Author Archives
Drew McCormick wins VBT 2012
Strake Jesuit’s Drew McCormick defeated Aliso Niguel’s Regan Grishaber on a 2-1 decision. The panel for the final round was John Scoggin, Becca Traber and Adam Torson. Scoggin dissented.
More results after the jump.
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The View from Tab 50 is Released
Jim Menick, Jon Cruz and your’s truly sit down to discuss the Jan/Feb domestic violence topic controversy as well as the divide between the “clash of civilizations” in Lincoln-Douglas debate. Should LD become two different activities?
Northwest Round Robin Field Report
From Jeff Gans, Director of the Northwest Round Robin:
I’m pleased to announce the field for the fourth Northwest Round Robin, which will be held this Sunday at Eastside Catholic. The NWRR aims to bring together the best debaters and judges in the region for a relaxing, fun, and challenging event that offers lots of practice and feedback.
LD features two judges per round voting independently with extensive oral critiques every round and a midday workshop on Theory in LD. There are six rounds breaking to finals.
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE
Bainbridge High School (WA) — Alex Teiche
Bainbridge High School (WA) — Haley Brandt-Erichsen
Eastside Catholic High School (WA) — Derek Holliday
Gig Harbor High School (WA) — Austin Ballard
Harvard-Westlake (CA) – Adam Bennett
Harvard-Westlake (CA) – Aneri Amin
Tahoma High School (WA) — Connor Durkin
Wenatchee High School (WA) — Colton SmithCongress features a three-hour preliminary session and a three-hour “Scenario” session. This year’s scenario will concern Israeli/Irani relations.
CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE
Eastside Catholic High School – John Holt
Eastside Catholic High School – Kyle Hendrix
Glacier Peak High School (WA) – Dan Miller
Kamiak High School (WA) – Aiden Skogheim
Newport High School (WA) – Frankie Orrico
Newport High School (WA) – John Adler
Ridgefield High School (WA) – Tyler Bieber
Thomas Jefferson High School (WA) – Ed Choi
Thomas Jefferson High School (WA) – Jina YiCongratulations to all the NWRR participants!
The Boundaries of Justice
The overarching concern in the idea of justice is the need to have just relations with others—and even to have appropriate sentiments about others; and what motivates the search is the diagnosis of injustice in ongoing arrangements. In some cases, this might demand the need to change an existing boundary of sovereignty—a concern that motivated Hume’s staunchly anti-colonial position. (He once remarked, “Oh! How I long to see America and the East Indies revolted totally & finally.”) Or it might relate to the Humean recognition that as we expand trade and other relations with foreign countries, our sentiments as well as our reasoning have to take note of the recognition that “the boundaries of justice still grow larger,” without the necessity to place all the people involved in our conception of justice within the confines of one sovereign state.
Amartya Sen, in The National Review, “The Boundaries of Justice.”
Paradigms and Principles: A Round-Up
Adam Torson posted a number of articles discussing different aspects of judging paradigms with the purpose of coming up with some norms in LD judging. For those who may have missed, here is a round-up of all of them:
Withholding Advice
… Is it appropriate for a judge to withhold advice in post-round critiques so that weaknesses in a debater’s case position or strategy can later be exploited by the judge’s own students …
Ballot Writing
… Should judges write comments and/or a reason for decision on the ballot? …
Miscut Evidence
… What should judges do when debaters use miscut evidence? …
Must Arguments be on the Flow
… Should judges require that an argument be noted on the flow in order to vote on it?…
2AR Theory
… How should judges evaluate new theory in the 2AR?…
CLEAR!
… A. Should judges yell “clear” when debaters are speaking unclearly?
B. If so, under what circumstances is it appropriate to yell clear?…
Paradigms
… A. Should a judge’s declared paradigm be subject to in-round argumentation?…