"We made an industry out of cigarettes, we made an industry out of alcohol and now we're creating an industry out of marijuana – frankly, it's surreal sometimes."

Says Mary Beth Susman, a member of Colorado's Amendment 64 Implementation Task Force, which is about to report on a plan to regulate marijuana in Colorado (which is part of the United States, which criminalizes the production, sale, and possession of marijuana).

On one hand, the task force has considered new rules for what Colorado should do when it inevitably becomes a center of "pot tourism," it has debated whether smokers can use their backyard patios to light up, and it has considered how to deal with "marijuana clubs" that will appear....

How it converts a massive black market into what experts call "problematic adult commerce" on the fringes of society – akin to gambling, drinking, and go-go clubs – all amid lingering legal concerns, could provide a framework for other states to follow....

"Two students from the University of Colorado Boulder were arrested after they gave marijuana-laced brownies to their professor and unsuspecting classmates Friday."

It was "bring food to class" day. Perhaps they thought it was amusing, considering that "legalization" they have in Colorado now.

[21-year-old Thomas Ricardo Cunningham and 19-year-old Mary Elizabeth] face felony charges including inducing consumption of controlled substances by fraudulent means, and second degree assault.

"A federal court in Indiana has rejected atheists’ requests to preside at wedding ceremonies..."

"... saying only clergy or public officials are licensed to solemnize marriages."

A lawsuit filed by the Indiana chapter of the Center for Inquiry argued that an Indiana law that requires marriages to be “solemnized” — made official by signing a marriage license — only by clergy, judges, mayors or local government clerks — violates the Constitution.

If you don't want a religious officiant, you're forced to use a government official. In Indiana.

May I suggest Colorado, where you can be your own officiant?

Are you vacationing in Aspendam?

Did you ever take a holiday in Amsterdam to get to the legal — legalish — marijuana? Are vacations like that now within a car's drive for us once-puritannical Americans?

That was very much in doubt Friday as the states awaited word on possible lawsuits from the U.S. Department of Justice asserting federal supremacy over drug law.

So the future of marijuana tourism in Colorado and Washington is hazy....

Colorado’s tourism director, Al White, tried to downplay the prospect of a new marijuana tourism boom.

“It won’t be as big a deal as either side hopes or fears,” White said.

He's got to worry about the rich folks who'll be put off by the emerging pothead milieu. It won't be a big deal? Noted. Disbelieved!

The home county of Aspen approved the marijuana measure more than 3-to-1. More than two-thirds approved marijuana in the home county of Colorado’s largest ski resort, Vail. The home county of Telluride ski resort gave marijuana legalization its most lopsided victory, nearly 8 in 10 favoring the measure.

Apparently, these resorts are already a pothead milieu.

“Some folks might come to Colorado to enjoy some marijuana as will be their right. So what?” said Betty Aldworth, advocacy director for the Colorado marijuana campaign.

Some folks. Some folks who are not the folks who worry about federal law, which is just there to scare the kind of people who feel intimidated even by laws that are not enforced.

But it looks like the feds might try to prevent the states from ending the state-law limitations on marijuana, which seems like the easy alternative to just enforcing the federal law. Legally, however, it's not easy at all. The federal government can't require the states to do federal law enforcement. That was established years ago after Congress tried to make local law enforcement official do background checks on people buying handguns.

"He will bring happiness in a pipe/He'll ride away on his silver bike/And apart from that he'll be so kind/In consenting to blow your mind..."

"Fat Angel," by Donovan (who wrote it) or The Jefferson Airplane (live, with oil-based light show) and even Orange Alabaster Mushroom (a rare find?).

Fly Translove Airways... Gets you there on time... a lyric that sprang to mind as I was reading The Lavender Café, where Michael K said:

I'm hoping to get Chicagoboyz back to posts about airplanes. Politics is a dead subject. The lefties have made their bed. Now, find a job.

And john said:

I think there is some early celebration of the med pot voting results.

He wasn't referring to Michael K, but to... well, if you go over there and scroll — which I don't recommend — you'll see a few things, which, as I said, I don't recommend. It was enough to make wyo sis say "This thread is either above my head or beneath my contempt. If I understood it I could tell which for sure." And john returns us to the aviation theme:

Does anyone else here read FlightLevel390? The best aviation blog around, and the site just got pulled off. I thought Tuesday was a bummer, but this is worse....

Flying stuff. Written by a pilot for a major airline (USAir I think). Beautiful poetic writing, gripping (really) tales of flying coast to coast, with regular dips into the technical aspects of flight and airplanes.

That's when Chip Ahoy — our fat angel, though I'm sure he's not fat — comes in with his pancakes made of "17 B-52's of milk," which doesn't stop LoafingOaf from calling him a "little fucking internet douchebag pussy," which makes it painfully obvious that we are not aviators. We are on the internet.

We are flying at an altitude of 39,000 feet/Captain High at your service...

We are all little fucking internet douchebag pussies now. What are you going to do about it? Go to Colorado/Washington, where pot has magically become legal... except to the extent it's a federal crime? You don't need that "med" modifier anymore. And you don't need a note from your little fucking internet douchebag pussy doctor.

"Monster wildfire rages in Colorado..."

Story... photos... video....

Too much -pie: 3 Occupies in 6 days.

Occupy Lincoln, Occupy Denver, and Occupy Austin... experienced in less than a week.

The last couple seconds — which are not part of the protest — show something Meade and I call "an army of Jeremys."

The artist Christo gets approval for his project wrapping the Arkansas River.

The L.A. Times reports:

“Over The River” comprises eight huge, silvery fabric panels spanning 5.9 miles directly above the Arkansas River where it flows through Bighorn Sheep Canyon and the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area....

The project’s hefty environmental impact study showed that threats to native wildlife were many and complex. The huge steel cables required to hang the fabric would stretch from bank to bank, for instance, requiring heavy construction to install. Several mitigation measures were required to protect bighorn sheep, which live and breed in the canyon (hence the name), including construction restrictions from April 15 to June 30 every year. Also, OTR agreed to build habitat improvements and water developments to allow the sheep access to water and new habitat, and to create a fund that would continue to look after the sheep for years after the project is dismantled.

Years ago, I hated Christo. I thought of him as arrogant and elitist, but I don't think that anymore. As I said back when Christo put up "The Gates" in Central Park:

I must admit that's what I thought of Christo for decades, as I read about his projects in various news reports. But I completely changed my mind about him when I watched the Maysles Brothers documentaries ("5 Films About Christo and Jeanne-Claude" ...). I was won over and came to believe that Christo is an art saint.

I think part of the art is the interaction with the local people and the authorities. I think of it as including a performance art component that is about law.

Colorado high country.

A photograph Meade brought home from his mountain biking trip last week.

The Leadville mural.

Meade points out that the artist included a nipple, and I zoom in to snap it:



ADDED: Commenters request more [ba]zoom.

"The KINDEST Dispensary in the High Country."

A storefront in Leadville, Colorado. The high country.

"Sorry We're Closed!"

Something about that exclamation point makes me feel that they're not sorry at all.

Enlarge to read:

No Pets
Shoes, Shirt
Required

Well, then! Let's go in topless and barefoot. If and when they're open.

Just another sign in Leadville, Colorado. Photographed on August 4th.

You can talk about anything you damn well like in the comments.

At the Chocolate Chip Café...

... sit down and hang out.

ADDED: I should have called this the Levitating Muffin Café. (Lem: "Is it me, or does the muffin appear to float?" It's not just you!) This cafe, in case you are wondering, is in Leadville, Colorado. That's 10,000 feet above sea level, and I know high altitude affects baking, but who knew the stuff would come out this light.

We ♥ Leadville.

Leadville, Colorado, August 4th. We loved all the tiny houses:



And the Western Hardware Building, built in 1881, and in the distance, the snow — in August — on the mountains:



I love the charming modesty of the Chamber of Commerce:



Next to the Chamber of Commerce, is "The Old Church" — which is what people in Leadville call their Presbyterian Church:



We're mesmerized by the marijuana dispensary, Nature's Spirit (and that's the Grand Hotel in the background):



"We ♥ Leadville"...



... we really do!

Hit the road!

UPDATE: Home! We're not in Colorado. That picture is from August 4th. But we did go out for a 26-mile bike ride, in lovely weather — 60s and low 70s — here in Wisconsin.

In the White River National Forest...

... August 4, 2011.

4 Colorado photos.

From last week's trip...

Driving I-70:



Mountain flowers:



Tree reflections:



Columbine:

I realize GOP Senate candidate Ken Buck was nervous on "Meet the Press"...

... but, man, this should go down in the annals of misspeaking:

MR. GREGORY:  [H]ow do you pay for [tax cuts]?

MR. BUCK:  Well, the, the--we pay for it by cutting spending.  We also pay for it by growing government.  When we leave money in the hands of taxpayers, they buy things, they pay taxes, they grow government.  It's not a one for one exchange in the first year, but, but it would be bad, in my view--and, and I--every economist I've talked to has told me that it would be bad in a recession to try to increase taxes....

MR. GREGORY [to the Democrat incumbent, Michael Bennet]:  ... Republican leaders don't agree with what [Buck] just said, which is that you have to pay for tax cuts.  So isn't he--aren't you guys more in line, wouldn't you say?

SEN. BENNET:  Well, I didn't--I actually didn't hear him say that.  I heard him say that you pay for it, and also by growing government you pay for it. I'm not quite sure what that means.  But...

MR. BUCK:  Well, let me explain to you.  Here...

SEN. BENNET:  ...my point is, my point is...

MR. BUCK:  ...you grow government because as people have more money they spend the money and government grows.  When we put people back to work, the government grows, we increase revenue and we decrease unemployment benefits.

SEN. BENNET:  Well I'm definitely not interested in growing government, I can tell you that.

MR. BUCK:  I'm sorry, growing the economy.  I apologize.

MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.

MR. BUCK:  Growing the economy.

MR. GREGORY:  You're talking about growing the economy.

MR. BUCK:  Right.

We have an awful lot of inexperienced public speakers out there these days, about to move into positions of great power....

When only medical marijuana is legal, you end up with a hell of a lot of sick people.

Seems like everyone has terrible headaches.

In Colorado, where a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana was passed in 2000, hundreds of dispensaries popped up and a startling number of residents turned out to be in “severe pain,” the most popular of eight conditions that can be treated legally with the once-demonized weed.

More than 80,000 people here now have medical marijuana certificates, which are essentially prescriptions, and for months new enrollees have signed up at a rate of roughly 1,000 a day.

Oh! The pain! The intractable pain! Who knew the excruciating suffering that tortured Coloradans for so long?

The linked article also details the pesky government regulation that comes with legalization. What did you expect? One longs for the day when the stuff was illegal, there was no regulation to protect anybody from their suppliers, and if you wanted it, your only option was to break the law. Back then there was one kind of dishonesty, the manly dishonesty of breaking the law...



... and not this other weasely form of dishonesty, lying about headaches.

At The Kitchen...

... if you show up for dinner, lunch, and then dinner — all within a 24-hour period — maybe they'll treat you to glasses of Prosecco.

Talk about whatever you want here, and, when you're in Boulder, Colorado, eat at The Kitchen — over and over again.