TWC is the wine swilling mayor of Two Guns Arizona who was formerly a prolific wine blogger. Some of that remains and to get right to the wine reviews without further distraction, click The Wine Commonsewer Speaks. The rest of the enchilada is an eclectic mix of commentary on culture, food, tax, and econ 101.
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Mrs TWC wrote this in response to the way in which public education reacted to the criminal terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The essay appeared September 15, 2001 on Mrs TWC's blog and was reprinted elsewhere a number of times. In re-reading it yesterday I realized that it is as salient as the day it was written......
I have a three year old and a five year old and I want them to feel safe. Having said that, the media coverage of the impact of the terrorist attacks on America's children is sickeningly trite and leaves one with the impression that our school children are extremely coddled. I have been following Education Week's coverage of the terrorist attack "Terror Touches Schools," which has collected newspaper stories about terrorism and children from around the nation.
We're only a couple of weeks from the Spring Equinox and the short days of winter are on the wane. Dawn broke this morning just before six and fifteen minutes later Old Mr Sol had made his appearance, promising a glorious sunny morning here in So Cal. But tonight, Gentle Readers, things get sinister. While you slumber in peace the bastages are going to steal your morning light from you.
That DST is absolutely a big fat waste of time ought to be self-evident. Americans do not use electricity in the same way they did sixty years ago. Flat screen TV's have replaced low energy AM radios, and televisions never rest, blaring day and night, often competing for our attention from several different rooms in the house.
In 1950, windows were kept open, or closed, as a hedge against the oppressive summer heat and humidity. Today, air conditioning use is connected to temperature and controlled by thermostat, and it doesn't shut off because it's still daylight at 8:00 at night. Incandescent bulbs, radio tubes, and electric fans are orders of magnitude less energy intensive than a/c and plasma screens. Whatever time the sun sets on modern America is only nominally related to energy consumption.
In DC, problem resolution takes a back seat to the the illusion of doing something. Appearances and pretense. Lookit us! We're solving the energy crisis! And so it is that we are stuck with a dinosaur, the albatross of DST, which outlived its usefulness many decades ago, yet it affects a greater portion of our lives than it ever has.
Had breakfast with Mrs TWC at Mimi's before whisking her off to Orange County's John Wayne Airport.
LAX could take some lessons here, starting with John Wayne's dedicated offramp lane from the 55 that drops in and loops around to the front of terminal row. No muss. No. fuss. No stop lights. Same deal on the way out. You want the 405? Right this way. Wham. Bam. Thankee Ma'am. Were done.
In contrast, the dummies in LA, with the help of the state and the feds, built a multi-billion dollar freeway (the 105) that doesn't go anywhere. Instead of routing it along Century Blvd and into the airport terminal, the freeway abruptly ends in El Segundo, dumping LAX bound traffic into the suffocating gridlock on Sepulveda Blvd, a mile from the airport.
The smugly self-satisfied politicians and bureaucrats, who want to shove you into mass transit while they tool around town in a limo, signed off on the light rail project down the 105 median. Just like the freeway, that slick lookin' train doesn't go anywhere, neither. You can't take the train to the airport because it doesn't go there. WTH? You can't take it to the beach, neither. Close. But no Cohiba. Worse: the train doesn't come from anywhere you're at, it just sort of begins at the 605 Freeway. But, it's cool. Like the Monorail at Diz. And, Boy Howdy! Dam thing runs down the center of the freeway. That's the important thing.
Most of America will recognize the 105 from the Sandra Bullock movie, Speed, which was filmed just before the freeway opened in 1994, a quarter century after many of the homes along the route were condemned.
TWC can clearly remember the erie deserted streets, lined with forlorn windowless houses and long-dead lawns. Except for the plywood sheets screwed to the doorframes, the scene could have been drawn from a post-apoclyptic Stephen King novel.
And if all that wasn't bad enough, they bulldozed the Beach Boys home where it all began.
Sure enough, you lost an hour last night. But look on the bright side, a couple people I know lost four or five hours that they're not getting back. And, at least you know where your undies are and how you got home.
As Daylight Savings Time becomes increasingly an exercise in the irrelevant, the government powers on. Heh. TWC had been waiting for weeks for a tinge of daylight at 6:00 AM. That day came recently, but this fully automated stroke of meddling instantly banishes the late winter sun to the 7:00 AM time slot. Practically speaking, that means The Boy will be driving The House Blond to school in the dark. I've whined previously, but our narrow rural road has become a makeshift commuter highway, and come Monday it will be filled with people running late who are navigating with one eye open and didn't get enough coffee. Throw the usual road rage suspects, the timid, the crawlers, and the pocket rockets into the mix and you've got a recipe for disaster. Which is one reason why Mrs TWC makes them text her the second they arrive at school.
There is ample evidence, both circumstantial and documented, that DST is futile. It creates massive disruption with no quantifiable benefit to anyone. Pushing it out this far, as the CONgress did a few years back, just compounds the misery. Time to take a lesson from Arizona and Hawaii and opt out.
If you assumed that the US has the market cornered on the progressive nanny-state, you would be incorrect. The phenomenon appears world wide as evidenced by this warning label from a bottle of Arabella wine.
The difference in spending habits between government and a drunken sailor is, at least a drunken sailor spends his own money.
We may think the relatives are boneheads when it comes to keeping a budget on track, but at least they're blowing their own money on what we are pretty dang sure is really stoopid stuff.
Government, otoh, has a completely different set of incentives.
We need to remind ourselves regularly that it's our money not theirs. Keep that in mind as April 15th comes barreling into your wallet.
If you contribute to the Haitian relief effort between January 11, 2010 and March 1, 2010 you can deduct this on your 2009 tax return (if you itemize deductions). Or, you can wait until 2010.
This option only applies to cash donations. Cash donations are the ones you made by texting, writing a check, or handing twenty dollar bills to a bona fide relief organization and getting a bona fide receipt. If you sent a case of canned peaches or a case of Bud Lite, you have to wait until 2010 to deduct it.
Am I the only one who thinks this is really a dumb ass, overly complicated piece of legislation? Why not apply the KISS rule and leave it as it was. You give the money in 2010 and you deduct it on your 2010 tax return. We recommend doing just that. Keeping it simple.
As the man said, you may not be able to imagine how your life could possibly be more complicated, but CONgress can.
Tip of the glass to Rogier at 