More true tales of award-winning weirdness: Honoring knuckleheads, nincompoops and National Aviation Day

That’s right, August 19 is National Aviation Day, which was officially established in 1939 to “stimulate interest in aviation in the United States.” Unfortunately, it seems that some folks have gotten a little overstimulated recently, which can only mean one thing: It’s time for another round of Dotty Awards.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, the original honors were given in this space on April 1, a date that celebrates both general buffoonery and the official debut of the U.S. Department of Transportation, aka DOT (in 1967). The judges — no strangers to buffoonery themselves — suspect the concurrent timing could be a coincidence, but decided to name the awards the Dotties anyway.

Pot smokers who light up during the Democratic National Convention can expected to get busted under state laws, even though a voter-approved city ordinance makes small amounts of marijuana the "lowest law enforcement priority," Denver Police said Monday.

A Denver group that advocates for marijuana decriminalization launched an Internet ad campaign Tuesday labeling Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy, a "drug dealer" because of her ownership stake in an Anheuser-Busch distributorship.

SAFER Colorado director Mason Tvert said it would be hypocritical if a first lady owned a beer company while people were being jailed for smoking marijuana.

"It clearly lays out the case that Cindy McCain is not only the dealer of a drug," Tvert said, "but the dealer of a drug far more harmful than marijuana."

The McCain campaign declined to comment.

A Denver-based group -- Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, or SAFER -- that advocates decriminalization of marijuana, has launched a new campaign focusing on Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy McCain, who heads one of the nation's largest beer distributors. According to its Website, SAFER's mission is "to educate the public about the fact that marijuana is safer than alcohol to both the user and to society." In the campaign, called "Cindy McCain: Drug Dealer," the group argues that because marijuana is safer than alcohol, marijuana should not be treated more harshly than alcohol in the eyes of the law. From the campaign's Website:

Cindy McCain is the chairperson and majority shareholder of Hensley & Co., which annually distributes more than 23 million cases of Anheuser-Busch beer. As the head of the Hensley cartel, Cindy makes millions of dollars dealing a drug far more harmful than marijuana: ALCOHOL.

A group dedicated to legalizing marijuana use is launching a new campaign Tuesday aimed at pointing to hypocrisy in a country that could have as its first lady a woman who made millions selling a substance that's killed tens of thousands of people while purveyors of a relatively harmless herb are imprisoned. 

The just-launched Web site DrugDealerCindy.com points to Cindy McCain's position as chair of her father's Hensley & Co., one of the country's largest Anheuser-Busch beer distributors, and it argues that alcohol is more toxic, addictive and prone to inspire violence than marijuana. The site, launched by the group Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, also features mock "Wanted" posters featuring a photo of McCain, wife of the Republican presidential candidate, and offering a -- wait for it-- $420 reward. The site also features a video parodying the Budweiser frog advertisements, labeling McCain a "Drug-Deal-Er."