After an hour of often-bizarre pleas from their salt-of-the-earth constituents Tuesday, four of Hernando County, Florida's five county commissioners donned their tinfoil thinking hats and decided to kill a plan that would have added fluoride to their drinking water.

In 2013 one can have many legitimate beefs with the medical and scientific establishment, but fluoridated water, like immunization, is not one of them. Still, it appears increasingly likely that a Left-Right coalition of dedicated fear-mongers will defeat a measure in Portland this week to fluoridate its water supply and help keep kids' teeth from falling out.