Alan Knight noticed this story about a library that straddles the US/Canada border - and thus falls into the current fetish for rules over judgment. Witness the statement from US Customs:

Congress doesn't write legislation for exceptions,'' Klundt said. ``In this environment, everyone has different challenges.

This is the kind of stupid thinking I see at my daughter's school - where students can be expelled for carrying any kind of drug. That might sound reasonable until you realize that the regulation covers Mydol, cough drops... that sort of thing. What drives me bats is the replacement of judgment by rules. It's deemed too risky to leave anything to subjective reason; better to come up with a set of idiot rules that are easy to follow (even when they result in obviously stupid outcomes). Here's a Bonus link for more mind numbing "rules over thought" thinking in a Virginia school.

If this kind of thing were limited to a specific domain, it would be laugh worthy. Sadly, it seems to permeate everything.

Technorati Tags: stupidity, judgment