Dates with no time or timezone component in Java/MySQL

public static Date truncateDate(Date date)
    {
    	GregorianCalendar cal = getGregorianCalendar();
    	cal.set(Calendar.ZONE_OFFSET, 0); // UTC
    	cal.set(Calendar.DST_OFFSET, 0); // We don't want DST to get in the way.

    	cal.setTime(date);
    	cal.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 0);
    	cal.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
    	cal.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
    	cal.set(Calendar.HOUR, 0);
    	cal.set(Calendar.AM_PM, Calendar.AM);

    	return cal.getTime();
    }

INSERT INTO time_table(dt) VALUES('2008-12-31')