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Showing posts from July, 2015

Gypsy blues at Back to the Grind

Artwork by:  Nathan Rivera Saturday, July 25 at 7:25pm: I will be playing a night of unique Folk music at Back to the Grind with the following local artists: Desert Hounds - indie blues folk  Melinda West - original folk accordion, piano, and vocals  Nathan Rivera - toy piano reggae-ton Jessie Andra Smith - folk country hero

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

Though it has taken me what seems like eons, I have finally read Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature, all 832 pages of it! Few books invoke that human faculty of reason, that open-mindedness, and that delight of exploration in such a way as this, and I can honestly and logically predict that mankind has a bright future ahead of it. Just in the past couple months of reading it, I have seen many people open their minds to the plight of people of color, and grow in their empathy toward the oppression of others, and I have seen the highest court in the land rule in favor of marriage equality. We are living in the greatest era of moral progress that mankind has ever known, and I feel so hopeful, and so grateful to be a part of it. You MUST read this! "Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling