March PF Topic

Here's an article describing the penalties the government can level against individuals who don't have health insurance.

This piece is from the Cato Institute in 2007, but offers help for the PRO side.

These items showed up when I searched for "health care mandate."

Extemp topics

I've never done this but I thought it would help those of you who are committed to extemp.  I've created some current practice topics:

1.       What will come of “Biden Group” gun control proposals?

2.       With the discovery of dozens of dead bodies, is there genocide occurring in Syria?

3.       Will the Benghazi embassy attack ruin Hillary Clinton’s chances at a 2016 Presidency?

4.       What is the legacy of former President George W. Bush?

5.       How will the Texas Supreme Court rule in the case of the school districts v. the state?

6.       What can the U.S. do to improve on handling soldiers with PTSD?

7.       What does the assassination of Chokri Belaid mean for Tunisia?

8.       Will the U.S. Justice Department move against the marijuana laws in Colorado and Washington?

9.       Should the U.S. fully support the Keystone Pipeline?

         Is Afghanistan ready for a U.S. troop withdrawal?

1 .   What does the future hold for Venezuela’s Presidency?

1 .   Was the “Arab Spring” of 2011 a success?

 These will also be up in the classroom and we'll use these for practice rounds.  Some are domestic - some are foreign.  Some are current - some are evaluating older issues.

Those of you who do extemp probably don't need to be reminded of this, but I'll do it anyway: Extemp requires commitment.  It is not an event you can do once and then conclude that it's not your thing.  Success at the event relies on your commitment to creating a working knowledge of current events.  It demands that you build on previous knowledge and that you follow certain stories and issues as they develop.  Last year at Nationals was the first time in a LONG time that we did not win extemp., and while not experiencing the overall success at Nationals that we're used to was not fun, not winning extemp was the equivalent of a kick to the gut.  It hurt.  It's more competitive than it used to be and like every other event we as a team have to push ourselves to find ways to improve what we're doing.  We can't get away with merely being confident, citing some made up sources and doing the "Munson Shuffle."  I know we're up to the task, and if you do extemp and know nothing about these practice topics, then you NEED to do a little web-searching to acquaint yourselves with these issues because these questions deal with pretty basic stories.

That said, good luck!

Oak Ridge (Apr. 6) Is Using the March PF Topic!

Huzzah!  Here's the topic:

Resolved: The U.S. government should not require its citizens to have health insurance.

March/April 2013 LD Topic

Resolved: The United States is justified in intervening in the internal political processes of other countries to attempt to stop human rights abuses.

While I like the PF topic I'm not nearly as excited this one because variations of it have been used before in LD and PF.  U.S. intervention in troubled nations is nothing new.  The annoying thing is that THIS topic gets specific to impose the limitation that U.S. intervention is limited to the internal political processes.    

March 2013 PF Topic

Resolved: The U.S. government should not require its citizens to have health insurance.

I like this topic.  Unfortunately there aren't any tournaments for us to go during March.  High Schools take a break from hosting tournaments for us because March is busy for them.  Between the state tournament, spring break and NFL qualifiers, there really isn't a free weekend for high school debate programs to devote to a middle school tournament.

I'm hoping that I can convince Oak Ridge (April 6) to use the March topic and will keep you posted.

FYI - the other PF topic that could've been used for March was this: Resolved: That benefits of increasing involuntary commitment for individuals with serious mental illness outweighs the harms.

Olle Schedule

Friday, February 15, 2013

3:00 p.m.               Meet in the debate room

3:15 p.m.               We leave Lanier

4:30-5:30	Debate Round One
5:30-6:30	Debate Round Two
7:00-8:00	Debate Round Three

9:00 p.m.             Return to Lanier 

Saturday, February 16, 2013

6:00 a.m.             Arrive at Lanier – Load up on buses

6:15 a.m.             We leave Lanier

7:00	Registration/Changes
7:30	Extemp Draw—Prelims
8:00-9:00	Section A Prelims
9:15-10:15	Section B Prelims
10:30-11:45	Section C Prelims
12:00-1:00	Section D Prelims Lincoln-Douglas Debate Octofinals Public Forum Debate Quarterfinals
1:00	Extemp Draw—Semifinals
1:30-3:00	Section A/B Semifinals
3:00-4:30	Section C/D Semifinals Lincoln-Douglas Debate Quarterfinals (3:00-3:45) Public Forum Debate Semifinals (3:45-4:30)
4:30	Extemp Draw—Finals
5:00-6:30	Section A/B Finals
6:30-8:00	Section C/D Finals Lincoln-Douglas Debate Semifinals (6:30-7:15) Public Forum Debate Final (7:15-8:00) Lincoln-Douglas Debate Final (ASAP)
9:00	Awards Ceremony (will be sooner if possible)

10:00 p.m.             We return to Lanier

Hastings Results

Hastings, Feb. 2, 2013

2nd Place Sweepstakes

	Public Forum Debate		Humorous
1st	Olivia Cardenas & Erin Sheena	1st	Jeong Woo Han
2nd	Robert Brown & Kyle Derden	2nd	Nikki Goldin
Semis	Alex Hoyal & Vishnu Narayana	5th	Armon Tabibzadegan
Semis	Joseph Dowdall & Sam Frank
Quarters	Jeong Woo Han & Bowen Song
Quarters	Viviana Collymore & Sophie Dunn		Senior Poetry
Quarters	Travis Craig & Jackson Hanna	1st	Maddie Muehlherr
Quarters	John Dagley & Tommy Hayes	5th	Dikla Taylor
		6th	Natalie Festa
	Lincoln-Douglas
Octos	Zuhayr Ali		Oratory
Octos	Justus Miles	1st	Lekha Sunder
		2nd	Jeong Woo Han
	Congressional Debate	3rd	Mina Nam
1st	Lekha Sunder	4th	Vega Shah
2nd	Marcos Coronado	5th	Jeong Hyun Han
3rd	Miguel Covarrubias	6th	Armon Tabibzadegan
4th	Andrew Hollenberg
5th	Armon Tabibzadegan		Junior Prose
6th	Curtis Yao	6th	Maddie Fertak
7th	Edgar Brutian
8th	Joseph Donowho		Junior Poetry
		3rd	Rob Laucius
	Impromptu Speaking	4th	Thalia Rigney
1st	Lekha Sunder	5th	Annika Bohmann
2nd	Sam Frank	6th	Bridgette Ramirez
4th	Olivia Cardenas
5th	Maddie Spence		Senior Prose
		1st	Maddie Muehlherr
		2nd	Elise Lanier
	Extemp	3rd	Gabby Keene
1st	Erin Sheena	4th	Ally Sun
2nd	Bowen Song	6th	Ruth Ling
3rd	Vishnu Narayana
4th	Tommy Hayes
5th	Megan Dickson
	Maddie Spence Solo Pantomime 6th Stephanie Oyolu Religious Text 2nd Stephanie Oyolu Duet Improv 1st Adele Lauzon & Rhiannon Morris Senior Duet Acting 1st Nicholas Abrama & Nathan Dunbar 2nd Megan Dickson & Julia Dietrich 3rd Sophie Cardenas & Adele Lauzon 4th Maya Waterland & Amy Yao Dramatic 3rd Amy Yao 4th Ali Potthast 5th Ally Sun Storytelling 1st Ally Sun 3rd Sophie Cardenas 5th Nikki Goldin 6th Alisa Lu 7th Martina Khurana Vocal Solo 3rd Rhiannon Morris Dance 2nd Stephanie Oyolu  3rd Samantha Su Group Lip-Sync 5th Goldin/Lu/Tin-U/DelVecchio/Shah