In New York City, there is currently a very strange thing happening. The city council is considering removing a term-limit law for the mayor, just to allow Bloomberg to run again. In 1993, the people of the city voted to impose a limit. In this situation, the city council wishes to change the law due to a current crisis. My question to them is simple, why does the law have to be changed? Why can the city council not just create a bill that would allow a one time override of the law? I find myself agreeing with both sides of this political fight. The people put the law there, and these are exceptional circumstances in which continuity of leadership and the expertise of Bloomberg might both be important to the city. So… why does everything have to be so set in stone? In the academic world, rules of how things are done apply to everyone, unless a dean or chair approves a permit, override or other device for a one-time change. If I want to take a course that is restricted to a major other than my own, a dean can approve that just one time for me, and have no impact on the catalog definitions at all.

Government is so silly.