The Facebook is All Over This

The New York Times, always with the stories that matter. Today's issue features a write up on, of all things, beer pong. The story is mostly just late-to-the-(beer pong)party-and-clueless rote designed to explain newfangled kids and their ccrrrraaaaazzzzzy drinking rituals to the Times' increasingly geriatric readership ("Remember when beer used to come cans with pull tabs, hon? Fetch me my cain - I'm gonna do a lap around the manor."), but it does include this bit of sublime stupidity:

Students say they enjoy the games because they are a fun way to compete, socialize and drink, and often the only consequence of playing is a hangover. But alcohol prevention experts say the games do sometimes lead to alcohol poisoning and drunken-driving crashes and may increase the chance of a woman being sexually assaulted.

Yes, and the same could be said about football games, frat parties, Hooters and, come to think of it, any sort of social drinking. Quick! To the moralist's cave! There's fun to be stamped out!

But it gets better:

Thomas J. Johnson, a psychologist at Indiana State University, has published seven articles on student alcohol use in peer-reviewed journals since 1998 and has studied thousands of students who play drinking games. He found that 44 percent of men who played said that they did so to sexually manipulate other players.

So wait - you're telling me that 20 year olds drink in order to hook up with girls? Like - and have sex with them? Really? I thought this whole bar scene thing was just a way to escape the drudgery of the office and silence those pesky voices that are always telling you to hold up a diamond store. Maybe that's just me then.