Weirdos:

A good story from Sandro Contenta at GlobalPost.com:

“Laughs aside, the American tendency to treat policy debates as life and death struggles over ‘the American way of life’ reminds many Canadians, rightly or wrongly, of how lucky they are to be living north of the border. It’s hard not to feel civically more evolved when, in some U.S. states, people can legally show up at presidential speeches sporting handguns or assault rifles.

U.S. culture wars, in other words, often reinforce Canada’s national identity.”

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Everybody’s doing it.

Interesting Washington Post article on the largest cash crop on the continent:

“Mexico produced 35 million pounds of marijuana last year, according to government estimates. On a hidden hilltop field in Mexico’s Sinaloa state, reachable by donkey, a pound of pot might earn a farmer $25. The wholesale price for the same pound in Phoenix is $550, and so the Mexican cartels could be selling $20 billion worth of marijuana in the U.S. market each year.”

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I’ve done little except work and work and drink at the Great American Beer Fest – held two weekends before this last one – but have been lazy about blogging. Also saw Slim Cessna’s Auto Club on Friday at the Oriental Theater.  Anyhoo, here are some Beer Fest pics.

An eventful two weeks included my first and likely last trip to Lincoln County, four days in the incomparable Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, some Baggo in Whitefish, and a towed car in Kalispell. Home for a while…

I just got back to Denver after a 5,000-mile loop that included nights in a B&B in Park City, Utah, a motel in Roseburg, Oregon, and a tent in the Yellowstone backcountry. I hit eight national parks – Lassen Volcanic, Redwood, Crater Lake, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Olympic, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton. Psyched to be relatively motionless for a few weeks.

Back from California – went to Dinosaur National Monument, J-Borro’s in SLC, and Reno en route to San Francisco, Point Reyes, Yosemite, Sequoia-Kings Canyon, L.A., and Channel Islands. Great trip. Can’t wait to get back on the road to the Pacific Northwest parks later this week…

I just went to Yellowstone and saw thermal features, wolves hunting an elk, an elk chasing a wolf, a grizzly bear foraging, and too many waterfalls to count.