Daylight Savings Time

Sorry about the...long delay...since my last post. When school started up again I tried to kick my internet news habit so I'd have more time to do work. Now that that plan has failed resoundingly, I can go back to harassing all of you here.

Jim Lindgren from Volokh has written a post arguing that daylight savings time should be in effect throughout the year—or that the entire country should effectively move an hour ahead to make daylight coordinate better with our schedules. In response, Eugene Volokh jokingly (I hope) argued that we should just extend daylight:

Jim Lindgren's extending Daylight Savings Time plan sounds good, but I'd much rather extend daylight. L.A., where I live, is already on average warmer and sunnier than most places in the U.S. Why shouldn't it be on average lighter?

This whole everyone-gets-12-hours-of-daylight-a-day-on-average plan sounds wrong to me; another example of hyperegalitarianism run amok. Maybe even Communism. We Americans deserve better -- there ought to be a law, or something. Sixteen hours a day of light on average, with eight hours of darkness, sounds about right to me, but I'll be willing to compromise on 14-10. And, no, I'm not in the mood to move hemispheres myself twice a year; I want the light to come to me . . . .

Now, I admire Professor Volokh very much, but on this issue he is simply nuts. One of the worst things about living in LA is the constant sunniness. It's rarely cloudy or overcast, and when DST is in effect it stays light past dinnertime. I'm much happier now that DST's over, and I can pretty much stay inside until after dark.