If you're not familiar with Colorado's most laid-back Sheriff and why the folks in Aspen praise him so highly, check out this profile in today's Denver Post. Bob Braudis is not your average lawman. Now into his fifth term as Sheriff, he remains anti-authoritarian, a great friend of Hunter Thompson's, opposed to undercover drug stings, and strong in his belief that he needs neither a big stick nor a big gun to keep the peace in Aspen.

He is unabashed in his views that drug-possession laws should be thrown out. On the cluttered coffee table in his office, alongside the "Hippie Dictionary," is a book by California judge James P. Gray titled: "Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed." "The job for him is really about caring for people rather than hard-line enforcement, as though arrests and incarceration and punishment are going to change the world," Klanderud says. "It's justice with mercy."

I'll weigh in with Hunter here and state unequivocally that Braudis is my favorite lawman in the country. It's a delight to see him get his due.