Sari with Julie Bowen ABCs Modern Family, Kate White Editor Cosmo.

Here’s a link to a cute article about The Body Shop event that was held in conjunction with our Valentine’s Day promotion. (Photo from that site.)

I’ve teamed up with The Body Shop to give men tips about some gifts that may thrill their partners on Valentine’s Day. For more info: The Body Shop Valentine’s Day Tips. Or go into any The Body Shop store in the US, Canada, or Mexico, where you’ll see my picture and Valentine’s Tips, and you can get personal help choosing gifts that will make you her hero this Valentine’s Day. 

Neil Cavuto and I discussed research studies which are funded by the stimulus package, and we unintentionally wore matching outfits. For more on the topic (stimulus funding, not our outfits) please read my blog post from yesterday.

I will be appearing on Neil Cavuto’s Your World on The Fox News Channel today to discuss whether it is appropriate for our government to fund this research.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) released a list of over 6,000 studies it will be supporting with funds from the stimulus package, also known as the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). While the vast majority of the research is related to neuroscience, genetics, or diseases such as cancer, tuberculosis, heart disease, and multiple sclerosis, there are a handful of funded scientific studies that involve sexuality.

This set off alarms for some, including the New York Post where yesterday an article declared, “The next fiscal year is set to be one of the friskiest ever in the nation’s science labs, as researchers probe the ins and outs of sex patterns among humans.” In Central New York’s Post-Standard, Tory Mazzola, spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, was quoted as saying that funding research is an inappropriate use of the stimulus funds: “Because stimulus was sold as a new investment in infrastructure. It was sold as job creating. It was sold as a new way forward for America.”

On the surface it may seem shocking to some people if our tax dollars are paying for “sex” research. Others believe that we should not discount scientific freedom, intellectual curiosity, and the fact that sexuality is a vitally important aspect of being human. Yet when we look further we see that this research is not sexy at all. All of the NIH approved studies include a statement of the public health implications, and all of these statements are available to the public on the NIH website. Most involve work about HIV/AIDS.

Read the rest of this entry »