11-5-11 Hodgepodge

Daylight Savings Scam

As one who usually finds (mere) grousing about daylight savings time almost as annoying as daylight savings time itself, I do find it worthwhile to note that, as with government-mandated retirement plans and government-mandated nutritional guidelines, we are being forced, once again, to act stupidly:

But it was evening-time activists like entomologist George Vernon Hudson and golfer William Willett​ who can be  blamed for Daylight Saving Time. Noting that a little extra well-lit time on a balmy evening would be nicer than in the morning when everybody's asleep anyway, the two independently proposed shifting clocks forward for the spring and summer. [Great. Thanks for making that decision for me. -- ed] Governments soon seized upon the idea as a way to cut down on energy use -- more sunlight in the evening means less coal-burned [sic] to provide artificial alternatives.

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to hold up too well. And changing back and forth to Daylight Saving Time twice a year seems to be bad for human health -- from increased risk of heart attack to more mine accidents. Nevertheless, in 2007, the U.S. Congress saw fit to extend Daylight Saving Time's reign from earlier in spring to deeper into fall in 2007.

Perhaps an early sign that the tide against the Leviathan state is finally turning will be the repeal of this idiotic semi-annual government intrusion into every aspect of our lives.

Weekend Reading

"Was she a prophet? No, she answered. She had simply identified the basic cause of why the country was veering from crisis to new crisis." -- Onkar Ghate, in "How Did Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged Predict an America Spinning Out of Control?" at Fox News

"You can't overcome arrogance by substituting it with equally distorted modesty." -- Michael Hurd, in "Are You Modest, or Arrogant?" at DrHurd.com

"His prescience was uncanny. Twelve years later, [stock trader Jesse] Livermore was bankrupt, save the trusts. " -- Jonathan Hoenig, in "Play a Volatile Market With Less at Risk" at SmartMoney

"There are obvious differences between Madoff's and FDR's Ponzi schemes, but reviewing how Madoff's is being handled does provide ... valuable insights." -- Amit Ghate, in "Entitlement Programs: A Plan to End Them" at PJ Media

My Two Cents

I was happy to be reminded, at the end of Onkar Ghate's piece, that Penguin has released an iPad app for Atlas Shrugged. (It's almost impossible to get enough people to read that book fast enough.) That said, and with Android phones being more numerous than iPhones (and Android tablets rapidly gaining market share), I hope there are plans for a similar Android app. Amazon's hot, new Kindle Fire, which the New York Times recently described as "80 percent of an iPad, for 40 percent of the price," will be Android-based, too.

Heh!

I cut Brandon Jacobs from my fantasy football roster last week for bye-week room, after learning that, in addition to his low production, he wasn't getting along with his coaching staff. Now, with Ahmad Bradshaw injured, we get to see whether this "opportunity to get out there and show myself again" will make me look foolish. I think he's caught between balky knees and a bad attitude, the latter of which The Onion sums up pretty well in "Brandon Jacobs Furious At Giants Coaching Staff For Not Giving Him More Yards Per Carry."

-- CAV