Topic Talk

June 6, 2008

  • Loquitur Interview With Joshua Muravchik

    Loquitur has posted their interview with Joshua Muravchik, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, about the 2008 NFL Nationals Public Forum Debate topic.

May 30, 2008

  • Loquitur Interview With Joseph Nye

    Loquitur has posted an interview with Harvard’s Joseph S. Nye, Jr. about the Public Forum Debate topic (Risk of Terrorist Acts) for the NFL National Tournament.

May 24, 2008

  • Loquitur Interview With Benjamin Barber

    Loquitur has an interview with Benjamin Barber, author of Fear’s Empire: War, Terrorism, and Democracy, concerning the NFL Nationals topic on terrorism.

April 29, 2008

  • How Will Rebate Checks Get Spent?

    From NPR’s All Things Considered:
    What is the likely economic effect of tax rebate checks that are now going out? Mark Zandi, who authored a study used by Congress as it debated stimulus packages, says rising prices for staples may negate the impact of the check.
    The complete transcript is available on Lexis-Nexis.

April 26, 2008

March 22, 2008

  • Economic Stimulus Act Background Material

    The following are good resources for background material on the April 2008 topic.

    Description of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008
    Tax Policy Center, Quick Facts: Fiscal Stimulus
    IDEA, Debate: Bush Economic Stimulus Plan

  • Loquitur Interview With Geoffrey Woglom

    Loquitur has posted their first interview involving a Public Forum Debate topic. The interview is with Professor Geoffrey Woglom, Professor and Chair of the Economics Department at Amherst College, concerning the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008.

March 14, 2008

  • Economic Stimulus Payment Notice

    I received my Economic Stimulus Payment Notice in the mail today after I finished the April issue of Crossfire Briefs. It seemed kind of weird.

March 13, 2008

  • Topic Ideas For NFL Nationals

    Do you have an idea for a Public Forum Debate topic for the NFL National Tournament? A discussion broke out on an unrelated post and I would like to shift the discussion to a more logical place.

March 7, 2008

  • Primaries in the News

    The March topic seems to take new twists and turns everyday.
    Michigan To Announce Caucus In The Next Few Days
    “A member of the DNC’s Rules And Bylaws Committee–the committee that stripped Florida and Michigan of its delegates for moving their primaries before February 5th–told me that Michigan plans to get out of its uncounted delegate problem [...]

February 6, 2008

February 4, 2008

  • Two Little Words

    Between the server migration and the Super Bowl, I started to do some reading and thinking about the March topic. It seems to me that two little words are missing from the resolution: and caucuses.
    While I ultimately think “presidential nomination process” would have been the best phrase, I think the addition of the words “and [...]

January 31, 2008

  • Russia on NPR

    National Public Radio (NPR) has done a considerable amount of reporting about Russia. I want to draw your attention to two specific items. First, in March 2007, NPR did a five-part series on The Resurgence of Russia.
    Second, in October 2007, WNYC staged an expert debate: Is Russia Becoming Our Enemy Again? They have posted both [...]

January 28, 2008

  • Waving Goodbye to Hegemony

    Yesterday’s New York Times Magazine has an interesting article about the decline of U.S. hegemony. The article includes observations about the declining influence of Russia.

January 20, 2008

January 11, 2008

  • NFL Live Chats

    The NFL is holding a series of live chats this season. Two Public Forum Debate chats have been held so far including a chat earlier this week that includes discussion of the civil disobedience topic that was facilitated by Jason Kline, Tim Averill, and Tyler Billman.
    Additional chats have been scheduled through March 18, but another [...]

January 8, 2008

  • January 2008 Topic Skew

    My prediction before last weekend was that the January 2008 topic would have a 70/30 skew in favor of PRO teams. I think the best way to measure topic bias is by looking at elimination round results since the teams should, theoretically, be more evenly matched.
    At the Laird Lewis Invitational this past weekend the PRO [...]

December 14, 2007

  • UPI Series On The U.S Military & Iran

    United Press International (UPI) is running an interesting six-part series on the U.S. military and Iran. The first four segments have already run:

    Analysis: U.S. Military & Iran - Part 1
    Analysis: U.S. Military & Iran - Part 2
    Analysis: U.S. Military & Iran - Part 3
    Analysis: U.S. Military & Iran - Part 4

December 4, 2007

  • NIE: The Day After

    Baker & Wright in 2007,
    Peter Baker and Robin Wright. [Staff Writers]. “A Blow to Bush’s Tehran Policy.” The Washington Post. December 4, 2007. p. A1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/03/AR2007120302210.html.
    Accessed December 4, 2007.
    “It’s a little head-spinning,” said Daniel Benjamin, an official on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council. “Everybody’s going to be trying to scratch their heads and figure [...]

December 3, 2007

  • National Intelligence Estimate: Iran Quit Pursuit of Nukes

    The December Public Forum Debate topic on military action in Iran just got more interesting. From VOA News:
    The new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran says Tehran halted a secret nuclear weapons program in late 2003. It says as of mid-2007, the work had not resumed.
    Be glad this news did not come out on a Friday [...]

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