See link

i see nothing wrong with this NIH study. sure it may be sound a bit flaky (quoted out of context) and may cause certain people to "giggle" (especially the unedcuated, as just about everything with this culture invariably does) but i'd rather my tax $dollars be spent this way than X -- substitute just about anything for X!

i say f**k Rep. Jeff FLAKE (if ever there was a more fortuitous alignment of personality and last name, it escapes me!)

freaking uptight puritanical tight-wad Republican troglodytes!

oh Bill ... where art thou?  

LOL

If our representatives are getting down to scrutinizing grants of $26,000, then I guess we can assume that they've already busted the -big- pork-barrels, right?  Whatever happened to the missing $2trillion at the defense department?

conservative credentials for their base.  The amount spent on this pork is pittance compared to other porks.

Certain level of government funding is needed for seemingly inconsequential researches like this.  Once in a while, there is a huge payoff down the line.  Nobody really know.  That is why government funded researches with small grants are important.

about sex than Democrats.  Pathetic.

of Congress how he rushed out and passed a bill legalizing the hobby in all 50 states.  I also noticed that Bill and Janet Reno were so pleased when California legalized medicinal marijuana that he promptly vowed to enforce federal prohibitions against marijuana and to sanction doctors who prescribed marijuana.  Maybe he was just upset because he did not inhale the smoke when he was younger.  And I guess it was not Al Gore who forced Loretta Sanchez to move her charity benefit from the Playboy Mansion to another location because of how he perceived Playboy magazine.  If you are looking for help from the Democrats on these issues dream on.  Unfortunately there is not much difference between the parties on these issues.

Reo you think that 20 Democrats would have initiated this letter? EOM

I do not know if 20 democrats would have initiated this letter but I do know that Democrats in the California Assembly are pushing a bill that would make an employer responsible for sexual harassment if a stranger walking across the parking lot makes a crude remark to one of the company's female employees.  Under this law Kmart who is not allowed under state law to chase panhandlers away from their front door would be liable for sexual harassment if one of the panhandlers makes a lewd comment to a female employee.  I think maybe the Democrats have their heads stuck up their butts as much as the Republicans do.

I pay taxes, just like everyone else. However, I don't want my tax dollars wasted. Yes, they waste our money on a great many things. Yes, most Republicans are too puritanical. Yes, Republicans and Democrats grand stand for their constituants. But, come on guys. This is an incredible waste of our money. Just like many other things.

Sure, it's funny that they're actually studying arousal. However, it IS a waste of our money.

Marx may have been correct. Our Republic will only last a couple hundred years. After that, the masses will realize they may vote themselves money. (meant to be paraphrased and a bit sarcastic)

Reo you think that 20 Democrats would have initiated this letter? EOM

sounds like aperfect way to do harm to a business you don't like or to give a competitor a hard time or get back at an employer for wrongfully firing my lazy never do anything write butt

WHICH party has their heads stuck up their butts. it's a question of HOW FAR comparatively?  and there, Democrats clearly have an "easier way out"  should there be a need to resurface for a breath of fresh air!

the sexual harrassment example you point out, while ludicrous, is not a good example of 'uptightness" about sexuality in general. if anything, it can be called "progressive" ... perhaps just being over-zealous in protecting women's rights to a harrassment-free workplace, which is a time-honored Democratic tradition (or at least one Republicans would only care to discuss in theory only, and then over an afternoon game of golf!)

but yes, alas this "curse" afflicts all political walks of life, especially in the dear ol' US-of-A

It's actually more insidious than mere political grandstanding by the Congressional Republicans. It is, in fact, very reminiscent of Soviet "genetics" research under Lysenko in the '50's. Below is from the NYTimes:

May 9, 2003
No Time to Get Squeamish
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

"...Most AIDS scientists are terrified these days. They describe witch hunts by neo-Puritans in and out of the Bush administration, and many are so nervous that in e-mail and research abstracts they avoid using words like "gays," "homosexuals," "anal sex" or "sex workers."

So scientists at the National Institutes of Health and elsewhere are devising their own secret code. I won't give it away, but one term stands for "gay" or "homosexual," another for "anal sex" and so on.

"I would recommend avoiding all electronic communication to any N.I.H. office," one scientist warned in one of many e-mail notes buzzing among AIDS researchers. "Phone communication does not appear tapped at this time. Even so, I am advising staff to speak `in code' unless an N.I.H. staff member indicates you can speak freely. In short, assume you are living in Stalinist Russia when communicating with the United States government."

As my Times colleague Erica Goode noted in breaking the story last month, researchers have been told by N.I.H. project officers to avoid "sensitive language" in grant applications. A University of California researcher, for example, was told to "cleanse" the abstract of his grant proposal of words like "gay," "homosexual" and "transgender."

Since his research was on H.I.V. in gay men, this was a challenge. How can scholars investigate how AIDS spreads without using words that make the religious right blush?

Perhaps this seems like an obscure issue. It's not: the fundamental question is whether elements of the Bush administration are politicizing science, using budgets, advisory committees and the fear of embarrassment to chill the way science is conducted in America...."