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2008-11-22

A great idea from Obama? Oh... wait... nope

SEATTLE, Washington - It looked for a minute like Barack Obama had stopped preening for the cameras and cooking up ill-conceived "jobs" and "stimulus" plans long enough to have a genuinely great idea - getting rid of Daylight Saving Time. So read the headline on a BoingBoing post - "Obama might get rid of daylight saving time".

The BoingBoing story links to this Green Daily story, headlined "Obama Looks to Axe Daylight Time -- NYT Explains Why".

Problem is, when you read the New York Times op-ed, it doesn't say that Obama proposed or endorsed anything. It simply says that getting rid of DST might save energy, and Obama has endorsed reduced energy/resource consumption.

There's so many things to note here. One, it's been evident for years now that DST is not saving energy, and shifting DST might have made things worse. Count on the New York Times to get to this news years after everyone else.

Second, seeing people automatically and uncritically attributing this to the Man from Change is not surprising.

Third, note the great Green Daily double-whammy headline that invokes both Obama and the New York Times - the two great pillars of our civilization. I can imagine the twinkle in the eye of the typical Green Daily reader as they read that headline. Hey, Green Daily, the sun rose today - perhaps you can run a headline on how the New York Times reported that the sun rose, and how Barack Obama was in favor of the sun rising.

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