"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Thursday, September 30, 2004

You know the UK, which has “free” universal medical care for everyone?  Well this guy couldn’t get in to see a dentist, so he opted for the at-home variety.

A DESPERATE man pulled out three teeth with rusty PLIERS because he could not find an NHS dentist.

Divorced George Daulat, 47, numbed the pain by downing half a bottle of vodka.

He said: “People will think I am crazy to have pulled my own teeth out but I just could not stand the pain any longer.”

Dad-of-one George had failed to get an appointment at an emergency NHS dentist.

And a friend called almost 20 NHS and private dentists in vain.

George explained: “I had terrible toothache for weeks and the pain killers had stopped working.

“I was lying awake at night, driven mad by the pain. In the end I simply couldn’t take any more.

“I had a pair of pliers in a tool box. They were old and a bit rusty but I knew they would do the job.

But I’m confused.  In the UK, where the government is so compassionate that it provides all the free medical care anyone could ever need, how could there be a situation like this?  This sort of thing should only happen here in fascist corporate Amerikkka!  That’s what Michael Moore tells us, anyway.

His home town of Scarbrough, North Yorks, is so hard-hit with the lack of NHS dentists that queues stretched hundreds of yards earlier this year when one finally opened.

Around 3,000 people tried to join — but they were left stranded when Dutch dentist Aria Van Drie fled after it was revealed she had criminal convictions.

George says he is still searching for a dentist to finish off his DIY removal.

He added: “It is the most horrible thing I have ever done but I was driven by desperation.

“The Government needs to sort out the problems in the NHS so that no one else ever has to go through this.”

Odd, isn’t it, that I don’t ever remember seeing people standing in a line hundreds of yards long to get dentistry here in America.