Is it required and/or permissible to get drunk on Purim?

If you open up a siddur, you will find that there are up to three blessings to be recited before performing the mitzvah of lighting candles on the first night of Hanukkah. The first blessing states that we have been commanded to kindle the Hanukkah lights and is clearly recognizable as a birkat hamitzva. The third blessing, only recited on the first night, is also recognizable as the blessing of shehechiyanu. The second blessing, though, is unusual. Before almost all mitzvot, only a birkat hamitzvah is recited and sometimes a shehechiyanu. Why then does the mitzvah of Hanukkah lights require an additional blessing? The gemara below describes the purpose of the second blessing.

We are about to enter the one thousandth nine hundredth and thirty-seventh Tisha B'Av since the destruction of our Beit Hamikdash. It's been a long time. One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven more years than the last exile - about twenty-eight times its length. And still, we trudge on, wondering where the future will lead. But what got us here?

To love is to discriminate. To choose and to be chosen. In marriage, the groom designates one bride and the bride extends her finger and, by accepting the ring, selects one husband. Everyone else observes. At this moment, they are outsiders. They may love one or both members of this union. And the bride or groom may in turn love them. But the bonds of parents and children, cousins and friends bows before the commitments made by this new couple. To marry is to include one. By definition, all others are therefore excluded.