FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog

Isn’t that the Truth!

Flap ran across this piece regarding tooth decay and drinking soda through a straw.

Using a straw when you drink soda may help avoid cavities and tooth decay, but the straw needs to be in the right place, say Temple University professors.

The straw shouldn’t rest against your teeth, say Mohammed Bassiouny, DMD, PhD, MSc, and colleagues.

“Your best option is to sip soft drinks and other beverages through a straw positioned towards the back of the mouth,” says Bassiouny in a news release. “Doing so will limit the amount of time the beverage is in contact with the teeth.”

Bassiouny isn’t bashing sodas. He says moderate consumption shouldn’t cause significant damage. But overdoing it may be a problem, especially if dental habits aren’t up to par.

What does Flap think?

The positioniong of a straw is impractical and gives a false impression to the public regarding dental decay, which is a bacterial infectious disease.

The MSM would be better giving a true reflection on the nature of dental disease rather than this novel but incorrect approach to reduce dental disease.

Flap has to drill out too much tooth decay to trivilize the disease in this manner.

State by state it is becoming harder for your local methamphetamine manufacturer to obtain percursor chemicals to make their poison.

Missouri Governor Bill Blunt last week signed a tough new bill into law. The bill requires:

1. Purchasers of ephedrine or pseudephedrine containing cold medicines must also be at least 18, show photo ID, and sign a log that police can later review.

2. The bill requires that powder pill forms of medicines containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine be placed behind the counter at pharmacies.

3. Convenience stores and other retail outlets that do not have licensed pharmacists or technicians on site can no longer sell the drugs. They have until July 15 to send pills back to the manufacturer or give them to someone who can legally sell tham.

4. The new law also imposes limits on the amount an individual can buy: 9-grams a month of any powder pill medicine containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine. That means customers could buy about 12 boxes containing 24 pills each month - more than enough to take the maximum does of the medicine around the clock.

“These bills will keep the key ingredients needed to make meth - ephedrine and pseudoephedrine - out of the hands of drug manufacturers and, by doing so, will put them out of business,” said Blunt, who flew to five cities Wednesday for ceremonial bill signings.

Indeed!

Since the Congress has failed to enact national legislation to restrict these precursor chemicals, let the states do it one at a time!

Now, the DEA and the DOJ must go after Mexico.

Former Republican Speaker of the House, Newt Gingerich has sent a letter today to United States Senators calling on the Senate to censure Senator Richard Durbin for his speech comparing U.S. servicemen serving in Guantanamo Bay to those of the Nazi Gestapo, Soviet KGB, and Pol Pot’s killers in Cambodia.

“Senator Richard Durbin has dishonored the United States and the entire U.S. Senate. Only by a vote to censure Senator Durbin for his conduct can the U.S. Senate restore its dignity and defend American honor,” Gingrich wrote.

He added, “It’s one thing for one Senator to endanger young Americans and defame America; it would the shame of the Senate if the other 99 Senators did not stand up to defend America and to defend the reputation of our young men and women in uniform.”

Gingrich called Senator Durbin’s comparison “despicable.”

“Nine million innocent human beings were murdered in Hitler’s death camps, nearly three million perished in the gulags under Stalin, and more than one and a half millions were slaughtered in the killing fields of Cambodia at the hand of Pol Pot. And while not a single terrorist has died in detention at Guantanamo, Durbin sees fit to liken our American service men and women to the terrifying murderers of three despotic regimes.”

Gingrich continued, “This moral equivalence isn’t just utterly false; it endangers the lives of our young men and women in the military because it arms every radical Islamist with the official-record words of a Senate leader to justify their war of terror against civilized people everywhere.”

Gingrich added that a censure would help “reaffirm a standard for healthy, rational debate.”

Up or down Vote Senators.

Will Bill Frist have the Cajones to call this up?

The Text of Gingrich’s letter:

Office of Speaker Newt Gingrich

June 18, 2005
U.S. Senate
Capitol Hill
Washington, DC

Dear Senator _______________:

By his statements equating American treatment of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay with the behavior of the evil regimes of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Senator Richard Durbin has dishonored the United States and the entire U.S. Senate. Only by a vote to censure Senator Durbin for his conduct can the U.S. Senate restore its dignity and defend American honor.

Senator Durbin’s comparison, sadly, is despicable.

U.S. Senators should be clear about the gravity of Senator Durbin’s comparison. Nine million innocent human beings were murdered in Hitler’s death camps, nearly three million perished in the gulags under Stalin, and more than one and a half million were slaughtered in the killing fields of Cambodia at the hand of Pol Pot. And while not a single terrorist has died in detention at Guantanamo, Senator Durbin sees fit to liken our American service men and women to the terrifying murderers of three evil despotic regimes.

Moreover, Senator Durbin equates the terrorist detainees at Guantanamo with the millions of innocent men, women, and children exterminated by the order of evil dictators. The fact that he did so as a high ranking member of the Senate on the Senate floor makes his comparison all the more shocking.

This moral equivalence isn’t just utterly false; it endangers the lives of our young men and women in the military because it arms every radical Islamist with the official-record words of a Senate leader to justify their war of terror against civilized people everywhere.

Senator Durbin’s statement of “regret” on Friday has only compounded the need for the Senate to act. In it, Senator Durbin said that “I have learned from my statement that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood. I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings…” Incredibly, Senator Durbin is sticking to his original assertion that there is indeed, in his own words, an “historic parallel” between U.S. soldiers at Guantanamo Bay and the killers under Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot. In other words, his only regret is that Americans don’t understand his misreading of history and that he has caused us to misunderstand him. Offering no apology for the original slanderous statement itself, Senator Durbin has chosen instead to actually defend his comparisons. This defense makes his original speech all the more revolting.

It’s one thing for one Senator to endanger young Americans and defame America; it would be the shame of the Senate if the other 99 senators did not stand up to defend America and to defend the reputation of our young men and women in uniform.

A Senate censure of Senator Durbin is justified and would reaffirm a standard for healthy, rational debate. By voting for or against the censure, the rest of the members of the U.S. Senate can go on record and make clear how they judge Senator Durbin’s characterization of American soldiers. It will also send a clear message to terrorists who will use the words of a Senate leader against us that the Senate stands in support of America and our military and against those who seek to destroy the free people of the United States.

There is historic precedent for censuring Senators whose words bring dishonor and disrepute on the Senate and impair its dignity; Senator Durbin’s words fit that precedent.

In this case, expressing outrage is not enough. It is time for the Senate to act. Senator Durbin must be censured now.

Sincerely,

Newt Gingrich
Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

Indeed!

Contact Senator Durbin and let him know how you feel about his speech:

Phone - Washington: (202)224-2152

Phone - Chicago: (312)353-4952

E-mail: dick@durbin.senate.gov

Contact your Senators as well.

Trey Jackson over at Jackson’s Junction has this.

Matt over at GOP Bloggers weighs in here.

From the Left: Crooks and Liars has this.

Also, from the Left: Suburban Guerillas has this and comments.

Michelle Malkin has all of the Links for this Dick FLAP.

And what does Senator Hillary Clinton have to say about Gitmo and Durbin? Hey Newt, is she still cooperating in a bi-partisan fashion?

Patriots for Bush has this.

Powerline has:

Gingrich puts the case very well, I think. The argument is a compelling one: if the Senate censures Durbin, it will largely undo the damage that he has done by demonstrating to the terrorists and their allies that Durbin’s misguided attack on the U.S. military was an aberration. Moreover, the American people deserve to know who, if anyone, agrees with Durbin’s slander of our armed forces, so that when those Senators run for re-election, they can be defeated. Senators should not be able to hide behind a discreet “no comment,” as Hillary Clinton has done. This is not a time for our elected officials to be neutral as between the terrorists and the armed forces of the United States.

Patrick Ruffini has a point about Repuiblican Senators helping Senator Hillary Clinton remake her Leftie image so that she can seek the Presidency.

This image is from yesterday, and the whirlwind media tour surrounding the Frist-Clinton health information technology bill. It’s safe to say that this is the first time in a long time the Today show has covered the intricacies of health care IT.

“Hillary Teams Up with Top Republican” is no longer breaking news. In fact, it’ll soon sound like a broken record. A visit to Hillary Clinton’s Senate news room reveals something that was becoming anecdotally obvious: Hillary is in the process of smothering her image as a shrill and divisive partisan by hitching her wagon to any Republican Senator she can find. It’s not just Frist-Clinton. In the last twenty three days, we’ve had news of Voinovich-Clinton. And Graham-Clinton. And Brownback-Clinton. And Thune-Clinton. That’s an average of one major bipartisan initiative every four days. In all of 2004, Hillary Clinton issued a release in conjunction with a Republican Senator four times, or once every ninety-one days. And in case there any doubt about she’s up to, Hillary’s press office has issued a total of 232 releases so far in 2005 and 494 in 2004 — a staggering output even for the most grizzled veterans of national politics.

Republicans need to back off here and leave her alone with her legislative initiatives.

We don’t need to help her “seem moderate”.

She isn’t.

So, why are these Republican Senators helping her?

The Ventura County Watershed Protection District AKA Ventura County Board of Supervisors are attempting to raise taxes again.

A bill that would allow the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to ask county property owners to approve an annual fee to help reduce pollution from storm water advanced to the state Senate floor this week, but not before receiving a testy challenge from Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks.

The measure would give supervisors, who govern the Ventura County Watershed Protection District, the ability to ask property owners to vote for a fee that would likely amount to about $25 per year for each parcel of developed property. Agricultural and undeveloped land would be exempt, because pollution is generated when rainwater runs off asphalt and concrete before ultimately flowing into storm drains.

The Lefties in the California Legislature will pass this.

Hopefully, Tom McClintock, will have the Governor’s ear and solicit a veto.