The 2% Solution

Nice article on SFGate.com about Critical Mass and the SF Bike Coalition, and their growing political influence.

The political influence of San Francisco's pro-bike movement has risen steadily over the past decade to the point where the chief advocate for cyclists sits on a powerful city commission and elected officials rarely tell them no.

It's a long way from the early days, when bike enthusiasts could barely get city officials to return their calls.

Disappointing statistic; only 2% of Bay Areans ride to work and school on a bike. Huh. At least City Hall does pay attention to its vocal minorities.

Critical Mass is tonight at 6pm, starting at Justin Herman Plaza. Let's hope things are peaceful, and not problematic.

Adam's Rib

One of the themes I touch upon in my third novel, Cyclizen (out in May) is how damn sexy protesting was, especially with hunky guys and powerful women who gave a damn.

That's still taking place, even in the pathetic testimony given by US Attorney General Gonzales. While he continued to mutter more than 70 times what he didn't "recall," Iraq War veteran Adam Kokesh kept score, raising a tally sheet aloft with his impressively muscular arms. Hello!

Of course, his soulfully serious -and gorgeous- face contrasts the ugly truth of Busho, which is just a pack of lying shitbags.

Chimpoleon said he had the highest support for Gone-zo, which of course, is the same rhetoric he spewed for ousted quitters Colin Powell, Harriet Meiers, Donald Rumsfeld and FEMA's "Brownie" - gee, nobody can even remember his name anymore.

Fortunately, Kokesh's hunkitude upstaged the mendacious Gone-zo so deftly that the point was clear. Even veterans of the current war are against it, and the attorney firings by Gone-zo's offices are just part and parcel of the sinking slimey GOP pile of dung.

Adam was protesting with Code Pink, which also has a nice close-up of him

The blogosphere caught up with Adam at Wonkette.

Says Kokesh:

“The real reason I was there (the main reason I hate Gonzales) is because torture policy is bad for US troops. (It’s also morally reprehensible.) When I was in Fallujah, (Feb-Sep 2004) I was running a checkpoint at a civil affairs facility when the Abu Ghraib story broke, but I still had to go out the next day and face crowds of Iraqi civilians. I also had to hear the reports of Marines dying around the city because of the angst that was a direct result of that.”

The NY Times reported on it, too, with a pic of other protestors.

More from hunkalicious and right-on Adam HERE.

Read his personal accounts here.

THIS is the face of a true patriot.

Wheels on Fire

Another friend is doing this year's AIDS Life/Cycle, but in a different way. I'll let Jim "Sparky" Rudolph tell you about it:

This will be my third year volunteering as a Roadie for the AIDS/LifeCycle in support of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. This particular event has triple significance to me. First, it is a huge accomplishment for both the Roadies and the Cyclists as we work together to enable as many cyclists as possible to bicycle all the way from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I often say that it is the most challenging week of my year, and also the most rewarding.

Secondly, the SFAF either runs or supports many programs in San Francisco that provide either direct services to people affected by HIV and AIDS or lobby on their behalf. That's the local community effect.

Third, the SFAF's Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation works in communities around the world to help turn the tide of the AIDS pandemic. And believe me, that tide is still rolling in and its full effects are far from being known. That's the global impact.

As a roadie, I get to wake up at 4:00 AM and get into camp 14 hours later, after traveling; setting up and decorating a rest stop; getting into costume; entertaining, feeding and hydrating more than 2,000 cyclists; breaking down and cleaning up the rest stop; and driving to the next camp. As I said earlier, it's both challenging and rewarding.

Please help me make as great an impact as possible. Any donation is hugely needed, and I will give a T-Shirt showing your support of the AIDS/LifeCycle to my 10 highest donors over $100. Additionally, you can spread your donation over a period of months to make your life easier.

Sign up to support Sparky HERE.

Sparky is also a talented member of Temple of Poi, the Bay Area's amazing fire dance ensemble. They teach, perform, and make art out of fire and dance; pretty neat!

They're participating in Bay Area National Dance Week, which I'm highlighting in my Bay Area Reporter Out & About column this week.

Temple of Poi will be performing April 29 in downtown San Francisco's Union Square. This is a rare chance to see them free, live and in a fun city setting!

Psycho Killer, Qu’est-ce Que?

Well, this is just disgusting.

As you probably know by now, the Virginia Tech mass murderer, whose name I refuse to type ever again, sent a "media kit" to NBC between murder sprees. Now NBC, which is owned by military contractor GE, is aiding and abetting in spreading the insane ramblings of a deranged mass killer.

What an idiot; sending his freaktastic ramblings to a corrupt media conglomorate as a protest of "rich people."

The psychotic freak was institutionalized, declared mentally unstable, was documented as stalking two women on campus, and still VT officials did nothing.

This is friggin' sad. so many preventiative measures were ignored.



I prefer to remember the bravery of the victims, one man in particular, professor Liviu Librescu, 76, who survived the goddamn Nazi holocaust, only to die protecting his students.

These were bright young and older people, teachers and eager learning young adults, and the sick twisted spewings of a deranged twit are now overshadowing the lives he destroyed.

"Reema Samaha, a freshman who performed with the school's Contemporary Dance Ensemble, was shot dead in French class.

Juan Ramon Ortiz, from Puerto Rico, decorated his parents’ one-story concrete house each Christmas. A neighbor heard Ortiz’s mother scream when she learned of her son’s death."

How are these "guilty rich white people," in the poisoned eyes of this murderer?

Nearly 200 people were killed today in Iraq bombings. I'm typing this while watching a frightening documentary about the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombings on PBS.

How much longer are people going to pretend that terror can't come from within our borders, and that inspiring more violence overseas doesn't do anything to help?

This is a good time to utilize AdBusters' TV TurnOff Week. I'd participate as much as I can, but working in media, one can't help but watch, fascinated, as the media feasts on the horror.

--

Thursday update: It looks like most people feel the same way, most importantly, victims' families, who cancelled NBC talk show appearances after NBC/GE feasted on the psychopath's homemade media, not that all others didn't use it, too.

"'It has value as breaking news," said ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider, "but then becomes practically pornographic as it is just repeated ad nauseam.'"

This from the network that aired the preposterously lie-filled, far-rightwing-produced Path to 9/11.

Oh, well; at least the psycho didn't send his crap to Fox News. They'd be showing it from now until the end of time.

Hokie Warning Signs

Okay, I've moved from sympathetic to cynical at about the same rate that Virginia Tech students interviewed have gone from tearful to smiling, to overly eager to get themselves in front of TV cameras.

"Let the healing begin," the mini-series.

Let the people around the country pour their grief into credit cards as flower shops in Virginia rake in the dough.

The president swoops in to hog the spotlight at a university memorial service. Gee, I bet campus security actually did their jobs today. Funny how Bush has no time to visit Iraq injured soldiers at Walter Reid Hospital.

Flags are hung at half mast for murdered students, but not killed soldiers.
Guns are still cheap and easy in Virginia, and will be for a long time.

Time Magazine ventures forth with the post-massacre psychological analysis, implying that sexual abuse leads to mass murder, in this case.

The New York Times does the "Gee, nobody ever figured, except people who did figure..." interviews:

Roommates Describe Gunman as Loner

By MARC SANTORA

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 17 — He was a stranger in a crowd of 26,000. Cho Seung-Hui was even unknown to the young man who for nearly a year slept just feet away from him.

“He was my roommate,” said Joe Aust, a 19-year-old sophomore. “I didn’t know him that well, though.”

Mr. Aust, who was an engineering major, and another student who shared their suite, Karan Grewal, 21, painted a picture of a loner who ate his meals alone in the dining hall and shunned any attempts at friendship.

“He was always really, really quiet and kind of weird, keeping to himself all the time,” he said. “Just of anti-social, didn’t talk to anybody. I tried to make conversation with him in August or so and he would just give one word answers and not try and carry on the conversation.”

He said it was a creepy quietness.

“I would notice a lot of times, I would come in the room and he would kind of be sitting at his desk, just staring at nothing,” he said.

The scenario from there could have resulted in some unpleasantness, perhaps even a suicide by Cho.

But when he submitted a horribly written pair of scripts with brutal murders and gun assaults, Hui's English Creative Writing instructor Lucinda Roy was smart enough to nearly force him to seek counseling, and she called the police.

But what can they do when someone writes a script for a massacre?

An excerpt: "Must kill dick. Must kill dick. Dick must die."



Be concerned.

Of course, Virginia's having gun purchase laws less strict than that of buying alcohol have nothing to do with this, according to any NRA member you might talk to.

What seems obvious about family abuse - based on Cho's frighteningly awful scripts- will come out later as this media frenzy plays out, long and slow.

In a Fox News segment, a blonde female anchor castigated a student in one of the classrooms for not jumping up to grab Cho to wrestle him to the ground. The manic rightwing station will no doubt mangle the truth to its own interest as it continues to berate its interviewees. How long before Bill O'Reilly blames the student "liberals" for this massacre?

Many TV news articles showcased how the internet has expanded communication about such events. ABC's Martin Bashir mentioned Myspace, but not MyDeathSpace.com, which updates with good and awful comments, the list of the murdered.

VT professor Nikki Giovanni's recitation of a poem struck many as getting to the point. It's by now instinctual, but I usually look for a gay angle in any story. And having a lesbian poet inspire others there is worth noting.

That's probably the last time Chimpoleon shares a podium with a radical feminist.

Oh, and here's an odd note no major media outlet has noticed. In August 2006, something similar happened - and was curtailed after only one death- at the same campus.

SecurityInfoWatch has an article about it.

Search for Fugitive Shuts down Virginia Tech Campus
Fugitive allegedly overpowered hospital security, killing a guard and sheriff's deputy

Suspect nabbed after manhunt on Virginia Tech campus, allegedly killed hospital guard, sheriff's deputy

Virginia Tech shut down its campus Monday and ordered everyone to remain inside as authorities searched for an escaped inmate suspected of killing a hospital guard and a sheriff's deputy.

William Morva, 24, had been seen near the campus, authorities said.

Montgomery County Sheriff's Cpl. Eric E. Sutphin was closing in on the fugitive Monday morning along a trail off the university campus when he was fatally shot, the sheriff's department said.

Officials canceled Monday's first day of classes for the more than 25,000 students at Virginia Tech as a precaution.

"The suspect is armed, he has no problems with shooting. ... We don't need innocent people being around the area," said Kurt Krause, a Virginia Tech vice president.

Morva was described as wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt and khaki shorts. Police said he had shed his orange prison jumpsuit after the hospital shooting.

"The fact that the guy can blend in so well with campus students is kind of scary," said Josh Burnheimer, 20, a Virginia Tech junior from Ashburn, Va. "Everywhere you look there are police snipers on the roof."

Morva, an inmate at Montgomery County Jail, had been taken from the jail to Montgomery Regional Hospital for treatment of a sprained leg and wrist.

He escaped early Sunday after overpowering a sheriff's deputy, taking the deputy's gun and then shooting the unarmed hospital security guard, authorities said. The hospital guard was identified as Derrick McFarland, 26. The deputy was in stable condition with injuries he suffered in the attack.

Morva had been jailed awaiting trial on charges of attempting to rob a store last year.

Authorities used helicopters and dogs to sweep an area that included the university campus, about one block from the Blacksburg Police Station.

"Whatever it takes, until he's caught," said police Lt. Joe Davis.

So, what the campus police didn't do in comparison will remain to be a point of argument, of potential lawsuits, and eventually, a pointless point, just like Columbine.

Until some other psychotic freak gives every possible warning sign again, and everybody comes forward with their glaring "warning signs" that were ignored, or shuttled away by cops, or campus clown cops, or gun lobbyists, all of it is useless afterward.

And again, we'll act shocked, or at least go through the motions of feigning shock.

Bad Day

What a horrible day. Not for me personally.

Of course, for the students at Virginia Tech, where the worst massacre of this kind in U.S. history took place. Apparently, a crazed Asian student dressed up like Rambo shot a gun at students and teachers, and his rampage was left unchecked by police and SWAT mess ups.

As the death toll rose on websites from 3, to 12, to 23, to 32, I had to work.

I had to proofread my arts listings, get on with my day, and avoid it.

I had to eat my lunch and continue copyediting articles, copying photos, and checking my email, sift press releases and just do my day.

I went to the dentist, got my teeth cleaned, and the dental hygienist made me laugh as she scraped away at my teeth.

It didn't hurt at all.

It wasn't like April 20, years ago, when the Columbine shootings shocked us, and the media stood still to report it. There was something so utterly stultifying about those events. I was in the middle of finishing PINS then, at the very part where I was trying to polish the scene where the students organize a memorial to a dead fellow student, and piles of flowers placed outside that Colorado school brought me to listen to Marilyn Manson, the musician blamed for it all by some:

"They slit our throats
like we were flowers
and our milk has been devoured..."

For all the criticism focused on such music as being responsible for teenagers going crazy, I found his music to touch on some level of misery in a poetic way. I don't know. Call me stupid, but the last I heard, it was a gun that killed all those students.

Who will we blame? Who will the media blame? Who was that guy? Who fucked him up so bad he had to top such a murderous record?

I could counter rhetorical whinings of the NRA types, who are no doubt spouting forth about the need for more guns, or the others decrying the hypocrisy of Chimpoleon saying how senseless these deaths are while more people died in Iraq today.

A lot of other news events are worth some bitchy comments, but I'm really not in the right mood for that now.

Yesterday was so great. I finished designing the book covers for Cyclizen. I hung out with friends. I made dinner. I watched a movie.

Oddly, as I was working on the cover -which includes a bit of the Empire State Building from an old ACT UP demo- I read about a man had plunged to his death from the Empire State Building only two days before.

It's so strange, pushing these tragic events aside, watching the news, then switching to Dancing With the Stars, happy to see Apolo Anton Ono do a great chacha, or was it a tango? He got three 10s from the judges.

"Just remember when you think you're free
the crack inside your fucking heart is me."

The 3038th U.S. soldier died in Iraq today.

32 people died in Virginia today.

And I went to the dentist.

Who are These People?

As Obama and Hillary waffle from time to time over the veracity of LGBT rights of marriage, etc., and Hillary omits her appearances at HRC dinners from her published schedule, John Edwards has decided to court "the gays."

It's very nice that his web site officially announces the fact that he has - or, more probably, his people have - met with a group of 35 allegedly important political movers and shakers in our "community."

The majority of these people are Human Rights Campaign board members or employees. HRC has been criticized a lot lately for its excess spending, huge salaries and general A-list mentality by Michael Petrelis and others.

HRC's response was akin to, "If you're not for u$, you're again$t u$."

In 2005, gay activists protested at an HRC dinner, as they took scads of cash from a big drug conglom.

So, let's see who our apparent student council is in the high school of gay America. My comments in italics.

* Skip Paul, Corporate Executive

Golf-playing Stanford executive in the entertainment, video game industry; currently runs IFilm. Let's do lunch with Muffy!

* Darren Star, TV Producer

Okay, we loved Sex and the City and Grosse Pointe. But what does making a comedic series about shoe-addicted columnists have to do with politics? more proof that Edwards may be more concerned with style over substance.

* Julie Johnson, Human Rights Campaign Public Policy Committee Co-Chair

Texas fundraiser; dig her quotes in this article about a Bill Clinton fundraiser held in Texas.

* Eric Stern, Former National Stonewall Democrats Executive Director; Former Democratic National Committee LGBT Outreach Director

Busy fellow, quite accomplished.

* David Mixner, Former Bill Clinton for President Adviser; LGBT activist, fundraiser, author

David seems to show up anywhere there's a political schmooze session; still smarting from being Bill Clinton's adviser all through the monstrous 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell?' Yep, he's endorsing Edwards.

* Dennis Erdman, TV Producer/ Director

Another TV show producer. That's nice. We can be sure Edwards will have nice commercials. (rolls eyes)

* Mary Snider, Human Rights Campaign Board of Directors Executive Committee Member

Ms. Snider has hosted a lot of dinners for HRC. How nice. Here, in a letter to the Washington Blade, she justifies HRC's giving Lance Bass an award for having the courage (really, I'm holding back tears of inspiration) to come out. What a hero he is.

* David Tseng, Kerry-Edwards 2004 National LGBT Advisory Committee Co-Chair; Former Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) National Executive Director

Not even gonna snipe at PFLAG. We love our gay-friendly parents!!

* David Mariner, Former Out for Howard Dean Co-Chair; Founder, www.outfordemocracy.org

Cool points for being on-target, having a findable source of his opinions and writing.

* James Duff, TV Producer

Okay, so is Edwards going to have his own series? An election reality show?

* Ramon Gardenhire, National Stonewall Democrats Black Caucus Co-Chair; Former DNC LGBT Deputy Outreach Director

Not much of an online presence, but has some credentials. See Ramon's 2004 article on HIV issues in the last election

* Scott Benson, Majority Leader Minneapolis City Council

He's running for office himself. So, is that a conflict? Eight-ball says, 'Ask again later.'

* Shane Larson, AFL-CIO Pride @ Work National Executive Board Member; Association of Flight Attendants (AFA)-Communications Workers of America (CWA) Government Affairs Director

Mr. Larsen seems to focus on the partner benefits of flight attendants. Mm-kay, that's a target market.

* Scott Wiener, Human Rights Campaign Board of Directors Member; San Francisco Democratic Party Chair* (for identification purposes only)

I actually met Scott, and he plays the party line well. Not sure what he can do if Edwards doesn't get the endorsement of the Dem. Party groupthink.

* Jeff Gardner, Garden State Equality Vice Chair; New Jersey for Democracy Co-Chair

I have a New Jersey bias, what with their having accomplished LGBT civil union rights; plus I lived there for a few years.

* Lynne Wiggins, Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) National Leadership Council Member; Former Human Rights Campaign Board of Governors Member

While I love GLSEN and all it does, one thing that should prove an activist or "important community member's" power, affluence, or at least visibility, is to do a Google search with their name and the word 'gay.' Results: Ms. Wiggins isn't so visible.

* Ken Keechl, Broward County Commissioner; Former Dolphin Democrats President

Another politician, Keechl is in Broward County, Florida, the state that brought us the 2000 presidential election fraud.

* Linda Elliott, Human Rights Committee Board of Directors Member

Another name/gay Google search reveals very little, other than her HRC association.

* Dave Garrity, Former Democratic National Committee Member

14 Google/gay page results, most of them repostings of the Edwards press release. Who is Dave, where did he come from, and why is he considered "powerful" or representing millions of LGBT Americans?

* Mark Perriello, Former Human Rights Campaign staff member; Democratic strategist

Also a PFLAG emeritus, and an ex-ex-gay. Not much else to find.

* Ron Ginsburg, LGBT Community Activist; business owner

Sorry, I don't see anything for Ron other than the Edwards PR. And you are...? And I should know you from...?

* Randall Kelly, LGBT Community Activist; attorney

See above

* Robert D. Horvath, Mautner Project Board of Directors Member

ibid.

* Stephanie Kornegay, LGBT Community Activist; business owner

Okay, she plays golf. a lot. That'll take care of the Dinah Shore Classic fans (i.e. rich white lesbians).

* Patrick J. Lyden, LGBT Community Activist; Homeland Security Advisor

Are these two creds an oxymoron? This guy doesn't even exist on the internet. Will he ensure airport security for John's campaign? Who can say.


So, only 5 of these people are women. Without looking up headshots of these alleged "community representatives," I see few non-Caucasian names.

So, basically, Edwards schmoozed with a bunch of A-list rich white guys to consult about how to make him look good on TV.

Moving on....

DoublePlusGoodDoubleSpeak

I've found a great political blog with all the current clips of ridiculous stupid heinous asinine racist broadcasted behavior: i.e., rightwingers and Fox News!

www.doublespeakshow.com


It's got Imus the ass, O'Reilly the rat, and Packer the puke. Quick, digestible disgusting doofs.

And it's all on the Double Speak Show!

Political Tantrums

Politics are getting ugly, ugly, ugly.

As the rightwing whines under its recent electoral defeat, and Cheney plays politics while accusing Dems of "playing politics," things are getting nasty all across the board.

Howard Dean told Bush to "grow up." Um, Howie, when has Chimpoleon ever not been acting like a petulant child?


Meanwhile, the guys at Buffalo Beast hate everyone! Well, they made a Top 50 list of the most hateful people. I agree with most of them.

I particularly disagree with their desired punishment for Mark Foley: "Castrated and forced to coach high school wrestling." Um, guys, he'd like both, no doubt. Talk about throwing Br'er Rabbit in the briar patch.

Of particular ire is their #1, John McCain:

McCain is as phony as slimeballs come, having reversed his positions on Roe v. Wade, Bush's tax cuts, the gay marriage amendment and Jerry Falwell in the last year alone, while the mainstream press looked away and whistled nonchalantly. Keeps changing the number of additional troops he thinks should be sent to Iraq, in hopes of extending the disaster beyond the next presidential election, so his decorated veteran status will still be relevant.

Exhibit A: (a quote from McCain): "I hated the gooks, and I will hate them for as long as I live."

A CBS correspondent was quoted as calling McCain's blather about Bagdhad being "safe" pure "rubbish."

Despite that being proven by the dozens of deaths that day, and days later, when the very people McCain spoke with during his Kevlar shopping trip were murdered, the media lapped up McCain's bullshit.

And across the pond, Tony Blair basically told Chimpoleon to "back off" about the captured/released British soldiers.

Chimpy and his insane cabal of war mongers think losing two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is a perfect reason to start another one in Iran.

And while the rightwinghers are still foaming at the mouth over Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria, she's telling them and Cheney to lay off the "tantrums."

Climate change is already destroying the planet, yet rightwingers still think Al Gore is a hoaxter just trying to sell a movie.

And locally, my city's mayor briefly joked about eating a microphone, and the rightwing reactionaries used a screencap to make it seem like he fellated the mic and the reporter.

It's really great to know the world is in such competent hands.

Now if only Bjork were queen of the world, things'd be a little more fun. Her new song, "Earth Intruders" makes some comments about the state of the planet.

Even when she sings in gibberish, it makes more sense than most politicians.

Critical Mass-ive Attack

This is why I don't do Critical Mass much anymore. Cyclists' Bully Day.

From SF Gate/Chron's Matier & Ross:

Susan Ferrando, her husband, their two children and three preteens had come to San Francisco from Redwood City to celebrate the birthday of Ferrando's 11-year-old daughter. They went to Japantown, where they enjoyed shopping and taking in the blooming cherry blossoms.

Things took a turn for the worse at about 9 p.m., when the family was leaving Japantown -- just as the party of about 3,000 bikers was winding down its monthly red-lights-be-damned ride through the city.

Suddenly, Ferrando said, her car was surrounded by hundreds of cyclists.

Not being from San Francisco, Ferrando thought she might have inadvertently crossed paths with a bicycle race and couldn't figure out why the police, who she had just passed, hadn't warned her.

Confusion, however, quickly turned to terror, she said, when the swarming cyclists began wildly circling around and then running into the sides of her Toyota van.

Filled with panic, Ferrando said, she started inching forward until coming to a stop at Post and Gough streets, where she was surrounded by bikers on all sides.

A biker in front blocked her as another biker began pounding on the windshield. Another was pounding on her window. Another pounded the other side.

"It seemed like they were using their bikes as weapons,'' Ferrando said. One of the bikers then threw his bike -- shattering the rear window and terrifying the young girls inside.

All the while, Ferrando was screaming, "There are children in this car! There are children in this car!"

Pretty scary. I've done Critical Mass years back about 20-30 times, and only seen much smaller incidents like this when cars tried to shove cyclists out of the way, or drivers got out to start fights.

--
UPDATE: This event has spread all over the bike/blogosphere, and at SF Gate:

The minivan was behind her as it weaved its way through an undetermined number of cyclists, she said. Then it hit a bicyclist near Octavia Street, she said. He fell to the ground, McCarthy said, and the bike went under the front of the minivan. The driver, she said, didn't stop until four cyclists got in front.

Basically, car/bike confrontations are scary and unpleasant. I'm not a confrontational cyclist, until I get swerved at honked at, or nearly hit. This is the one day a month when the most aggressive cyclists get away with this stuff.

And that's why I don't do Critical Mass anymore. A few freaks -in cars and on bikes- ruin the fun for everyone. If you want to participate, remember, it's the last Friday of every month, in major cities around the world.

Wheeled Wonders

A little less politics, a little more cycling today.

A good friend of mine, Seth Eisen (pictured) is doing this year's AIDS Life/Cylce. He's been training and riding hundreds of miles.

Please sponsor Seth in any amount you can afford.

In other cycling news, here's one of my chosen events for this week's Bay Area Reporter Out & About events:

Wanderlust Bike Tour Benefit @ Good Vibrations
Send-off party and fundraiser for Center for Sex & Culture
associate Nora Dye's cross-country sex-positive cycling road trip exploring
reproductive rights and other issues across the nation. 6pm.
1620 Polk St btw. Sacramento and Clay. 345-0400.
www.wanderlustwithrhonda.com
www.goodvibes.com

Definitely check out her blog. She'll be posting whenever possible along her route!

Okay, a little politics:

Join the SF Bike Coalition as they push for car-free Saturdays in Golden Gate Park. SFBC also has lots of events for cyclists. If you haven't joined, do so!

Okay, just a tad of freudenshade politics; Karl Rove pelted by college students. Maybe they didn't like his rap singing.