Don’t threaten me, with brutality, rather, check out what’s goin’ on:

• Pretty Cool: Winter Soldier is coming to Rochester. Rochester Iraq Vets Against the War is planning for it tonight:
  

  Iraq Veterans Against the War is happy to announce that Northeast Winter Soldier will be held right here in Rochester this October 4th. There is something for everyone to get excited about this summer, and we want your help. The first planning meeting for Northeast Winter Soldier will be Friday July 18th @ 6pm; we’re meeting at the Underground Railroad Cafe (Map). Come with ideas and enthusiasm and I promise you won’t be disappointed.

• Rochester’s Dissident compares Italy’s use of bicycles with Rochester’s, and finds Rochester a little lacking:
  

  I went to the Rochester Public Market last Saturday, as usual, and did a few errands. Amazing how few bikes you see around the market (I counted about a dozen), considering the huge turnout (thousands on- or just off-site) on a Saturday morning. Part of this is the durability of the Auto Craze, part is the result of the Rochester’s failure to create the infrastructure that would seduce people into going to the market by bike. Why, the city only recently added another parking lot, this one on Railroad St. And still - as any competent traffic planner should have foreseen - the cars and “light trucks” jam the access roads and turn the market grounds into ground zero for air pollution and conflicts with mere persons who make such daring, self-indulgent moves as trying to cross a street! Maybe RocBikers (check out RocBike.com, by the way), joined by Critical Massers and others, should target the market for some kind of actions. City Hall shouldn’t be allowed to ignore or downplay bike issues any longer. (I note with pleasure the departure of Dumbass Supremo Steve Minarik, the Republican boss who did something to offend everyone - and did everything to maintain the status quo that barely acknowledges alternative transport. Not that I expect M’s replacement will be much better.)

• Jason O, king of Rochester sound-bite reviews, and occasional Drinking Liberally crasher, reviews one of our first local advertisers’ photo exhibit:
  

  I took a little tour of South Wedge and got pizza from Little Venice Pizza (742 South Ave., formerly Skippy’s) which I ate at Solera Wine Bar (647 South Ave.) with a glass of wine. I stopped by Lux Lounge (666 South Ave.) for a bit and hung out with some friends before heading to The Method Lab (650 South Ave.) Photographer Clark Condé’s work was on display. It’s really good stuff: evocative and slightly abstract — and large, which always helps if all else fails.

• A great new blogger over on Rochester’s reproductive rights blog, Sex. Justice. Change., sums up the whole choice/anti-choice debate in a post titled “It’s called reality“. Here’s the key bit from it:
  

  Let’s agree to do away with the aspiration to an “abortion-free” state, country or society. Instead, let’s agree to do everything in our power to reduce the need for it. Let’s make sure that everyone has education about, and access to, all forms of birth control. Let’s make sure that people who want to parent, have the financial and societal resources to do so. Let’s make sure that women who face the awful prospect of terminating wanted pregnancies, have the safest possible procedures available to them. Let’s make sure that all women have access to the best possible medical care if they decide to terminate a pregnancy for any reason. Let’s make sure that, as much as humanly possible, abortion is chosen freely and not due to financial strain, un-addressed health issues or as a result of ignorance. Because abortion exists and always will, we need to ensure that it is accessed safely and of the freest will possible.

  And that sounds like a great reality to me.

• Bruno’s outtie. Today. Weird how all these GOP titans are falling, like dinosaurs after an asteroid impact or something. Maybe there’s hope for us little insignificant mammals after all.
• And how about Maggie Brooks asking Minarik to step down, after all he’s done for her! The nerve! It reminds me of a certain song…
  

Related posts:

1. What’s Goin’ On - RT Roundup 7/16/08
2. What’s Goin’ On - RT Roundup 7/17/08
3. What’s Goin’ On - RT Roundup 7/23/08
4. What’s Goin’ On - RT Roundup 7/21/08
5. What’s Goin’ On - RT Roundup, 9/3/2008 Edition