PFail

I dislike the NeoNov topic for nearly the same reason as I was appalled by the OldNov topic. It removes the particular offensiveness, which is positive. But it’s also unfortunate in some ways, because we’re left with a topic I find undebatable, but which now lacks offensiveness as a builder of consensus to forge our [...]

Filed under: coaching, debate | Posted on October 4th, 2010 by palmer

PF November

“Resolved: An Islamic cultural center should be built near Ground Zero”. Oh-kay. On the affirmative side, you have property rights and freedom of religion. On the negative, you have innuendo, guilt by association, and mob rule. That should make for a cheerful tournament. That the so-called Ground Zero Mosque is even a national issue is [...]

Filed under: coaching, debate, politics | Posted on October 1st, 2010 by palmer

Weighing it out

If a debater can learn only one skill, I would choose for them to learn weighing.  To progress beyond saying “You are TOTALLY WRONG and I am TOTALLY RIGHT” and instead say “These six things you say are right, but I feel that these four factors I’m talking about are more compelling still” is a [...]

Filed under: coaching, debate, tournaments | Posted on August 20th, 2010 by palmer

Caselists and privacy

I remain mostly unconvinced of the safety of the case disclosure lists.  I think people are taking the legal side of this query too seriously to the exclusion of the real meat of my concern, which is the long term impact of putting a large body of students’ work on the public internet under their [...]

Filed under: debate, tournaments | Posted on August 9th, 2010 by palmer

Battle School

If you are or were a smart kid, or are someone who deals with smart kids, and haven’t read Ender’s Game, your education is incomplete.  It’s a science fiction book, but don’t let that scare you; I’m not a scifi person either.  The book centers around a kid named Ender, who’s 6-12 years old in [...]

Filed under: coaching, debate, politics | Posted on August 9th, 2010 by palmer

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A small site by Chris Palmer on speech & debate, IT stuff, maybe some politics...

"Azuen" doesn't mean anything. But there's a story.

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