About 20 years ago I had an implant done.  The Doc who did it had a sense of humor.  He said that we would have to build up the bone structure so asked me if I preferred human or cow bone.   Told him cow bone since my wife says I'm full of bullshit.  A few months later I went back for him to see how everything was knitting together.  On this visit I had a 1/2 inch wood drill bit told him he left it in my mouth on my last visit.  A lady (whom I had thought was a nurse) standing next to him fainted.  We caught her before she hit the floor.  He and the real nurses were laughing hard.  The implant has given me no problems at all over the last 20 years.  He checked it out last year and said it is doing very well.  The color matches the rest very well and visually you can't tell the difference.

My choices were cadaver bone (human) or cow, or pig, or he could do a newfangled procedure where he uses no bone but takes blood from me, puts it in a fancy machine in the back, does some kind of magic to it to turn it into a concoction that he puts in the socket that somehow signals my own immune system to target the area to grow new bone. That’s the one he uses on high risk patients because it works best and has the least rate of complications but it is more expensive.  I said, do that one.

So the day came and they had a hard time finding a vein. The nurse and the dentist were teaming up trying to get blood.  They had to poke me five times but they had given me laughing gas. It hurt like hell (these are not practiced phlebotomists). Not only did I not care that it hurt, I thought it was the most hilarious thing in the world.

So he pulls the tooth which was even funnier.  He took his time (apparently there’s a technique to it that minimizes trauma to the adjacent tissue or whatever) so he’s got the pliers in there, wiggling that tooth around and I’m just giggling up a storm. He moved it this way: Hilarious! He moved it that way: OMG that’s even funnier! Bwahahahaha!!

So he gets the blood product from the back and fools around with it mumbling something about a bit of my bone clinging to the tooth that he can mix in there, and stuffs it back into the socket and stitches it up.  So that was about 5 months ago, I went in for the x-ray recently and he said it looks great, the bone is growing back well and I don’t have a “collapsed sinus” which would have required a whole different procedure so it all looks real good. Wait another few weeks and we will be ready to install the post.

In the meantime I’ve had to get used to eating with a missing molar.

Nope.  Floss first, rinse with mouthwash to remove the ick, then brush.  This is the only proper way to do it.  So there!

I think the dental assistant flosses last to get rid of all the polishing compound that might get stuck between the teeth.

My dentist has forbidden me to use mouthwash.  I’m in the middle of getting an implant and something about the gum healing over the bone graft which takes like 6 months and mouthwash isn’t good for it.  I’ll have to ask but I got the idea he doesn’t like it in general because of the alcohol being too much of a drying agent.

HAH!  I was right!
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/dentists-reveal-the-correct-order-to-brush-your-teeth-floss-and-use-mouthwash

Since when do we believe anything we read on the internet?

I’ll have you know I recently had my teeth cleaned and the hygienist did the flossing last, after she was done with all the scraping and polishing.  So I’m still right. 

Jim called out my "ambiguous" sounding position on the pro-Hamas protests, as if he wants me to come out in full support of the protestors' right to free speech, and I've been holding back just a bit.  Here's why.

For decades now, the major institutions influencing public opinion (media and education), and more importantly, the development of ideology in our children, have been taken over by neo-Marxist anti-Americans.  These protestors are mostly young people, as usual; brains not fully developed, no adult life experience, think they know everything, but have not been exposed to a wide range of ideas.

For years now, ramping up hard recently, these institutions have censored speech, not from these neo-Marxists (aka the left) but from the right and from anything upholding the ideals of our founding fathers (such as the Constitution).  Conservative speakers are banned from campus. Mainstream media is now openly just a propaganda arm for the Democrats, and social media we now know is infiltrated by federal agencies controlling who is allowed to speak freely.  Political speech is not the only speech censored, we have scientists blacklisted and censored for speaking truthfully about climate change or covid.

There IS NO free speech in America anymore.  So now all of a sudden I'm supposed to defend a bunch of brats siding with terrorists and shouting threats at our very nation?  Where's the call to support all the above, censored everywhere except X and a few alternative platforms? 

The issue is not we need to allow pro-Palestinian speech; that is a subset of speech and openly allowed and supported.  Any countering subsets are suppressed, and that is apparently acceptable. We have destroyed free speech in America. Those protests aren't free speech; they are what is allowed to be said by the puppet masters. 

Free speech must apply to everyone and all points of view or it isn't free speech at all.  What is allowed simply becomes the rantings of a properly brainwashed set of minions.

Preventing people from taking off and disrupting normal aviation operations needs to come with felony charges.

National guards from several states are already being used. Using US Army troops would likely require modifying the Posse Comitatus Act.

Then modify it.  The intent was not to use them against American civilians; it was never intended to hinder national defense in the event of an invasion.

I'm not sure how any US legislation can address the internal policies of other countries.

Not legislation. Diplomatic pressure. Good Lord.

Not without getting really really complicated.The bill was negotiated and written by Sen. James Lankford at the request of Sen. McConnell. You can check the record yourself, but Lankford is as red as they come. According to Lankford:
"I had a popular commentator, four weeks ago that I talked to, that told me flat out... if you try to move a bill that solves the border crisis during this presidential year, I will do whatever I can to destroy you," Lankford said on the Senate floor Wednesday. "By the way, they have been faithful to their promise."
You may consider solving the border crisis as higher priority than sending aid to other countries, but Trump needs a chaotic border he can pin on Biden. To that end Trump has posted:
"Also, I have no doubt that our wonderful Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, will only make a deal that is PERFECT ON THE BORDER."
Requiring "perfect" is enough to keep the problem alive till after the election. Much as I prefer Trump over Biden that political grandstanding means you were never going to see any resolution till after the election.

Are you seriously trying to blame Trump for this?!

Spot on. At the core of all Leftists are dishonesty and hypocrisy in everything.  Man made climate change, Covid, guns, abortion, taxes....everything !

The biggest most obvious, blatant, outright and deliberate hypocrisy is the need to prevent the people from voting for who they want, in order to “save democracy”.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/rep-chip-roy-reveals-only/

Rep. Chip Roy Reveals ONLY $47 Billion of the $113 Billion in Ukraine Funding Went to Lethal Aid – What Was the Other $66 Billion Used For?

I love that term, "Lethal Aid".  That so sounds like it means whatever you're sending them will kill them.