issued its yearly reminder that incidents of heart disease and stroke go up at daylight saving time — a biological "clock shock" thus far unexplained. Changing the clock changes up our body's production of hormones, including melatonin, the night-time hormone that affects sleep; cortisol, the stress hormone; and serotonin, the "feel-good" hormone that helps keep depression and anxiety at bay. It's especially important over the next few days to try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even, as difficult as it is to hear, on weekends. Bhat says...

Which states are trying to change daylight saving time? In the last four years, 18 states have enacted legislation or resolutions to keep residents on year-round daylight saving time, pending Congressional approval. In some cases, the legislation stipulates that neighboring states enact similar legislation. These states have already enacted legislation or resolutions to adhere to year-round daylight saving time: Alabama California (authorized by voters, not yet enacted) Delaware Florida Georgia Idaho Louisiana Maine Minnesota Mississippi Montana Ohio Oregon South Carolina Tennessee Utah Washington Wyoming This year alone, nearly 30 states are considering legislation regarding daylight saving time, according to the...

In a 2015 study published in Sleep Medicine, researchers compared the rate of strokes during the week after daylight saving to the rate 2 weeks before or 2 weeks after. They found the rate was 8% higher the first 2 days after the shift, and people with cancer were 25% more likely to have a stroke than during other times of year. People over 65 were 20% more likely. A 2019 report found a higher risk of heart attack after both time changes, but particularly during daylight saving. Interruptions to circadian rhythm can also impair focus and judgment. A 2020...

Three years after California voters approved a ballot initiative to take the first steps toward staying on daylight saving time the entire year, the state is preparing to “fall back” to standard time this weekend like nearly all of the U.S. And as the debate over the seasonal time change continues, a state lawmaker says all options are still on the table in the California Legislature — even a possible move to year-round standard time. Inaction by Congress, however, means California and other states looking to end the time change currently aren’t allowed to stay on daylight saving time throughout...

Is it 6:00 AM? 5:00 AM? or 7:00? Who knows or even cares any more. We’re all going to die from the Wuhan virus, the world economy is going to collapse and China is going to end up with all the marbles and take over the world (h/t Chicken Little-Come-Lately Tucker Carlson – just added him to my must-not-watch-ever list along with pretty much everyone else on Fox News). So observing the correct time is pretty low on my priority list today.Love it or hate it the semi-annual ritual of time switching in order to “save daylight” is an anachronism...

Everyone not named Franklin D. Roosevelt hates Daylight Saving Time. The constant back and forth is confusing, especially for those who have an early Sunday morning commitment. The Standard Time Act of 1918 gave the federal government power to oversee national time zones. That power was extended with the passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which allows the Department of Transportation (DOT) to set Daylight Saving Time for the entire country. Why DOT? Because "time standards are important for many modes of transportation," or something like that. Despite decades of observance, however, more and more Americans are rebelling...

According to Juncker, more than 80% of EU citizens want to abolish daylight saving time and instead remain on the time used during summer instead. At the moment, each EU member state puts clocks forward one hour on the last Sunday of March and back again on the last Sunday in October. … One of the chief critics of daylight saving time has been Finland, which has one of the most northerly capital cities in the EU. Over 70,000 Finns signed a petition last October to urge the government to move away from daylight saving time. For Finland, the plan...

Only the government could steal an hour from you in March and pay it back 8 months later – without a minute of interest – and expect you to be grateful. Well I’m not grateful, I’m cranky; and if history is any gauge I will be cranky for the better part of a week as my biorhythms slowly adjust to this government mandated jetlag.My complete circadian rhythm cycle: Cranky So I’m just making a really simple soup today for #SooperSunday. It’s sort of like a spring tonic except it’s clearly not spring yet and hence NOT TIME TO SPRING FORWARD!...

I'm already dreading it. On Sunday, March 11, at 2 a.m., daylight saving time, the practice of moving our clocks forward one hour in the spring and backward one hour in the fall, will commence. When I wake on March 11 at my regular time - which will depend on the pub I was drowning my DST sorrows at the night before - I will be short by one hour. I will be in a stupor, for the most part, until November, when I must set my clocks back one hour - at which time I will officially resume my...

I resent the fact that legislative bureaucrats at some point in the distant past determined that we need more daylight in the evening hours - during the time of year that days are already naturally longer. What about those of us who love moonlight? Every year we are deprived of extra time to enjoy it. And for what? It’s been alleged that nobody has ever been able to articulate precisely and convincingly why we adopted daylight saving time in the first place. I think it was a conspiracy to put drive-in theatres out of business. This observation by an anonymous...

Assembly Bill 807 is the second effort in as many years by the Legislature to revisit California's use of Daylight Saving Time. The state's voters first approved its use through a 1949 ballot measure. And because of that history, the issue must go back to voters if changes are to be made. The bill received almost no discussion in Thursday's 48-6 vote in the Assembly. It now heads to the state Senate, where a similar effort died last year. ... Daylight Saving Time was first applied in a uniform fashion across the U.S. in 1966. States can exempt themselves from...

The Democrat Outrage Machine - aka Mainstream Media – is busy generating outrage over Attorney General Sessions asking for the resignation of 46 U.S. attorneys appointed by former President Obama Obama. Because that sort of thing never happens in the peaceful transition of power. More proof that Trump is a Fascist!In other news: Trump will be taking an hour of our lives tomorrow at 2:00 AM as he imposes Daylight Saving Time on the country (except Arizona).And by “hoe” he means, well, you know…Who called me a Pussy?So expect more anti-Trump demonstrations across the country this weekend, because, well Trump!...

Duke Energy, one of the largest electric utilities in the country, included an article this week that took aim at the clock-changing law, which was updated just over a decade ago by a 2005 energy bill. It pointed out a number of adverse health effects that are a side effect of using 0.5 percent less energy per day as a result of gaining an hour of sunlight. Studies published over the last decade on the effects of daylight saving time have shown it interferes with natural sleep patterns, which people never truly recover from. ... Even worse, medical studies showed...

No one can give me a compelling reason why we are forced to change our clocks twice a year. I say we abolish this nonsense, or at least split the difference by half an hour, and leave it alone. But, in lieu of that, I thought we could have a music thread for Saturday night featuring time-themed songs. I'll start it out with Simon and Garfunkel's, "Hazy Shade of Winter."