Your Wasted Tax Dollars at Work

From Fox News:

Government researchers are spending more than $400,000 in taxpayer money to hit the bars in Argentina.

The National Institutes of Health are paying researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior while drunk -- and just what can be done about it.

Doctors and specialists from the New York Psychiatric Institute are using the generous grant from NIH's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to help tailor HIV prevention programs to work at bars and clubs.

Though public health officials say that HIV/AIDS rates are higher in Washington, D.C., than in some parts of West Africa, U.S. government funds are going to help curb dangerous liaisons in Argentina's capital.

I can save the government a whole lot of money.

The answer to the question, "why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior while drunk" is the same as why straight men do:

They're drunk, stupid!

The second question is incorrectly phrased, which is typical of the federal government. It should be "What should be done about it?"

The answer? While many things could be done, nothing should be done. Make sure anyone old enough to go to a bar understands that if they drink they will lose control of their inhibitions and probably do very stupid, very dangerous things.

And then let them know that it's their personal, individual responsibility to avoid this. Tell 'em we won't bail them out of their troubles, and spend resources we don't have to fix problems that should not exist, gay or straight.

Maybe it's not compassionate, but in the long term it will be more effective at preventing risky behavior than a $400,000 extended cruise of South American gay bars.