Duck!

Which is a fine argument if you ask me.


Duck!

Monkeybot

*shrug*

If I had never drunk alcohol before, I'd probably do it just to see what I was missing.

If you've tried it and don't like it, by all means, don't drink.

I drink probably once every 2 weeks. I do it socially -- I rarely drink alone (to me, drinking alone too much is the first step towards alcoholism -- maybe that's just me, though).

Drinking with friends can be a great social bonding experience. "In vino veritas" and all that. You don't even have to get pukingly drunk, either, just a mild buzz and a pleasant conversation go pretty well hand in hand.

That's just me though. There's no way to "prove" alcohol is good or bad -- either you like it or you don't.

Hedwig

Alcohol's only bad in excess. Having a glass of wine with dinner or a Stoli and tonic while hanging out and chatting with friends certainly doesn't hurt anyone. I seldom get drunk and I hate the feeling of hangovers so it didn't take me very long to know my limit and learn not to over step it.

It's simply a pleasurable thing to partake in once in a while.

FoE

Baudelaire said it all

Get Drunk

One should always be drunk. That's all that matters;
that's our one imperative need. So as not to feel Time's
horrible burden one which breaks your shoulders and bows

you down, you must get drunk without cease.

But with what?
With wine, poetry, or virtue
as you choose.
But get drunk.

And if, at some time, on steps of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the bleak solitude of your room,
you are waking and the drunkenness has already abated,
ask the wind, the wave, the stars, the clock,
all that which flees,
all that which groans,
all that which rolls,
all that which sings,
all that which speaks,
ask them, what time it is;
and the wind, the wave, the stars, the birds, and the clock,
they will all reply:

"It is time to get drunk!

So that you may not be the martyred slaves of Time,
get drunk, get drunk,
and never pause for rest!
With wine, poetry, or virtue,
as you choose!"

Pee Pee Poodle

NialScorva

Your brain is like a herd of antelope. We know alcohol kills brain cells, but it kills the weak ones first. Take the weak antelope out of the herd and the herd as a whole can move faster. Thus alcohol makes you smarter.


And really, if you have to be persuaded to drink, don't drink. It's like saying "Why should I bungie jump?". The only answer is "Because you want to, because you enjoy it, and because you will make yourself responsible for the consequences".

HaysooChreesto!

Me, I likes me beer. I like to try different kinds of beer and I brew a lot of my own at home. I enjoy the process of making it and the pride of a good finished product.
Alcohol can be a good social lubricant. There's been many times in business where I've gotten to know some of my clients a lot better than I normally would have and vice versa due to alcohol. And when times are especially tough, there's not much better than sitting in a bar talking out your problems over a beer with a good friend.
Excess is bad-blahblahblah.

If prohibition were ever brought back it would suck. However, I would just start growing my own grains and hops and in a matter of months I would be making money off of all the beer deprived people who are being punished by the prudish few. I'd even sell it to all the infidels here.
Now that I think about it... I hope prohibition returns!

Non-praying Mantis

I have gotten myself drunk a few times, and I have never thrown up from alcohol. Doing so does require some preparation and restraint, however. Start drinking water when you have reached your limit.

Beer is for college students who can't afford real alcohol. Give me vodka or other mixed drinks any night...

You can say that again!

NPM

elwoodblues

Well, okay, thanks. Bit more to it than that, though.

For the record, I did try drinking, once. Got drunk off my ass. Frightened the hell out of me, being out of control of myself. I'll drink a glass of wine with dinner on the rare occasion now, but that's it.

For all you responsible drinkers out there, who don't drink yourselves out of control, ever, that's fine. I don't see anything more wrong with that than consuming caffeinne or large amounts of chocolate.

What about the people who do drink to excess? They're rolling the dice every damned time they lift a scotch. And if it was only themselves that was being endangered I wouldn't even bring it up, but it's not.

It can be argued that social, casual drinking condones the heavy, dangerous drinkers. The guys who drive into a living room or through a red light into the side of an Escort full of teenagers. The people who come home and kill their spouse with a baseball bat, or beat the shit out of their kid. The people who come to work drunk and drop a loaded pallet on a coworker.

Alcohol is pervasive in this culture largely because of 'social drinking'. It makes it acceptable. It makes it ever-present. A rite of passage. What everyone's doing. Without the excuse and lure of 'social drinking', maybe the drunk bastard would clean himself up a few months sooner, or a few years sooner. A drunk can do a lot of damage to himself and those who happen to be around him in a few years.

So, does this even weigh on the minds of social drinkers? Okay, maybe you're responsible and careful and won't ever drink to excess (though, after your minds been altered by 3 or 4 drinks, how sure are you that you won't?), but it's still tacitly condoning those who DO drink to excess, who DO get stupidly and dangerously drunk. Does that factor in? Is it not your problem?

Godless Dave

I do occasionally drink to excess, to the point where I am "out of control", but I don't see how I'm rolling the dice or endangering anyone else. I don't even think I'm endangering myself, although it's possible I am damaging my liver. I never drink and drive. I don't start fights. I don't use heavy power tools after drinking. Maybe I'm not meeting your definition of "out of control", but I have consumed more than 4 drinks in one sitting on many occasions, and frankly I don't see anything wrong with it.