Get fluoride out of drinking water?

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Trump will push to get fluoride out of drinking water, RFK Jr. says

Reversing the decades-old public health intervention would be a Day 1 goal of a future Trump administration, Kennedy wrote on social media.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/03/rfk-jr-trump-fluoride-water/

This reminds me of walking out of my high school at the end of the day in 1970 and finding that every car in the parking lot had a “Fluoride is a Communist Plot!” flyer on the windshield.

As to my local municipal water system, they dropped fluoridation a few years not for such sinister reasons but because one of the bureaucrats decided it was a very easy way to save $40,000 on bags of Sodium Fluorosilicate.

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RFK Jr. in charge of the CDC? God help the USA.

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God help us. At least it will give dentists new business for years to come. Perhaps he is a shill for the ADA.

Good grief. For any Christian reading this, please realize that if you or your friends support this kind of thing, you are eroding and destroying your witness for Christ by promoting falsehood.

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Sadly, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time. I cringe on a daily basis at the falsehoods I see coming from my Christian friends. (I am a Bible-affirming Christ-follower myself—so I obviously I’m opposed to pathological lying.)

In fact, yesterday I found a “Voter’s Guide” folded into church service bulletin (passed out at the entrance.) It sorta kinda compares Harris’ and Trump’s position on various issues—in a not so neutral way. Most of the yes/no “answers” on the concise table (with microscopic footnotes) made me want to face-palm because they were so manipulative for the naive voter. [I’ll spare you the details of the hyper-conservative-MAGA strategy of the bulletin insert which came from a well-known right-wing organization.] I am not a fan of either major presidential candidate but I imagined creating my own “candidate comparison chart” to provide an alternate perspective:

Is a convicted felon: No Yes
Is a rapist: No Yes
Casually brags about getting away with sexual assault: No Yes
Proposes tariffs which would initiate a trade war & radically raise prices for consumers: No Yes
Claims opponent is very low-IQ despite having passed a BAR exam: No Yes
Regularly displays signs of serious cognitive decline: No Yes
May have offered an important government job to a wacko with a brain worm: No Yes

There’s no limit. I used to consider myself a Republican. No more.

I’m fine with churches speaking out on a particular moral issues that are relevant to party platforms and candidate positions but I’d prefer they leave manipulative and obviously biased “voter guides” out of their church bulletins.

(Again. I’m not endorsing either candidate or political party. I’m just fed up with the choices and with the outrageous conduct that is so blatant in this election cycle—including the activities of some churches.)

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You and the Washington Post.

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Well, thank God for people like you. My response is going to be slightly off-topic, so you will have to forgive and bear with me.

I might still be a Christian, but it is by the thinnest of margins. I can cobble together enough credence to live with a Nicene Creed kind of faith, but I fear that my concept of the Bible is going to be different than many of my Reformed friends.

When I see members of our “tribe” enamored with a candidate that no one would trust their retirement account, let alone their daughter to, it fills me with a profound sadness.

The world has grown up. It doesn’t have time for an approach to the text that treats the Bible as if it came down from heaven as a univocal book: leather bound with maps, commentary and the (supposed) words of Christ in red.

It is an immensely complicated topic that requires layer upon layer of nuance if one is to find anything resembling the kind of Christianity that Luther or Calvin would have believed.

The situation is a serious one for the Christian. I can understand why people feel that their core beliefs are threatened - because they are - but the proper response is not to become an Ostrich and then turn to all manner of falsehood (to bring this back to your original post).

Thank you Allen for writing. If you have any encouragement for one very near to leaving the faith, feel free to DM me.

Most Sincerely,

CL

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Perhaps my favorite card from the Illuminati card game.

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Oh, my. Probably too tragic to be funny—and yet it is.

I have probably all too recently told my story of how it was a careless Work Study student earning minimum wage who set in motion the chain events leading to fluoride toothpaste. (So I will simply summarize for the newcomers.) When I was in grad school I taught seminars for faculty, staff, and students on how to use the university mainframe. And one of the senior professors from the Dept of Chemistry chatting after class told me how back in the 1950’s when he was new to the department one of the older professors came into the faculty lounge furious that the lazy student had failed to turn down the heat of some “containment hood” experiment and it produced the wrong chemical compound. It was hard as a rock and had ruined some of the equipment. Later he decided to analyze the compound to figure out exactly what it was: stannous fluoride

The university licensed it for CREST toothpaste and made millions of dollars in royalties.

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TOO FUNNY! :toothbrush:

I wonder what became of the student?

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Good question. Today he would probable have a lawyer and try to sue for a cut of the money.

It think they used to claim that some building on campus was funded from those Crest toothpaste royalties. Not sure which one.

And not far away was/is the Lilly Library, funded by those great pharmaceuticals. I used to spend time in there in a magnetic-door-locked room where I could actually turn-the-pages and browse an original Coverdale Bible—and see an original script from Star Trek (the original series.) I don’t remember which cast member it was from but you could see the scribblings of the actor’s notes on the margin. (e.g., wait for dramatic ominous background music to warn us of impending doom.)

Hard to beat a major university for fun experiences and good stories. (That includes my anecdotes dealing with Bobby Knight, who I once had to introduce for a luncheon banquet for the Association of High School Guidance Counselors, which was about 80% women and yet he opened with some very off-color jokes.)

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Just this year I see my alma mater put up a special National Historic Chemical Landmark plaque for advancing oral health.

But this is what amazed me most:

Dental caries, or cavities, increased significantly around the world as the Industrial Revolution increased the availability of refined sugar and flour. At this time, the most common fix for decaying teeth was extraction. Cavities were so prevalent that before the development of fluoride toothpaste, the U.S. Army had to waive its requirement that soldiers have a minimum of six incisor teeth and six molar teeth to enlist because they had trouble finding 18-year-olds who still had 12 out of 32 teeth during World War II.

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@Dan_Eastwood , does that Illuminati card game have a card for the “DiHydrogen Oxide kills hundreds per year” conspiracy? I just realized that I haven’t heard of that one for a while.

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I liked the Daily Show’s parody of the Washington Post:

in-response-to-wapo-refusing-to-endorse-harris-v0-dfyiptylz3xd1
in-response-to-wapo-refusing-to-endorse-harris-v0-dfyiptylz3xd1866×898 134 KB

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Priceless.

By the way, that word was a big part of the setup for those memorable TV commercials of some years ago, roughly late 90’s, "Priceless. There are some things money can’t buy; for everything else, there’s Mastercard "

I’ve come very close to creating a series of political cartoons using the punchline with various word choices for the final word of the sentence:

"There are some things money can’t buy; for everything else, there’s Totalitarianism/Fascism/Narcissism ".

Truly, for very wealthy people, going into politics allows them to acquire things (e.g. enormous power) which they couldn’t acquire with money alone.

With the right visuals, it could make a pithy four panel comic strip.

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General Jack D. Ripper : Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk… ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children’s ice cream.

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake : [very nervous] Lord, Jack.

General Jack D. Ripper : You know when fluoridation first began?

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake : I… no, no. I don’t, Jack.

General Jack D. Ripper : Nineteen hundred and forty-six. 1946, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works.

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake : Uh, Jack, Jack, listen… tell me, tell me, Jack. When did you first… become… well, develop this theory?

General Jack D. Ripper : [somewhat embarassed] Well, I, uh… I… I… first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love.

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake : Hmm.

General Jack D. Ripper : Yes, a uh, a profound sense of fatigue… a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I… I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence.

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake : Hmm.

General Jack D. Ripper : I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women uh… women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I, uh… I do not avoid women, Mandrake.

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake : No.

General Jack D. Ripper : But I… I do deny them my essence.

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The version of the game I have does not contain such a card, but newer versions could. The game also came with several blank cards so you could create your own and add them to the game.

If you haven’t seen dhmo.org already, you should check it out. :slight_smile:
Facts About Dihydrogen Monoxide

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Perfect!

“Can you hear me now?” might make a good post-election stringer, depending …

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Oh my. That one is far too tragic to even think about. (I fear that tomorrow is going to be the end of an era, no matter the outcome. Because win or lose, one candidate is going to stage a huge challenge to democracy.)

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L U N A C Y

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So is he going to be the next Surgeon General or what?