After a week of frustrating burial in large-company bureaucracy (year end means HR nightmares and much cursing of Workday), the Old Man emerges to throw links to the Glibertariat. Sorry, these will be news and not collections of titty pics of highly photoshopped and siliconed duck-lipped millennials. Others will no doubt step into the breach.

Today’s notable birthdays include brilliant physicist Freeman Dyson (whom everyone should read about- a true iconoclast, and one of the two most egregious snubs for a Nobel, the other being Henry Eyring); funnyman Tim Conway (SP and I saw his one-man show a few years ago and were in awe of his talent); Max Yasgur of Woodstock fame; and biophysicist and Nobelist Maurice Wilkins, whose work in X-ray diffraction was the key to elucidating the famed double helix structure of DNA.

To the news.


Of course, the biggest news was the inverse of the Ninth Circuit ruling Obamacare, as she stands, to be unconstitutional.

The case against the ACA was brought by 20 Republican state attorneys general and governors, as well as two individuals. It revolves around Congress effectively eliminating the individual mandate penalty by reducing it to $0 as part of the 2017 tax cut bill. The mandate requires nearly all Americans to get health insurance or pay a penalty.
The Republican coalition, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, is arguing that the change rendered the mandate itself unconstitutional. The states say that the voiding of the penalty, which takes effect next year, removes the legal underpinning the Supreme Court relied upon when it upheld the law in 2012 under Congress’ tax power.

I can only wonder what contortions Bush-souvenir John Roberts will undertake to preserve this insane government overreach. But I have confidence that he’s a smart guy who will creatively figure out another way to screw us.


Australian animals are weirder than we can imagine. And likely going extinct, as befits creatures created by Yahweh after finishing a six pack of Foster’s.

It sports a green mohican, fleshy finger-like growths under its chin and can breathe through its genitals. Gill-like organs within its cloaca – an orifice used by reptiles for excretion and mating – enable it to stay underwater for up to three days.

So basically, Warty.


In sports news, Minnesodans may have had enough.

“For Sale: Lightly used $1,000,000,000 stadium. Occupant has been a team that only has success in breaking the hearts of the fans. Long history of collecting talent with no ideas on how to use them. Included: $84 million QB who can’t win against teams with winning records, and is 0-7 on MNF. A league record! All reasonable offers considered. Will even entertain ideas to convert to a homeless shelter, as there is a greater chance of one of those folk becoming a success.”

A picture of a dumpster fire was also added to the listing.

It’s a good thing those folks are so polite; this could have been much worse.


Remember this the next time WebDom posts her Vegan School.

There are several causes of hidden hunger in developed countries. The consumption of cheap, energy dense, nutritionally poor and heavily processed foods, particularly by poorer members of society, is a major factor. Even when fresh produce is consumed, there appears to be fewer micronutrients available than was once the case. This is due to issues such as soil health, caused by poor agricultural management and climate change.

The rapidly growing trend of veganism is likely to become another major contributor to hidden hunger in the developed world.

Climate Change and veganism- threats to our existence.


I left my heart in San Francisco…

The flight took the organ on ice from a courier at Sacramento International Airport bound for Seattle where the heart’s valve tissue was set to be used. But like a mishandled bag, the heart was mistakenly kept on the connecting flight to Dallas instead of being taken out of the cargo hold.

Trust me, if this were United or American, that thing would still be there, rotting away.


It amazes me that after a faith-healer is exposed as a fraud (which they all are), nothing really changes. But let him squeeze a titty,and #metoo hell breaks loose.

“This case of John of God is really emblematic because he’s someone who is known internationally,” said Carolina Vicentin, one of the co-founders of the Brazilian feminist magazine AzMina. “But this type of thing is not unusual. The problem is that women are deterred from making accusations.”
Consulted by Brazilian presidents and lauded by international celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Faria established himself as the country’s pre-eminent healer, offering surgery to the sick guided only by spirits. The medium visited [President Michel] Temer in hospital last year, while former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sought his assistance during his treatment for cancer.

While it’s wonderful that his “career” fleecing and killing the gullible and stupid may be ending, it’s shitty that this is the only sort of thing that can accomplish that laudable end.


I may end up having to do a Jewsday about this. Vegetarianism, science, and rabbis, all rolled into one.

Lab-grown meat has sparked a debate among rabbis in Israel about whether cell-cultured is the same as conventional meat and should fall under the same guidelines for keeping kosher. “There is a disagreement about it and there is a conversation. Also, definitely, there are new questions about lab-meat,” says Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, an expert on kosher tradition and bioethics.

Whenever someone says “there is a conversation,” you know they mean “monologue.”


Old Guy Music today features another birthday boy- the great and innovative big band leader Stan Kenton. And some really creepy dancing.