Wednesday, February 21, 2007 Got a question? Get an answer. Send an e-mail to Dear Mr. Mullings Dear Mr. Mullings: What is going on with Daylight Savings Time? Mike Shelby Twp, MI First of all, beginning this year, most of the United States begins Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and reverts to standard time on the first Sunday in November. In the U.S., each time zone switches at a different time. In the European Union, Summer Time begins and ends at 1:00 a.m. Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time). It begins the last Sunday in March and ends the last Sunday in October. In the EU, all time zones change at the same moment. In 1918 the Congress mandated Daylight Saving Time in all US time zones; that was repealed a year later (when the 10th Amendment still meant something) and local jurisdictions could decide whether to go on DST or not. Everyone was supposed to go on Daylight Saving Time during WWII but it was not uniformly observed across the country. According to the National Geographic: Finally, in 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which standardized the start and end dates for Daylight Saving Time but allowed individual states to remain on standard time if their legislatures allowed it. A 1972 amendment extended the option not to observe DST to areas lying in separate time zones but contained within the same state. Before the move by Congress last year to extend DST, the most recent modification occurred in 1986, when the start date was moved from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in April. According to Webexhibits.com "Studies done by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that Daylight Saving Time trims the entire country's electricity usage by a small but significant amount, about one percent each day, because less electricity is used for lighting and appliances. So On August 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This Act changed the time change dates for Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. Beginning in 2007, DST will begin on the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November. The Secretary of Energy will report the impact of this change to Congress. Congress retains the right to resume the 2005 Daylight Saving Time schedule once the Department of Energy study is complete. Dear Mr. Mullings: I just wonder if there is a reason we haven�t officially declared war in Iraq? Denise My first answer to this was: Against whom? The last time the Congress exercised its war making powers under Article I, Section 8 "Congress shall have the power to ... declare war" was in World War II. Presidents have generally invoked their right as Commander-in-Chief to use US military assets in limited engagements. Since then the Congress has authorized the use of force in: Vietnam (1964) Lebanon (1983) Panama (1989) Persian Gulf (1991) Afghanistan (2001) Iraq (2002) Following Vietnam, the Congress passed the War Powers Act of 1973 (which is generally known as the War Powers Resolution) which placed limits on the President's ability to commit forces without Congressional approval. President Clinton did not ask for, nor receive any Congressional approval to commit US resources in the NATO-led campaign in Serbia in the Kosovo campaign. Nor was there a Congressional resolution involved in the invasion of Grenada. According to US Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales' tesimony before a US Senate Committee in 2006: There was not a war declaration, either in connection with Al Qaida or in Iraq. It was an authorization to use military force. I only want to clarify that, because there are implications. Obviously, when you talk about a war declaration, you're possibly talking about affecting treaties, diplomatic relations. And so there is a distinction in law and in practice. And we're not talking about a war declaration. This is an authorization only to use military force. Dear Mr. Mullings: A couple of weeks ago you wrote: "As our British friends would say, 'Bob's Your Uncle'." Why would our British friends say that? David Norman, OK According to the worldwidewords.org website, one theory is: It derives from a prolonged act of political nepotism. The Victorian prime minister, Lord Salisbury (family name Robert Cecil) appointed his rather less than popular nephew Arthur Balfour to a succession of posts. The Dictionary of National Biography says: �The country saw with something like stupefaction the appointment of the young dilettante to what was at the moment perhaps the most important, certainly the most anxious office in the administration�. As the story goes, the consensus among the irreverent in Britain was that to have Bob as your uncle was a guarantee of success, hence the expression. Since the very word nepotism derives from the Italian word for nephew (from the practice of Italian popes giving preferment to nephews, a euphemism for their bastard sons), the association here seems more than apt. Dear Mr. Mullings: I have received an email stating that Jane Fonda is possibly going to be honored as one of the top 100 Women of this Century. Is this true and just who would dare honor her. Franklin Kim Jong Il Seriously, this has already happened. In fact, it happened in 1999 in a Barbara Walters special as demonstrated in the About.com summary of this event. Even for Jane Fonda being named one of the most influential women of the 21st century at the beginning of its 7th year would be as our British friends would say, "A bit cheeky." Last one Dear Mr. Mullings: Does the lovely Mrs. Galen get to accompany you to any of the exotic (or not so exotic) sites to which you travel for work? Khadine Marietta, OH The Mullings Director of Standards and Practices has her own, successful career and doesn't get to trot off to places like Alaska (last week) or Arkansas (this week) or Texas and Idaho (next week). Here's how you stay married for 34+ years. You remind yourselves you are married for better and for worse ... but not for lunch. See you next week. Rich Got a question? Get an answer. Send an e-mail to Dear Mr. Mullings                                     Click here to return to the Secret Decoder Ring page Copyright © 2007 Barrington Worldwide, LLC