RWNJ Conservative Views from Cincinnati

OK, this is a mostly offtopic rant, but by God I feel like ranting about it. I’m finally starting to see a little daylight before I make it to the office and now it’s going to be stolen away this week by this moronic Daylight Saving Time nonsense. Benjamin Franklin (you know, the guy who said “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”) rolls in his grave laughing at all of us twice a year. He presented the idea of saving candle wax as a joke, to poke fun at those who thought daylight should revolve around them. Now we are the epitome of stupidity in observing this horrid ritual.

The best comparison I’ve heard about daylight saving time is that it’s like cutting a foot off one end of your blanket and sewing it to the other end to make it longer. Sorry, moving the clocks back and forth like a bunch of mindless ninnies doesn’t give you an extra hour of daylight. Like most things political, this may be good for some people but it is certainly bad for others. Being one of those affected negatively, it is a sore spot for me.

As far as energy savings, I can tell you that my personal experience is that I use more energy because of DST. I need lights in the morning when getting ready for work much longer into the year. The light switch becomes a replacement for the window shade. I need air conditioning an hour more in the afternoon and evening since I now get home an hour earlier (during the hot part of the day). My office is climate controlled 24/7, so it’s yet another net loss in energy savings. This is backed up by studies in Indiana (who recently moved to DST) that show a net loss of energy savings overall by the switch to DST.

With safety, studies show a significant increase in traffic fatalities (6.6%) when we adjust to rising at an earlier time, but an insignificant decrease (1.5%) when we switch the clocks back. Simply put, DST costs lives.

When I lived in Indiana I heard over and over “we need to join the rest of the world and do DST”. A quick look at DST observance dates around the world shows that the countries that choose to observe DST do so on varying dates. If we change on a different date than another country we actually change our relative times 4 times throughout the year. If one of us does not observe DST, we only change relative times 2 times through the year. If neither of us observe DST we never change relative times. Is your head spinning yet? Yes, DST does not simplify time coordination with other countries. Don’t buy the tired line that “only backward countries don’t observe DST.” Japan, China, and India are not technologically backward and they do not observe DST.

Needless to say, I don’t care for DST. I get no benefit from it, and a majority of the people I talk to dislike it. I know some of you love staying out till 10PM or later playing baseball (or in some cases mowing your lawn while my kids try to sleep), but some of us find the negatives to be much heavier than any positives. Personally, I’d be happy compromising and moving the clocks 30 minutes permenantly. Unfortunately, until someone in Government grows a brain and gets it done we’ll have to continue to let Benjamin Franklin laugh at our expense.

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Posted under Stupidity

Time Magazine’s 10 Questions series featured Bobby Jindal. While some of the questions were rather odd, such as “What do you think of comparisons following your speech between you and a character on 30 Rock, Kenneth the Page?”, there were a few decent questions in there, such as “What would your top priorities be for a stimulus package?”

Jindal has plenty of substance, but he needs to work on style.  We saw in the last election how much more style means than substance.  It seems apparent in the current political environment that what is said is not nearly as important as how it is delivered.

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Posted under Media

I found this followup from Jim Cramer (on his “Mad Money” show) regarding his comments that Obama is presiding over the “greatest wealth destruction by a President.” Cramer came out punching, making comments such as “Obama’s the one who knocked the whole darn thing down” and that Obama “might have some inside information that he’s done enough damage for now.”  He even threw a shot mentioning “President Pelosi” when talking about the class warfare strategy that is in play.

This is typical Jim Cramer, full of enthusiasm and passion. If the White House wants another battle front (beyond Limbaugh), they’ve got a willing combatant in Cramer.

Cramer also has a written response available here.

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Posted under Economy

News.com.au posted up a collection of political battles I thought might be interesting to watch. As ugly as politics gets, it can always get worse (and as the clips show, sometimes does).

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Posted under Misc

In an interview with Matt Lauer on NBC, CNBC Analyst Jim Cramer (who, I should point out, is not a Conservative) regarded Obama’s policies as an advancement of a “radical agenda” and pointed out that this was the “greatest wealth destruction by a President” that he’s seen.  

Obama has shrugged off the steep decline in the stock market. He said, “What I am looking for is not the day-to-day gyrations of the stock market … but the long-term.” Apparently, he has missed the continued stock market slide (25% reduction since he was elected). He also stated, “The stock market is sort of like a tracking poll.” The Wall Street “poll” is speaking volumes on its opinion of the way the economy is heading. Given that the economy usually lags the market by 6 months, our economic future does look grim.

Perhaps we should move away from the agenda of restributing wealth, hiking taxes, and burying ourselves in even more debt. We need to do what is right for the economy. That includes business-friendly policies, lower taxes for all economic classes, and long-term job promotion. This new administration has had the opportunity to implement these types of policies, but instead has moved from one set of bad policies to another. In the end, it is the country that pays for this mistake.

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Posted under Economy