Comments on: November 2009 Topic Announced

By: steven

steven — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:19:39 +0000

Stable nation such as china and india threaten the economy of the United States: outsourcing jobs, etc

By: Erika

Erika — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:40:45 +0000

I’m in desperate need of help.

I have a tournament coming up soon that will use this topic… but i’ve got nothing on it yet.

My cases are blank.

Can someone give me ideas for contentions?

By: Maddie

Maddie — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:45:25 +0000

Well it’s better than last months..

By: Wild Bill deb8r

Wild Bill deb8r — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:55:34 +0000

Well there are several points of view to consider when debating this issue, one the idea of natural selection is based off pre-conceptions of morality that can only be determined by social collaborations, and not individual assumptions. Also, capitalists regimes are the only counter-aparatists that allow for net benefits in the realm of international politics. THEREFORE YOU HAVE TO AFFIRM.

By: C.J.

C.J. — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:36:00 +0000

unfortunately capitalists are still here

By: Snarf

Snarf — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:44:10 +0000

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Fortunately, natural selection has a way of ridding itself of people that dumb.

By: C.J.

C.J. — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:29:57 +0000

this topic is pointless because i n my oppion capitalism itself means they are failed and so does communism socialism is the only sound option

By: Trever

Trever — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:50:50 +0000

i Love this topic

By: C.J.

C.J. — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:27:44 +0000

this topic makes no since b/c there are more pressing issues than this to debate

By: Shawns

Shawns — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:55:29 +0000

I think that we should look at the individual nations that threaten us

By: Sunshine Talahaki

Sunshine Talahaki — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:48:31 +0000

I don’t think it’s a bad topic at all, folks. I’m excited to read up on it :]

By: Jason Kline

Jason Kline — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:12:12 +0000

This month’s topic was sponsored by the Stanley Foundation. I would recommend visiting their website for resources.

By: Snarf

Snarf — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:40:17 +0000

Oh that’s right. I forgot that computer science hadn’t invented ways around IP address limiting, like proxies. Or mutating IP algorithms.

I guess the team coaches thing could work. Send me an email at R-Man’sTeamCoach@gmail.com and I’ll vote. Oh wait – I’m not R-Man’s Team Coach. Whoops – I guess that since email clients invented magic, they’ll know what the real team coach’s address is. Or that the team even exists.

By: R-Man

R-Man — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:07:16 +0000

They could simply limit ur IP address to one vote. Or they could send a ballot via email to team coaches and just let them vote

By: Snarf

Snarf — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:08:36 +0000

Then the Computer Sciences debaters will write a recursive algorithm that lets them vote 200,000 times for whatever topic they desire.

But agreed, the topic is cowpoop.

By: Adam Jacobi

Adam Jacobi — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:54:37 +0000

Greetings everyone,

Just in case you didn’t know, the NFL has a free resource directory to get PF debaters started on research… http://www.forensicsonline.net/forum/local_links.php?catid=52

Adam Jacobi
NFL Coordinator of Programs & Education

By: R-Man

R-Man — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:07:11 +0000

what a horrible topic. just like BRIC. the topic committee should be disbanded…we should all just vote on NFL online on a polll….

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:18:02 +0000

well, i do think that this is a good topic if only for the fact that it leaves less room for meta-debate

By: Blair

Blair — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:21:59 +0000

anyone have some definitions that they would like to contribute for fiailed nations

By: Snarf

Snarf — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:08:56 +0000

I can too, which bothers me.

196 countries? 1 month of research? Impossible research burden?

By: PFDebate LLC

PFDebate LLC — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:57:11 +0000

I can imagine cases that discuss both the general concept and examples.

By: Snarf

Snarf — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:56:27 +0000

IMPACT TURNING FTW

Terrorism good anyone?

By: Snarf

Snarf — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:47:03 +0000

I disagree with the “lets look at it by specific country” idea – we should be talking about failed states in theory, not in specific.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:46:24 +0000

My initial research this morning suggests while there is a debate about the failed state framework, there is little advocacy suggesting that non-failed states are a bigger threat. Another PF topic with silly ground…

By: PFDebate LLC

PFDebate LLC — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:31:17 +0000

I think a lot of it will come down to where you draw the line between failed and stable. Is it the 38 under Alert or the 131 that are under Alert and Warning?

If you draw it at alert, you can try to compare the threat from the alert states to Russia, China, etc.

By: Snarf

Snarf — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:26:45 +0000

ATTN Tpeters –

Iran, Somalia, N. Korea, Pakistan, are all “fail[ing] states” on the list Bob provided.

Laos, China, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank are all at the “warning”/brink of being a failed state.

List of completely sustainable states? Ireland, Canada, Luxembourg, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, and Norway.

I think if you added ALL of those stable countries up, you don’t have even close to the risk of EVEN ONE of the following:
-an Indo-Pak nuclear war,
-North Korean nuclear strike,
-Chinese strike on Taiwan,
-Israel shutting Gaza up with a few nukes.

And those are only the most obvious flashpoints made worse by the economic downturn.

Oh and I forgot Iran.

This topic is really, really lame.

By: PFDebate LLC

PFDebate LLC — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:16:22 +0000

After we are finished with this giant meatball of a topic in November, why don’t we kick back and debate something a little more narrow in December like the NBA’s social media guidelines.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4520907&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

By: PFDebate LLC

PFDebate LLC — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:19:52 +0000

And don’t forget that Chomsky’s Failed States argues that the U.S. is becoming a failed state.

By: PFDebate LLC

PFDebate LLC — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:15:28 +0000

Here is a list of failed states:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Failed_States_Index

By: tpeters

tpeters — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:06:49 +0000

Considering the flury of discussion about counterplans recently, I think this is a topic where counterplans (whatever they are in PF) won’t work.

I like that the topic is put as a statement of fact (greater threat or not) rather than a statement of policy. My gut reaction was, “Really???” Then I started thinking. Iran and North Korea would probably not be considered “failed nations,” but they are definitely threats. But “failed nations” (I’m going to have to figure out what that phrase means) would provide the type of environment that grows terrorists and destabilize regions. Hmmmm.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:34:25 +0000

sweet