from andrewsullivan.com

Here's why I almost don’t bother reading stories any more that announce "startling" new statistics about some social "problem" or other. The story blared all over the papers recently was that teen drinking makes up about a quarter of all alcohol consumption. As the New York Times points out today, that’s baloney. The number is probably around 11 percent – with the 25 percent coming from a loaded sample, skewed to teens. The quote from a spokesperson for the do-gooder group, the Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, tells you the thinking behind the exaggeration: "It's very unfortunate. We didn't reweight the data. But we think the 11.4 percent number is way too low, since there's so much underreporting." Unfortunate? It’s a LIE – designed to advance an agenda. But the lie is defended because the “cause” is just, and, in any case, the busy-bodies believe there’s underreporting. Oh, that's all right then. This is the same mentality that gives us a surging epidemic of “hate-crimes” where none exists; and it’s the same mindset that goes out to prove resurgent HIV infection, even when there’s scant evidence to support it. My advice is to ignore most such studies. The occasional report that’s honest is vastly outweighed by the self-serving, puritanical propaganda that these groups exist to spew out. Now, I’m gonna pour myself a drink. Or five.

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-p (sorta like the "homeless" statistics we read about come election time)