> On the drinking thing, I have to check the box labeled "Never." I am a total tee-totaler. It has nothing to do with religion or right and wrong, it's just that I have seen what alcoholism can do to ruin peoples' lives. If you had seen what I have seen, you would never touch the stuff. It's like playing Russian roulette; you never know when your action is going to be the biggest mistake of your life. So I never took that first drink.

So, basically, despite having absolutely no first-hand knowledge of an experience that is completely subjective, you feel qualified to explain why other people drink?

Only somebody who has never had alcohol would possibly write that it was akin to playing Russian roulette. Even people who are alcoholics didn't become raging drunks after their first beer. The idea is totally ludicrous.

Somebody like Kelly -- a person who's never been anything other than reasonable on this forum, to the best of my knowledge -- tells you that he drinks in moderation because he enjoys the taste of some alcoholic drinks, and you conclude that he's likely a risk-taker. I know that in the after-school specials from which you apparently get your alcohol info from the alcohol begins operating on the "kill babies" center of the brain without ever hitting the taste buds of its unsuspecting victims, but properly prepared alcoholic drinks do *taste good*.

Furthermore, you know what? Alcohol has a pleasurable effect on the brain. It's a difficult experience to describe -- which is why I find it so funny that somebody who has never experienced it is passing judgement on it -- but it's probably not the same as the exaggerations you see in TV or the movies. Like all sorts of other pleasurable experiences, it's possible for people to become addicted. But it's also people to engage in it with moderation and restraint.

Like anything, there are some people that will have an inclination to overindulge to the point that it becomes destructive to them. But the key word is inclination. Even those prone to alcoholism certainly have the chance to recognize destructive behavior and modify it.

It's sort of like eating. There are certain people who are more prone to being overweight: they have poor self-control when it comes to eating, their metabolisms aren't that great, don't like to exercise, etc. I'm one of those people, and I used to be pretty overweight. I have, however, been able to recognize the tendencies in myself and control them. I can't simply eat whatever I want whenever the urge strikes me like some of my friends seem to be able to, but I manage to exercise self-control. Likewise, those prone to alcohol abuse have the same opportunity.

That many alcoholics don't control themselves is their fault, not the fault of the chemicals they're ingesting. Something like 60 percent of the country describes themselves as current drinkers, but only 7 percent describe themselves as heavy drinkers. Clearly most people are able to drink without it ruining their lives.

It strikes me that obesity is a far greater problem in this country than alcoholism is. Would you reccomend that people never, under any circumstances, eat junk food for fear that they find themselves suddenly unable to stop?

Anyway, you're more than welcome to choose from refraining from drinking. But I suggest you not pass uneducated, unreasonable and unilateral judgements on those who do in public forums unless you want to come off as a sanctimonious kook, preaching against that which you don't understand.

Stephen