I Thought The Reason The Raving Lunatic At My Counter Was Wearing A Judicial Robe Had Something To Do With Him Needing A Fix.

Turns out the two facts weren't related at all. From The Washington Post:

The late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist took a powerful sedative during his first decade on the Supreme Court and grew so dependent on it that he became delusional and tried to escape from a hospital in his pajamas when he stopped taking the drug in 1981, according to newly released FBI files.

The files reveal dramatic new details about the length and intensity of the addiction. During its routine 1986 investigation of Rehnquist's background, the FBI concluded that Rehnquist began taking the drug Placidyl for insomnia after back surgery in 1971, the year before he joined the court. By 1981, he apparently was taking 1,500 milligrams each night, three times the usual starting dose.

Doctors interviewed by the FBI told agents that when the associate justice stopped taking the drug, he suffered paranoid delusions. One doctor said Rehnquist thought he heard voices outside his hospital room plotting against him and had "bizarre ideas and outrageous thoughts," including imagining "a CIA plot against him" and "seeming to see the design patterns on the hospital curtains change configuration."

At one point, a doctor told the investigators, Rehnquist went "to the lobby in his pajamas in order to try to escape."

OK I'm really kidding. About Rehnquist ever being at my counter. The part about a Justice of The Supreme Court of The United States very likely being stoned while on the job is true. Remember this before you call the addicts at your counter losers. The tale of Chief Justice Rehnquist just goes to show that in this country there is no limit as to how far an ambitious drug addicted individual can go.

OK I'm kidding again. There are totally limits on how far an addict can go if they are dumb enough to start their addiction before they're able to move up a few steps on society's power ladder. When the drugs started to take control Rehnquist could go to George Washington University Hospital. When Rush Limbaugh was exposed as a doctor shopping hypocrite, he was sentenced to 18 months of drug treatment. Meanwhile, federal and state governments spend $9,000,000,000 of your tax dollars locking up people not rich or powerful as part of the War On Drugs, many for offences far less serious than those committed by the two old rich white guys I mention here. Remember kids, just say no to drugs. Until you have money or influence.

I've mentioned before I'm an atheist. However I'm not offended by the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance. It's the "liberty and justice for all" I find offensive. Now you have some idea why.