Almost everyone will tell you it's easier to fall back than spring forward. After a week of adjustment, I can say that springing forward makes me feel a tad bit off. The sun rises a little before 7 a.m. nowadays and sets after 7:30 p.m. This will continue to stretch the days longer until the middle of June. We endure this hour switch twice a year, and after a fortnight of funkiness, our bodies figure out the change. Of course, something this simple must be made complex by the United States Congress.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has proposed to extend daylight saving time by an extra two months. It would start at the beginning of March and end the last week in November (right after Thanksgiving). With skyrocketing gas prices, massive power grids flitting out at least once a year, and oil refineries exploding, I'm glad that the House Energy Committee is getting down to the heart of the matter. We need more daylight!

If we had more daylight, all our dreams would come true, right? As the supporters of the bill say, the more daylight we have, the less electricity we use. Of course, my electric bill has always been the cheapest of all my utilities. Having a phone with long distance capabilities costs more for me, and I hardly even call anyone.

The opponents say more daylight increases the use of cars. This means more gas and not so much savings on the old energy front. I drive a cab during the day from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is true that people drive more during the daylight hours. Old people simply can't see at night, families fear the darkness, and cruising just feels better on a nice sunny day. Personally, I like people out and about in my town during the day. People watching can be fun.

Then there's places like Arizona that never change their clocks. This means the city has Mountain time half the year and Pacific time the rest of the time. Hawaii and Indiana (depending on the county) also ignore the daylight savings concept. I've never heard anyone there complain about it. The only people who grumble are tourists of the place and confused travelers in the airport trying to figure out when their flight really leaves. Phoenix seems to get along all right without any time changes. It's so freaking hot there in the summer that no one cares what time it is. Who wants more 120-degree daylight anyway?

So there's your three sides of the fence: more daylight savings, same daylight savings, and screw daylight savings. Personally, I don't care one way or another. I never think about daylight savings until it actually occurs or it's taken away. It takes me a week or two to switch my thinking 60 minutes, and then I don't think about it until they switch it again.

As everyone should know by now, lobbyists have more to do with making changes in Congress than the Average Joe and Josephine. You can bet barbecue makers, golf course owners, and possibly oil companies (you think?) are big proponents of stretching daylight savings. They will try to sell it to the public with bits like "it's good for trick-or-treaters" and "daylight fights crime," but it's really about someone making more money off the American public.

As with much of what's going on the federal government scene these day, I would like to shout out a cynical "WHATEVER!" There are some serious issues that need to be addressed in this country right now, domestically and in foreign policy (how's that Middle East democracy going, fellas?). All we're getting is a ramble-on-we've-gotta-fix-it-everything-on-the-table-nothing-concrete-but-still-ramble-on-about-social-security-presidential-tour, a Senate Majority leader who doesn't know anything about the atrocities that occur in his office, an occupation of a couple countries on the other side of the world, an intelligence system that still can't figure out who's to blame for declaring there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and not in North Korea, a stagnant economy, and a bunch of uninspired citizens who don't give a rat's ass about anything interesting these days.

I don't think a couple more months of daylight savings is going to get to the heart of anything. Kind of like everything Congress is doing these days.

Chris Jungle plans to market Daylight-In-A-Jar just in time for Christmas.