District Judge Thomas Gilbert has taken indefinite voluntary leave from his duties after he was spotted smoking the joint at a Rolling Stones concert at Ford Field in Detroit.
- news item on ananova.com, November 9, 2002

Am I in the minority for seeing this as absolutely absurd? Can you imagine a similar situation in which a cop caught speeding tearfully turns in his badge the next day? Oh wait, there's a key difference: the judge in the above story wasn't endangering anyone's life.

In a written statement Mr Gilbert said: "I broke the law by twice puffing on a marijuana cigarette during a rock concert. I deeply regret this error in judgment, for I have let down my fellow judges, the court staff, my family, and the community."

Could this not have appeared in The Onion without anyone blinking? What will it take for our American society to join the rest of the industrialized, civilized world and stop the guilt and -- more importantly -- stop the absolutely asinine "War on Drugs"?

I'm not all that fond of the concept of 'wars' on anything, frankly, but if we must use macho language to hammer home political themes, how about a War on Poverty (but this time, finish the job)? Or a War on Domestic Abuse?

I'm also all for a "War on Political Opportunism and Far Right Pandering" but I don't think even the spineless Democrats in office would be any help with that.

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