[tz] Proposal for new rules

Paul Koning paulkoning at comcast.net
Thu Aug 29 20:40:12 UTC 2013


On Aug 29, 2013, at 4:05 PM, David Patte ₯ <dpatte at relativedata.com> wrote:

> You can't database your way out of politics, but you can mandate your way out.
> 
> 1) Time Zones are Political, like it or not.
> 2) Everybody is biased politically
> 3) Nobody on this list wants to debate politics, recognizing that the discussions on this list should be based only on facts about timekeeping, and database efficiency, not politics.
> 
> Therefore, I will dare to repeat myself; that the only way you can fulfill your complete mandate, knowing the above 3 constraints, is to base all  political decisions on those of an outside group - ie: the ISO, or the UN. Anything else keeps the politics within the group, which is rediculous and unwanted.
> 
> I would have been a heck of a lot easier to always follow ISO/UN rules and use Tel Aviv as recommended (whether we personally believe it is sensible), than the alternate path we are now being forced down. How much work do you expect everyone to do?
> 
> No matter how much you database experts play with the data, the politics will never leave this list until it is mandated away and deferred to a 3rd party. Leave the politics with the people that know about politics!

Unfortunately that doesn't cure the problem, though it might perhaps shrink it.  What happens is that you instead end up in a political fight about whose politics to select.  When the problem is agendas and axe grinding, proposing to delegate that to outsiders who have a well established track record of serious agendas and axe grinding isn't going to work well.  The handoff is bound to be just as controversial as the original issues, and the ongoing record of the chosen outsiders will continue to fuel the debate.

This is certainly true for the specific example you mentioned and at least one of the agencies you proposed.

	paul



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