You sound like an argumentative sort of guy and your thinking is clearly muddled on the issue.
Nevertheless, perhaps you are teachable and I will break the argument down for you this time.
Time zones are needed to provide some uniformity throughout the world. You want it to feel like 8 am anywhere you are in the world and so you need to divide the world into 24 time zones to accomplish basic global time uniformity. This requirement is logical and and beneficial for the world to operate smoothly.
- First of all, there is a world of difference between time zones and Daylight Savings Time and if you argue for one based on the other then your conclusions will be fallacious and corrupt.
Time flows smoothly in nature and we flow along with it and develop a natural rhythm, but when someone in Washington decides to suddenly change the time, it disrupts that natural flow. There is nothing "namby-pamby" about having natural rhythm. A jungle cat has natural rhythm and we admire how he moves because of it, but foolish men can with their buffoon policies mess that rhythm up and hurt the cat and his instincts.
- Daylight Savings Time, on the other hand, is a totally arbitrary concept and the bullshit "benefit" is outweighed by the real costs.
Already, Russia and even two states in our own union have finally seen the light of this argument and did away with the accursed Daylight Savings Time and I believe that the rest of the world will come to see what a mistake DST is and do away with it.
. . . Hell, who knows, maybe you will too!
Originally Posted by Fast Gunn
Oh Geez.....
If anyone's thinking here is muddled, it's yours and not mine. There's nothing about DST or time zones that you can teach me. I'd bet you don't even know the where-how-when-or why time zones were even created to begin with, do you, and a lot of people don't know at all. Not that I'm criticizing anyone for that, it's just one of those things about history that doesn't come up frequently in everyday conversation. Do your research on that and get back to me.
Secondly, I know there's a world of difference between DST and time zones. My point is that when traveling across time zones, the effect of gaining or losing hours while crossing the continent is the same as going on or off DST, and there's nothing fallacious or corrupt about that despite what you may think.
How many time zones do you think there are? 24?? Wrong. Yes, 24 BASIC zones, plus a number of others. At least two zones add 45 minutes to the hour, and at least 12 zones that add 30 minutes to the hour, one of which is right here in North America but not a part the United States.
As Mokoa stated, animals know nothing of DST, and that's true. Especially wild ones. Talk to any animal specialist and they'll tell you that animals don't have the same concept of time as we do. After all, we're the only creatures on the planet that keep any measurement of time. For them it's either daylight or darkness. When they get hungry, they eat. When they get tired, they sleep.
As I stated in an earlier post, back in the 60's when the whole DST issue was on the front burner, the group that had the biggest opposition to DST was the farmers. And even though it included all farmers, the ones who were the most vocal about it were dairy farmers. Their argument was that, because they milked cows on a regular schedule, the change in time had them milking cows an hour earlier than the cows were accustomed to. I know what most people reading this are thinking: "Animals don't know what time it is." True, they don't, but they get into that rhythm you mentioned. Most people don't "see" this effect.
So to put this in perspective:
Let's say you have a dairy farm and you do the milking at 7am. Them moo-moos get used to that routine. Now you move the clocks ahead while still maintaining your daily time schedule. What is now 7am is what used to be 6am, but the moo'ers don't know that. All they know is that you are early, and they ain't happy about it. This is what the DC'ers inside the Beltway couldn't understand. For the farmers, it was like talking to a brick wall, so they gave up, went home, and adjusted their daily schedules to compensate for it.
So the only animals that may be affected by DST are those that we, as humans, deal with. This group would include some farm animals, zoo animals, and personal pets, and only because we feed them on somewhat of a time schedule, although my two cats don't display any problems or distress when the time change comes. And I'd bet that anyone who reads this that has pets will say the same thing. And if the zoo people do what the farmers did and compensate for the hour of time when it comes to feeding them, then that lets the zoo animals out of that group.
Now you mention the bullshit "benefit" being outweighed by the real costs. Okay, what specific detailed real costs do you refer to? And on what basis or facts do you claim they're outweighed? Do you have any proof of this? Any documentation?
Finally, you state that, along with Russia, two states in our own union saw the light of the argument and "did away" with DST. What two states are you referring to? If it's Arizona and Hawaii, plus the Eastern Time Zone counties of Indiana, I suggest you read my earlier post regarding these states. If not, please enlighten me which two they are. And, in the end, you are free to turn your clocks back an hour and adjust your time schedule accordingly. If you work a 9 to 5 job, then by your own personal time, you will now work 8 to 4, and watch the 10pm news at 9pm. If it's FOX News at 9pm, then you'll see it at 8pm.