Archive for April, 2009
Running Pre-Briefed Positions
During the last few NFA-LD tournaments of the year I heard a lot of complaints by coaches and judges that “everyone is running camp evidence” and hardly anyone is doing “original research.” If this is true, than one of the main tenants of NFA-LD is being lost – namely, the research and briefing of [...]
2009 NFA-LD Cooperative
Last year, the Lafayette College Debate Camp was a huge success! I know that many of you made good use of the evidence produced by the camp. The camp is returning this year, but in a slightly modified form. The camp will be hosted by Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio. Because [...]
NFA Results
Congratulations to all the debaters on a successful NFA National Championship tournament. Schools that regularly compete in Southern California had 8 entries in NFA-LD with a combined record of 23-25 and brought back 3 awards including two double octofinalist and one quarterfinalist award.
Hopefully next year we will have even more teams go and bring [...]
NFA-LD Policy Book published!
It is with great pleasure that I announce the publication of Up For Debate: U.S. Foreign Policy Options Towards the Greater Horn of Africa. This new book features eight chapters written by nine students from across the country who participated in NFA-LD debate during the 2007 academic year who transformed their cases into well [...]
2009-2010 possible resolutions
The topic area for next year will be transportation and here are the five possible topics – the official resolution will be announced August 1st but there will be plenty of background reading to start out with! Here are some of my quick thoughts…
______ A. RESOLVED: That the USFG should substantially reform domestic transportation [...]
Lawmakers meet with Castro
Interesting developments today – thankfully there are not many more debate rounds left on this topic or else most affirmative cases are slowly disappearing! Thankfully the resolution is framed in such a way that we can also “increase constructive engagement” even if we are increasing constructive engagement everyday in the status quo.
Today is [...]
Answering relations disadvantages…
A good generic position in policy debate is often the relations disadvantage. The basic thesis is that your affirmative plan will make people mad in the world. This year many people are running a Venezuela disadvantage that goes along the lines of:
1) Venezuela is powerful in Cuba
2) Your plan makes US powerful in [...]
Recent articles
For all those debaters going to Phi Rho Pi or NFA I would implore you to update your files before the tournament. I would be shocked if anyone could be successful with most evidence from before 2009 – so much has changed!
If you are debating and anyone reads evidence with a 2008 or [...]
