Lunaya Pravda

26 July 2007

Blatant emotional pandering

Wash. congressmen want to fight 'meth mouth'

"It is disgusting, utterly disgusting to see a little kid's teeth rotting out," Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said at news conference Thursday, flanked by four huge pictures of gaping mouths with blackened, rotting teeth.

Good fucking grief. This is such blatant emotional pandering for the purposes of drumming up support that I actually threw up in my mouth a bit. Little kids? When was the last time you saw a little kid with meth mouth, Senator? Say, someone around 8 years old? We're supposed to get all teary-eyed because the scourge of meth is ruining the teeth of American children everywhere? Spare me.

Teens and adults--NOT children--are the ones getting meth mouth, and I have little sympathy for them. But judging from the rest of the article, I'm supposed to pony up because a segment of the population not only doesn't care for their teeth, but actively pursues a course that will destroy their dental health? That dog won't hunt, sorry. Not that I think it's the taxpayers' responsibility to pay for dental care, but if we're going to be forced to pay, why not start with the folks who are actually trying to care for their teeth, not those who (metaphorically) knocked their own teeth out in a drug-induced haze?

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