I was going to jump in and explain the rationale for the original design and why we shouldn't change it, but I just realized that Tim Peters has been explaining this position already, and instead I am going to mute this thread. Please switch to python-ideas or to the new datetime-specific list (if it's ever created -- personally I think it's a waste) and change the subject if you need me to chime in.

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--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)