F*** The Kids!

On occasion I protest a little too much about things that aren't very important. One of the better examples of this would have to be my now life-long hatred of NBC for ruining "Ed" with cancellation threats (totally destroying the plot-line of the show) and then finally following through on those threats. I'd say "I'll be going into this more in the future" but I have been told several times that this was a horrible show and that I should be ashamed of myself for ever tuning into it. Anyway...

Unless you live under a rock or some other large object which does not have internet access or an electrical outlet; you have to have heard about Congress passing a national energy bill recently that has a Daylight Savings Time adjustment tacked on to it. Once this baby goes into law, we're going to have four more weeks of DST (as I will be referring to it, because I am already really, really tired of writing out "Daylight Savings Time"). DST would be starting three weeks earlier and ending one week later. I'm aware that this is "no big deal", but this is seriously the dumbest thing I have heard about getting through Congress in at least three weeks.

Starting DST three weeks earlier is going to mean three more weeks of children getting the "stand in the dark at this bus stop" start to their school day that we all dream about sending our own brood off to one day. Psychologically, the idea of getting up and going to school in the dark is bad enough; but there are also safety issues at hand. Car accidents and general street crime are more prevalent during night hours; and conveniently enough the places least likely to offer dedicated school busing happen to be places where these things occur at the highest rates... And what about all the kids that walk? From what I've read/heard on the topic, this move would also cost the airline industry millions of dollars on international flights since every nation isn't so stupid as to duplicate this nonsense. Not even Canada.

Those thinking that I'm going a little too far on this issue are probably assuming that there is some great purpose to this DST adjustment. The political supporters would have you believe that the energy savings (these projected savings are based on a study completed in the 1970s, by the way) are worth it. The thing is, that the figure that I have seen in regard to energy conservation here is ONE HALF OF ONE PERCENT A DAY. I know that in real terms this equates to a large amount of energy... But I'm going to choose to ignore that. Savings like that aren't enough to force me to eat dinner in absolute daylight (I find this to be very depressing for some reason).

Bottom line: this is political trash that some congressmen are going to point to in their next campaign speeches and claim to have addressed the "energy crisis". Do me a favor and actually ADDRESS THE ISSUE legitimately; and without endangering children and harming American business.