For the most part, I cannot understand those that have such a problem with DST. I don't think we are going to see children being run over by morning school busses anymore than we would see dead children being picked up from daycare or extra curricular activities at the end of the day.

I can understand someone living in Death Valley, or the desert of southern Arizona preferring the cool down darkness at night over the sun. However, for most places, I just can't buy it. Its hot here in the summer too -- usually mid 90's and humid, but the temperature doesn't drop that much for hours after dark. One hour isn't going to cool it off that much because of the humidity. Plus it seams as though the mosquitoes prefer the darkness - let them have it.

I've always loved Daylight Saving time even as a child. I'm wide and alert in the morning. I can handle driving to work in the dark. However, when I'm done working for the day I am TIRED. I don't want to have to compete with everybody else who is tired and in a rush to get back home and with their families. It's also nice that when you get home you can go outside or even look out the window from the comfort of your air conditioned home and see what sunlight is left of the day belongs to you and not your employer.

See, think simple.

Where you live in the country does affect how you view daylight time. When I heard about the 3 week extension, my first thought was that it would fail & ultimately be repealed. Here is why:

The further north or south of the equator you are, the longer days are in summer & the shorter they are in winter. It makes sense to advance the clock in New York. It makes no sense to advance it in Miami. Or Hawaii, which does not observe daylight at all. In tropical climes, daylight merely shifts sunrise from 6 am to 7 am, and sunset from 6 pm to 7 pm. Big deal. From blinding sunshine to total darkness is a matter of maybe five minutes.

It also makes a difference where in the time zone you live. Time zones are 15-ish degree chunks of longitude. Time in a time zone is actually correct only for the degree of longitude it's calculated for. Eg, for the continental US, 75 (Philly), 90 (Chicago), 105 (Santa Fe) & 120 (San Francisco) degrees. If you're in the western end of the time zone, your time is already, by definition, 30 minutes fast. But things get worse. The western limits of both eastern & central time are generally further west than they should be, which means that many locations in the western fringes of the eastern & central time zones are some 45 minutes fast - and that's their standard time. Add an hour for daylight, extend the program by 3 more weeks, consider the south-west quadrant, and I would not be surprised if this splits Georgia, Indiana & Michigan in two. Those three states in particular have had problems in the past.

The history of time zones & time changes are given in Thomas Shanks's The American Atlas (ACS, 5th edition, 1990). It's a boring, oversize, 617 page compilation of reference tables in tiny, tiny type, but close study of it will reveal many things.

Personally, I like having more daylight at the end of the day. I'm not for abolishing DST or making it year round or anything. Just PICK A RULE AND STICK TO IT is all I ask. This is our calendar you're jacking with.

Several years ago, they tried the same thing (extending DST) and there was such an outcry from parents, it was abandoned.

Not only that, this idea comes from a Mass. Democrat. That should send a message to everyone.

Probably better software would have handled that better, but it’s what we had to work with.

My wife works for a government agency that operates 24/7, collecting data and issuing reports at all hours. They get around the DST problem you described by simply using Zulu time for such things -- which doesn't spring forward or fall back.

The work schedules adjust, but not the data timestamps.

More of the reasoned debate we've come to expect.

Here's a suggestion: take 30 minutes from each and leave the time ALONE! It's not like it's making a huge difference either way for those of us who live in sensible temperate areas where it doesn't snow every week of the winter.

Some of us don't like that, and hence don't live so far north. You can't do much about the fact that there's more sunlit hours in the summer and fewer in the winter, and that the effect is exaggerated when you get closer to the poles.

The sun rising very late in the winter isn't a lot of fun either.

They've already bumped DST up several times, as well. They might as well make it year-round.