Ok. The headline isn’t true. But it may as well be.

NIH Funds $423,500 Study of Why Men Don’t Like to Use Condoms

The federal government is spending $423,500 to find out why men don’t like to wear condoms, a project government watchdogs say is a nearly-half-a-million-dollar waste of taxpayer money.

Researchers at Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute, with funding from the National Institutes of Health, are investigating why “young, heterosexual adult men” have problems using condoms.

I’ll offer my apologies in advance to the ladies in the audience, some of whom still seem to be genuinely confused by this issue. But for the guys, come on now. Did they need to spend a half million dollars on this? Don’t you think they could have spent five bucks on a long distance phone call and asked any one of us?

I still remember during the Clinton years when a study was funded to determine why prisoners want to escape from prison. Here in New York we had one just last year seeking to determine why chronic drug addicts tend to be depressed.

And some of our readers here wonder why I continue to carp about government spending.