The Inquisitive Skink

The woods this past Sunday.

"Trump administration officials, under pressure from the White House to provide a rationale for reducing the number of refugees allowed into the United States next year, rejected a study by the Department of Health and Human Services that found that refugees brought in $63 billion more in government revenues over the past decade than they cost." New York Times: Trump Administration Rejects Study Showing Positive Impact of Refugees

Quoting the Washington Post article Children Under Fire :  "In total, an estimated 8,400 children were hit, and more died — 1,458 — than in any year since at least 2010. That death toll exceeds the entire number of U.S. military fatalities in Afghanistan this decade." "Among high-income nations, 91 percent of children younger than 15 who were killed by gunfire lived in the United States." Stop the endless promotion of guns and gun culture. Please.

I have been vegetarian since 1975,  In the past year or so I have become more and more vegan in my approach to food.  I have figured out that dairy really does not sit well with me, and I was also was heavily influenced by reading The China Study about a year ago. I have noticed that people tend to be semi-amused by my lunches.....I usually pack a bunch of carrots and kale and nuts.  I like to get all of my veggies in early in the day.  I might do something more complicated in the evening.....if I am not too lazy to do so.

Wilbur Ross, our new Secretary of Commerce, is similar to the President in his ability to flat-out lie. He recently wrote that the US has the lowest trade barriers in the world. We don't. You can refer to the World Bank for that data....I am sure he knows about the World Bank. At least I hope so. Canada, Israel, the European Union, Japan, Indonesia, Belarus, Malaysia, Paraguay, and more all have higher tarrif rates than the U.S. Also, if you split it down to economies, instead of countries, Hong Kong and Singapore are the two most open economies in the world. These two large provinces in China support a huge amount of U.S. economy as a result. Politicians play upon free trade myths to the detriment of our country and to our economy. Ross is correct that we havethe largest trade deficit in the world — $500bn annually. However he does not address what this really means. We have a large economy. A large trade deficit will occur in a large economy, folks. The fact is that trade d...

Mark has become great at making soup. Tonight we enjoyed a cabbage cauliflower soup with skillet cornbread biscuits that I hope to make more often. They were super easy, and especially good with a little bit of maple syrup. Vegan of course. Skillet Cornbread Biscuits - Vegan Makes 12 biscuits Ingredients 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour 1 cup cornmeal 1 Tbsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 1/3 cup vegan butter (I use Earth Balance) or coconut oil - kept cold 1 cup almond milk 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar Stir together all of the dry ingredients. It is best to sift the baking powder and baking soda through a wire sieve if they are clumpy. Start an iron skillet on medium low heat. I used the skillet we had sauteed vegetables for the soup and only barely cleaned it out. It should have a sheen of oil. Chop up the shortening of your choice into tiny cubes.  Use a pastry blender to cut the shortening into the dry mix. It should be pebbly. Mix togethe...

Statement by Major Christian Organizations on President-Elect Trump’s Policy Agenda and Political Appointments "We are deeply troubled by choices President-Elect Trump has made for his Cabinet, particularly for Chief Strategist, Attorney General, and National Security Advisor. Stephen Bannon, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions and Michael Flynn epitomize extremist, racist and fringe world views that we believe are morally inconsistent with Christian principles of loving neighbor and antithetical to American values of “liberty and justice for all.” To read the full statement, go here:  https://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/statement-by-major-christian-organizations-on-president-elect-trumps-policy-agenda-and-political-appointments/

This is the letter from 1424 faculty members from 180 different law schools in 49 states across the country urging the senate to reject the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for the position of Attorney General of the United States: https://docs.google.com/document/d/167Ci3pVqwzOUe7_e7itlpew1qGcTo0ZD5dNICIbLQWA/pub Here is what it says: We are 1424 faculty members from 180 different law schools in 49 states across the country. We urge you to reject the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for the position of Attorney General of the United States. In 1986, the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, in a bipartisan vote, rejected President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of then-U.S. Attorney Sessions for a federal judgeship, due to statements Sessions had made that reflected prejudice against African Americans. Nothing in Senator Sessions’ public life since 1986 has convinced us that he is a different man than the 39-year-old attorney who was deemed to...

On the first full day of the 115th Congress, the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence (an organization made up of state, local and tribal organizations and individuals who have fought for federal protections for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking since the 1990’s) submitted a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, urging them to reject Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination for the nation’s top law enforcement post. January 4, 2017 Open Letter to the Judiciary Committee Regarding Senator Jeff Sessions' Nomination Dear Member of the Judiciary Committee: We, the steering committee of the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence (NTF), a coalition of national, tribal, state, and local leadership organizations and individuals advocating on behalf of victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking, write...