Today we sprang forward, part of our annual Daylight Savings Time ritual. I usually hate springing forward because you “lose” an hour but I get over it as soon as I realize that holy cow it’s 6:00 and it’s still daylight!
So naturally, Tennessee Republican State Rep. Curry Todd, ALEC’s man in our state legislature who was last in the news for living with a lobbyist in violation of state ethics rules, wants to do away with this annual ritual. Todd has a bill that would keep Tennessee in permanent daylight savings time.
Nobody could have anticipated that a Republican would want to freeze the state in time.
{rimshot}
This is a ridiculous proposal on a lot of levels, the most notable one being, there’s absolutely no reason to do this. Why would Todd want to change this? It’s not like we’ve experienced a rash of issues related to the time change. I suspect some corporate suck asked Todd to file this bill because Todd, as I mentioned, is a Big Business Toady — more specifically, ALEC’s man in the Tennessee legislature who was caught living with a lobbyist in violation of state ethics rules.
Todd claims that he’s doing this “for the children” who have to wait for the school bus in the dark, and at the behest of farmers, and also he did some research and “80% of Tennesseans were in favor of making the switch.”
LOLWUT? He did research? I call bullshit. Please show us this mythic research!
Also, please stop trying to do the children of Tennessee any favors:
When asked though which time gives children more daylight in the morning, Todd admitted, “I really don’t know to tell you the truth.”
In actuality, moving the clock forward an hour means school children will wait for the bus longer in the dark.
Woopsies. Hilariously, Todd’s original proposal would have done away with daylight savings time. He changed it with an amendment making daylight savings time permanent.
Nobody could have anticipated that a Tennessee Republican would propose legislation to prevent the state from moving forward.
{rimshot}
Methinks Curry Todd hasn’t really thought this whole thing through.
The change would cause some time issues for east Tennessee, which is in the Eastern Time Zone.
If Knoxville stays on daylight saving while the rest of the east coast falls back, east Tennessee would be an hour ahead of New York.
This guy makes a good point:
Moving the clock ahead an hour does not add daylight, time or anything else. The primary purpose for the concept of keeping “time” is that everyone is on the same page. If Tennessee decides it is going to buck the rest of the country, then confusion will ensue. This is particularly so given Tennessee borders so many other states. Imagine, five months of the year when Chattanoogans are planning to meet friends from North Georgia, they will be on different times. The other seven months the time will be the same. Confusion will reign in every area that borders a different state (and in Tennessee, that includes Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia, etc.).
Indeed, mass confusion is why the Uniform Time Act was passed in the first place.
Nobody could have anticipated that a Tennessee Republican would propose legislation causing mass, state-wide confusion.
{rimshot}
Curry Todd is a few sandwiches short of a full picnic, but I have no doubt that he doesn’t do anything without one of his big-money buddies telling him to do it. Clearly he’s too lazy/disinterested to fully investigate the issue at hand.
Would love to know who benefits from this. Anyone?
