Extemp Questions June 2016

June

• Should the summer Olympics in Brazil be moved or postponed?
• What can the international community do to grow the middle class in sub-Saharan Africa?
• What will the Trans-Pacific Partnership mean for President Obama’s legacy?
• What should reasonable campaign finance reform look like for the US?
• What would it take for Congress to pass universal background check legislation on gun sales?
• Will local and state legislation prompt new federal laws on background checks for gun sales?
• Will Hillary Clinton’s State Department emails be an unbearable weight for her Presidential campaign?
• What does the upcoming Brexit vote mean for the European economy?
• Should the US government do more to provide humanitarian aid to Syrian civilians?
• Will this year’s Presidential election drive a surge in third-party voters?
• What strategy will the Trump campaign adopt towards Latino voters?
• Should the international community do more to combat al-Shabab militants in Africa?
• What steps should the Bangladeshi government take to combat ongoing militant Islamic violence?
• Will Venezuela’s President Maduro be removed from power?
• What role will the Libertarian Party play in this year’s Presidential election?
• How will the high negative approval ratings for the two main party’s presumptive Presidential nominees effect down-ticket races in this year’s election?
• Is block-chain technology key to the future of banking and finance?
• Will Britain leave the EU?
• Would a Brexit put peace in Northern Ireland at risk?
• Does the UN need to be strengthened in order to adequately deal with today’s migration crises?
• Should NATO take a more active role in Syria?
• Does the economic crisis in Venezuela pose a risk to regional stability?
• Is President Assad’s departure necessary for a stable Syria?
• Should Japan take in more international asylum seekers?
• What does the resurgence of right-wing nationalism mean for the future of the EU?
• What role will the current migrant crisis play in the British EU referendum?
• Will Republicans continue to fall in line behind Trump?
• Will protests in Kenya bring about election reforms?
• Will Greek debt problems become a lasting issue for the EU?
• What does Trump and Clinton’s negative poll numbers mean for the next President’s ability to govern?
• What should Hillary Clinton do to win over Sanders’ supports for the general election?
• Should America’s two main political parties establish nationwide rules and procedures for primary elections?
• Will Zika virus fears reduce tourism to Brazil for the 2016 Olympics?
• Is the CFAA an effective tool for the US government to deal with cybercrime?
• Do federal whistleblower protections need to be expanded to accommodate modern digital communication?
• What’s next for the Sander’s campaign?
• What does Gary Johnson’s Libertarian candidacy mean for Donald Trump?
• Should the regular occurrence of mass shooting events America generate new federal gun control legislation?
• Will the killings in Orlando change the national conversation around gun control?
• What should the Japanese government do to bolster falling birth rates?
• Is the Chinese economy too heavily dependent on State-owned enterprises?
• Can the Trump campaign successfully pivot to a general election strategy?
• What does a successful fundraising strategy look like for the Trump campaign?
• Is the Trump campaign alienating the Republican Party leadership?
• Will Trumps unfavorable rating hurt Republicans in down ticket races?
• Does the migrant crisis risk unraveling the EU?
• Will the ceasefire between the Colombian government and the FARC establish long-term peace?
• What global economic repercussions will Brexit have?
• Does the British vote to leave pose an existential risk to the future of the EU?
• What will a post-Brexit UK look like politically?
• What effect will Brexit have on the US economy?
• Does Putin’s Russia pose a risk to the western Europe?
• Do western sanctions strengthen nationalist sentiment in Russia?
• What does Brexit mean for safety and security in Europe for the long term?
• Does the Brexit vote signal a surge in support for the UKIP party in the next election?
• Should America get rid of private prisons?
• What effect will an expanded Panama canal have on global trace?
• Is the Iraqi government capable of effectively dealing with Daesh?
• Should Turkey restart peace talks with the PKK?
• Is a Zika vaccine on the horizon?
• What does normalized relations with the US mean for the future of the Cuban people?
• Is the international mission for peacekeeping in Somalia on the brink of collapse?
• How will Trump’s religious convictions affect his ability to connect with Republican voters in the fall?

Extemp Questions April/May 2016

April

• What can Trump do to win a general election against Clinton or Sanders? 
• Should the international community put more pressure on the Egyptian government to release political prisoners? 
• Should the rising cost of higher education be a higher priority for Congress? 
• Will the “Panama Papers” leak incite international business and banking reforms? 
• Should US strengthen military defense ties with allies in Asia? 
• Would a Trump nomination do lasting damage to the Republican Party? 
• Is the Republican Party prepared for the reaction of his supporters if Trump is denied the nomination? 
• Should the US dedicate more resources to combating terrorist groups in Yemen? 
• What role should Israel play in combating ISIS? 
• What strategic role should Turkey play in combating ISIS? 
• Do the Kurdish forces in Iraq and Turkey pose a rise to regional stability? 
• Is the global economy’s dependence on the Internet growing faster than our ability to properly secure the Internet? 
• What chance does the US economy have of regaining its manufacturing strength? 
• Should the federal government do more to regulate the payday loan industry? 
• Will the British EU referendum cause regional economic instability? 
• Is the Russian economy set for another dramatic fall? 
• What effect should the US Presidential election have on the forthcoming “Brexit” vote in the UK? 

 May

• What has been the real effects of the Snowden leaks? 
• Will the Panama Papers leak result in any international tax reforms? 
• How much damage would a contested convention do to the Republican Party? 
• Does Donald Trump’s presumptive nomination signal a fundamental shift for the Republican Party base? 
• How much will an unconventional candidate like Trump affect voter turnout in the general election? 
• Will the Republican Party unite behind Trump? 
• Will Greece leave the EU? What should be done to grow the Greek economy? 
• Is a solution to the Greek debt problem on the horizon? Does China face a major debt crisis? 
• What steps should Congress take to provide economic relief to Puerto Rico? 
• Does “shadow banking” in China pose a serious economic risk? 
• Does modern media inadequately cover the nuance of important political issues? 
• How much will social media affect the general election? 
• Will Brazilians be able to put their trust in new government leadership? 
• Would Britain be better off leaving the EU? 
• Does the Republican Party face an uphill battle with voter demographics? 
• What is necessary for the Iraqi government to establish lasting security? 
• Are the current Syrian peace talks a waste of time? 
• Should the international community put greater pressure on the Egyptian government for the protection of journalists? 
• What should be done to abate the economic crisis in Venezuela? 
• Are Venezuelan President Maduro’s days numbered? 
• Does government corruption in Balkan nations pose a risk to regional stability?
•  Should the federal government do more to protect American cybersecurity? 
• Does Boko Haram still pose a significant threat to regional security in Africa? 
• Will civil unrest and violence in Venezuela continue to escalate? 
• Is the international community doing enough to curb the spread of the Zika virus? 
• Have the Panama Papers disclosures been helpful in rooting out government corruption? 
• In the wake of the Panama Papers, should the US reform its financial disclosure requirements? 
• Should the US push for closer economic ties with Vietnam?

Extemp Questions March 2016

• Is an end to FIFA corruption in sight? 
• How can the international community best handle the humanitarian crisis in Syria? 
• Are America’s security agencies doing enough to ensure cybersecurity? 
• What impact has Obamacare had on the US healthcare system? 
• To what extent is the Assad regime in Syria still inciting sectarian violence? 
• What can EU nations do to better manage the migrant crisis? 
• How like is a BREXIT in 2016? 
• Is the Republican party imploding? 
• How likely is a third-party candidate to split the Republican vote in the general election? 
• Is the Trump campaign redefining the Republican Party for the long term? 
• Does China face a significant risk of long term economic instability? 
• Should the Republican Party leadership have a plan to deny the candidacy to Trump? 
• Will the Senate and the President be able to find a compromise for filling the Supreme Court vacancy? 
• What long term effects will this year’s Presidential primary have on the Republican Party? 
• What does President Obama’s trip to Cuba signal for the future of the relationship between Cuba and the US? 
• Does Europe have the ability to prevent further ISIS attacks? 
• What effect will the ISIS attacks in Europe have on the US Presidential race? 
• Should US software vendors be given legal protection from having to break encrypted customer data for law enforcement agencies? 
• Is Argentina ready for closer ties with the the US and Europe? 
• What is needed to bring political stability to Brazil? 
• Can government corruption in Brazil be curbed? 
• Should the US dedicate more military resources to fighting Boko Haram? 
• Is greater cooperation among European law enforcement agencies necessary to prevent further attacks from IS militant cells?

Extemp Question Jan/Feb 2016

January/February 2016

• Will President Obama’s unilateral gun control changes result in partisan from Congress?
• What effect will Chinese economic turmoil have on developing economies globally?
• Will new leadership in the House mean bipartisan cooperation for the last year of the Obama Administration?
• What will it take to get the Democrats excited over Hillary Clinton?
• Will 2016 see a surge of nationalist movements across Europe?
• Should the UK vote for greater autonomy from the EU?
• What are US unemployment numbers saying about the health of the American economy?
• Can anyone beat out Donald Trump for the Republican nomination?
• Is the Trump campaign damaging the Republican Party?
• What steps should the Chinese government take to calm stock market volatility?
• What effect will economic instability in China have on the US economy?
• Should the federal government enact stronger whistleblower reforms?
• Is the SEC doing enough to curb financial corruption?
• Will the escalating conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia worsen sectarian violence across the region?
• Will the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran prolong the crisis in Syria?
• Should the US Dept. of Justice take more proactive measures to curb racism among America’s police?
• Is Iran a national threat to America?
• Does Afghanistan face an existential threat from ISIS?
• Does China face the real prospect of disastrous currency devaluation?
• Will the continuation of low oil prices have a chilling effect on the global economy in 2106?
• Should greater attention be given to displaced refugees who remain in Syria?
• Does continuing violence in Syria represent a failure of the international community?
• Will the lifting of sanctions against Iran keep global oil prices low?
• Will new nuclear tests force China to take a strict stance against North Korea?
• Can US security agencies find a way to make social media less effective for ISIS?
• Does the US have to lower its corporate tax rate to remain competitive globally

Extemp Questions Q4 2015

These are pretty late, but I got kind of busy in the last quarter of 2015....

October 2015

• Is there still a risk that fighting will flare back to life in the Ukraine? 
• Does the Euro still face a long term existential threat? 
• Should the US impose a No-Fly Zone over Syria? 
• Should the US stop training moderate rebels in Syria? 
• Will Russia’s involvement in Syria prolong the chaos and violence there? 
• Would a Biden run hurt Bernie Sanders more than Hillary Clinton? 
• Will disarray among House Republicans have a negative effect on the Presidential primary? 
• Will Paul Ryan’s election as House Speaker unify Congressional Republicans?
• Can Paul Ryan’s election as House Speaker bring bipartisan compromise to Congress? 
• What does the change to China’s one-child policy mean to its long-term economic growth prospects? 
• Is the removal of President Assad a prerequisite for any solution to the conflict in Syria?

November

• Is a large-scale, long-term American military presence in Syria necessary? 
• Do Russian airstrikes in Syria undermine the fight against ISIS? 
• Will internal opposition derail the peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC? 
• What does the future hold for nuclear power globally? 
• What is the future of nuclear power in America? 
• Does the election in Myanmar have a larger, regional significance? 
• What does a pro-democracy vote mean for the future of Myanmar? 
• Should the federal government do more to address the problem of homelessness? 
• Do the Paris attacks signal a resurgence in the capabilities of Al Qaeda to attack the West? 
• Is the killing of ‘Jihadi John’ mostly a public relations victory?
•  Does the ability of ISIS to attract foreign fighters make it a more significant threat than other terrorist groups? 
• Should the US treat more of the Internet as critical infrastructure for the purposes of national security? 
• Have western intelligence agencies significantly underestimated ISIS? 
• Can ISIS forces in Syria be defeated with a large influx of US troops? 
• Will the Paris attacks prompt a larger NATO military response to ISIL? 
• Have privacy advocates undermined the ability of intelligence agencies to effectively monitor terrorists’ communications? 
• Does cyber-crime pose a significant threat to economic development in Africa? 
• Does the US have sufficient security architecture in place to safely take in Syrian refugees? 
• Should the US immigration visa program have stronger security screening measures? How will the attitude of the West towards Syria change after the Paris attacks? Does the US Visa program pose a greater threat to security than accepting Syrian refugees? 

December

• Is a global carbon tax system needed to counteract climate change? 
• What effects will the Paris attacks have on the European economy? 
• Do the climate change controls emerging from Paris need stronger enforcement mechanisms? 
• Should the Muslim nations of the world do more to curb Islamic extremism? 
• Is Angela Merkel spending too much political capital on the current migration crisis? 
• Can America and France find common ground on a strategy for Syria? 
• Is sustained military action from NATO necessary to defeat ISIS in Syria? 
• Will the Kurds use the ongoing strife in Syria to try and establish an independent state? 
• Can the US and Russia cooperate in the fight against ISIS? 
• Does Vladimir Putin have a viable plan for Russia’s role in Syria? 
• What is needed to fix corruption in FIFA? 
• What does 2016 for the Spanish economy? 
• Will further arrests help restore international trust in FIFA? 
• What should South Africa do to curb its growing national debt? 
• Does the US clean power plan presented at Paris do enough to curb America’s carbon emissions? 
• Should a new international organization be formed to govern and manage on-line currencies such as bitcoin?

Debate Notes Oct 2015

As I came from a meeting this morning, this stuff was on my mind. So here’s a couple of notes on the debate topics in no particular order and somewhat stream of consciousness. While I am doing a quick proofread on this, I’m not doing any heavy editing and I’m relying on spellcheck to fix my horrible typing on this tiny keyboard. So please excuse any grammar issues and if you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

1.      PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE (BEGINNING and ADVANCED): NFL 2015 September/October PFD Topic "Resolved: The United States Federal Government ought to pay reparations to African Americans."

a.      Couple of notes on the resolution itself, while the obvious implication of the term “reparations” is some sort of monetary compensation, that’s not explicitly called for in the resolution. The definition of “reparations” that you’ll probably arrive at is to make amends for a wrong and typically this means paying money, but doesn’t necessarily have to. You could therefore argue that systems such as affirmative action in college admissions are a form of reparation. Second note, the resolution specifically states “African Americans” so the implication is that these reparations would be related to historical slavery. It also means that if you do bring up something like affirmative action, you’re dealing specifically with African Americans and not generalized affirmative action programs that could be applied to other racial, gender, sexual orientation or other minorities. By the way, if you read the resolution strictly, you might even argue that since slavery isn’t explicitly mentioned, that may not be the only reason why African Americans are owed reparations. You might, for example, argue that because of lack of consent, families of the participants in the Tuskegee study in the 1930’s are owed reparations. Or that reparations are due for the effects of segregation through the middle of the 1900’s.

b.      Neg – I’m writing the negative side of this first because, well honestly it’s probably because I’m not black and so have some innate prejudice towards the negative side in this debate, but I’m going to justify writing this first because in my outline I happened to remember an article from last year (2014) in The Atlantic. You should probably look that one up.

                                                  i.      One of the big problems with monetary reparations is the amount. Figures vary widely. From less than a billion to upwards of $10 Trillion (not a typo). I read one article about a year ago in The Atlantic that put the figure at something like $4 billion a year for a decade or two. Seriously, that was the specificity ‘a decade or two’. Unless you have a specific plan and a specific amount in mind it becomes almost impossible to discuss, let alone, debate, reparations from a monetary sense because the estimates vary so widely. What if the federal government just gave every African American $1? The other aspect that makes this difficult is to figure out who gets paid. In some more recent examples of governmental shadiness, it might be possible to identify individuals, but the US census doesn’t track family ancestry, so how could a valid claim be proven or disproven for something like slavery? And even if you could put a number on it and identify beneficiaries, how should that figure be divided justly? Should descendants of Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson get a bigger slice of pie because of a lineage that’s tied to one of the founding fathers? Should the descendants of field slaves be granted a larger portion than domestic slaves because of the type of labor? As a practical matter, monetary reparations are nearly impossible and that’s not even dealing with the political issues.

                                                ii.      In re college admissions, this is something of a good tack for the negative since you’re not bogged down with slavery and the figures are more on your side. I didn’t have the numbers in my head so a quick Google search yields this http://www.gallup.com/poll/163655/reject-considering-race-college-admissions.aspx you can probably find something a little more recent. Side note here, Skynet isn’t going to come kill us with crazy Terminator machines. It’s just going to give us bad information on Google searches. You’ll be like “how do I cook lasagna” and too late you’re going to realize that Arsenic is not an herb, but that’s what you get for blindly following Skynet’s instructions you sheep. When the calm British lady voice on your GPS tells you to turn left, you have the right, nay, the responsibility to tell her “look you crazy b***h, it’s a one way street. Stop trying to kill me.” Go figure stuff out for yourself. But I digress. The general sentiment of the argument, is that a pretty heavy majority of Americans, and nearly half of African Americans think that college admissions should be merit based, not race-based. Simply on the merits of the Federal government doing what its citizens want, we shouldn’t use race in college admissions. There’s a joke in here somewhere about Obama’s opinion not mattering because he’s not a citizen, but I’m too lazy. The flip side to that argument is that in general, Americans are in favor of Affirmative Action programs and these can be taken as a form of reparations. What I find more interesting in the article is the survey question about what role the federal government should play in improving the lives of minorities. There you see a big discrepancy between whites and, basically everybody else. Again I don’t have good numbers for these off the top of my head and relying on a single source is pretty bad, but these generally line up with what I recall from other articles. Look around some, find more recent numbers and try to find some varied sources. You should also look through what you can find on Fisher vs. University of Texas since it’s coming through the USSC this term (though after you’re done with this resolution) and lookup what you can on the 2003 ruling in Grutter vs. Bollinger.

                                              iii.      Read Richard Posner’s decision from 2005/2006 on reparations. It’s going to be incredibly boring for most of you, but I happen to be a pretty big fan of Richard Posner. Should you be so inclined, http://www.becker-posner-blog.com (It’s finished now because one of the contributors died in 2014, but the topics are well written and well argued on both sides).  If you don’t read the opinion, at least read some of the news coverage. The gist of the ruling was that there’s a big disconnect between the wrongs of slavery in the past and modern claims of economic hardship. Lookup Gen. Sherman and his “40 acres and a mule” idea and the reaction of Pres. Johnson (Andrew, not LBJ) to it. I’d also suggest Walter Williams. He’s an economist but not a particularly likeable one. If you’re familiar at all with Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner are a quirky and the economics is presented in a fun, witty way. Walter Williams is like the opposite of that. He’s got some quirky ideas that use economic ideas and modeling to draw conclusions that are kind of wacky, but they’re less funny “ha ha” and more funny “there’s a clown trying to stab you in the face”. None the less the ideas have some merit and if you can explain them in such a way as to not make yourself look like a douche, they’re pretty logical.

c.       Aff – One initial reaction of the affirmative is to latch onto the idea of reparations for slavery. As I mentioned before, that’s fairly limiting on the aff side, so I’d suggest you look at other aspects of the African American experience. Segregation through the middle of the 20’th century and current drug sentencing guidelines that disproportionately affect minorities (in particular African Americans and Hispanics) are two examples where you might argue for reparations far beyond the era of slavery. Also for subconsciously associating all African Americans with Bill Cosby.

                                                  i.      Let’s start by preempting the negative on a couple of dumb ideas. One argument you might see on the negative is that reparations for one group would eventually expand to other groups without limit. You should recognize this as a slipper-slope argument. You should also critique it as a completely douche move on the part of the person making it. Let’s say we make reparations to African Americans and then the families of Chinese railroad workers, or Native Americans who were driven off their land, or Native Hawaiians who were illegally fucking annexed or children relocated to the US because of the Vietnam War demand reparations. First, if reparations are an attempt to correct a past wrong, then the limits of what reparations can be asked for are limited by the wrongs the Federal government committed. And if you’re so inclined to think this nation so star-spangled awesome (hat tip to Aaron Sorkin) that it doesn’t do any wrong then there shouldn’t be an issue. Similarly, if you think the government shouldn’t bear any burden for mistakes made in the past, then there’s really no debate. Secondly, since when is taking more corrective action a bad thing? Establishing consequence for past wrongs leads to a more just society and one which its citizens can better trust, if only because they believe that fear of such consequence will be a deterrent for such actions in the future.

                                                ii.      Expanding more on alternative reasons why reparations might be due to African Americans, you should look at the effects of segregation through the 1950’s and 60’s. While the impacts of Brown v. Board are perhaps less directly applicable today, they show that the government has previously been willing to take corrective action where necessary to right previous injustices. Further you might argue that the effects of segregation and Jim Crow laws can still be felt today and even current issues like voter ID laws, are simply modern equivalents of laws designed, if in effect if not intent, to negatively impact African Americans disproportionately. Unlike with slavery, things like segregation are modern enough that we could reasonably identify and compensate the actual people who were affected (or very close descendants). This makes it perhaps more reasonable to consider reparations for these actions.

                                              iii.      Specifically with regards to reparations for slavery, look up Randall Robinson, Rev. MJ Divine, and Henry Louis Gates. Those are a decent starting point that should lead you to others. On a related but tangential note, technically if you’re arguing about reparations for slavery, there was a good long period there where what is now America was still a British colony so you probably want to hit up the British as well. I’d also suggest you look up Eric Posner, I think University of Chicago, but could be wrong. I recall he had a pretty good essay. I remember doing a Lexis-Nexus search generically for Posner trying to get Richard Posner and was like 5 pages into Erics before I realized I had the wrong Posner. So look him up, it was pretty good.

                                               iv.      Google pointed me to this, which was something I wasn’t aware of but seemed kind of interesting http://conyers.house.gov/index.cfm/reparations

                                                 v.      And since I had to search for numbers anyway, here’s the Atlantic article I mentioned earlier: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/ There was a response to the article, taking the opposite view in the same issue so unless you have stored somewhere copies of the Atlantic from a year ago, I leave you to go find that article on your own internet connection.

2.      LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE (NOVICE and CHAMPIONSHIP): NFL 2015 September/October LD Topic— “Resolved: Adolescents ought to have the right to make autonomous medical choices."

a.      No. Of course not. How dumb are you to even ask? Most people aren’t qualified to make their own medical decisions, let alone adolescents. I know 50 year olds who couldn’t tell a migraine from an ulcer. I grant you that people are getting advice from doctors and nurses but that doesn’t mean they’re in any way mentally competent to make medical decisions. 77% of Americans believe in angels. That’s not an age thing. 77% believe in angels and you want to leave medical decisions to the dumber, younger portion of these people? If I could, I’d leave their medical decisions to a robot, you wouldn’t have nearly the shortage of viable organs for life-saving transplants and you’d have a lot more test subjects for experimental new anti-biotics. In your lifetime, unless we find a decent way to combat the antibiotic resistant strains of infectious bacteria, you will see fatalities due to infection skyrocket to levels unseen since the development of Penicillin. Basic surgery like a root canal could be fatal. I don’t trust people to make medical decisions because they’re stupid. Add on the stupid from being a kid and the stupid increases exponentially. I make two exceptions for this: If you’re a minor emancipated from your parents, fine, make your own medical decisions. Two: Doogie Howser. Everybody else, sit down, shut up and do what the doctor and your parents tell you.

b.      Okay, so realistically, this is a bit more nuanced. I am however going to throw you a few hypotheticals. There’s a 15 year old kid diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Not immediately fatal, but incurable and degenerative. She’s got, let’s say 10 good years. Doctors tell her that might extend to 15 or so years if she lives on a strict diet and treatment regimen but that’s basically taking your 20’s and saying “do I want to drink this shot or do I want to do three hours of physical therapy?” In this scenario, the parents want more time, the patient wants to do something other than PT followed by an algae shake and a sensible dinner. The debate then becomes a quality of life vs sanctity of life argument but one in which you’re asking who should have the right to make such a decision? Is it the actual patient or the caregivers? Does the fact that the patient is a few years from legal adulthood in any way diminish her ability to make a reasonable and sound decision?

c.       Scenario number two. Child of 16 has leukemia. Treatable but not necessarily curable. Parents want to try an experimental drug with unknown side effects. Not knowing whether it will work or what long-term side effects it might have. The doctor recommends and the child wants to opt for more traditional induction therapy (e.g. chemo). While the experimental drugs may be just as or more successful as standard treatments with significantly shorter hospitalization and fewer side effects, they are experimental. The parents believe they are acting in the best interest of the child by minimizing the effects of the therapy, but should they be allowed to contravene the recommendations of the doctor and decision of a child who makes an informed decision in opting for a known treatment instead of an experimental one?

d.      Third, and this one just because Planned Parenthood has been in the news: 15 year old girl is pregnant, should she need parental consent before having an abortion? What if it was the result of a sexual assault? What if it was the result of sexual assault by a family member? What if it was the result of a sexual assault by a parent? Admittedly this one is probably not something I’d want to run as an example in an actual round but it makes for a fun hypothetical. I mean fun in the same way that repeatedly punching a kitten is fun.

e.      Last example for now. A well intentioned couple who are members of the Christian Science faith adopt a 12 year old boy who was orphaned but raised in an agnostic home. The child gets sick and wants to seek medical treatment but the adoptive parents’ religion forbids this. Should the child have the right to override the parents? Note that in most of these examples I’m pitting the child against the parents rather than the doctor but from a value debate standpoint it may not make much of a difference. You may not even have to deal in life an death. With the abortion example, the hypothetical could be phrased as “parental notification” instead of “parental consent”, though that’s slightly less of a direct clash.

f.        The one thing that I want to strongly reinforce here, be consistent and very clear on showing actual conflict in the debate. It can be easy to draw these to extremes where there is no real conflict. Should a 4 year old with a heart defect decide whether or not to get a blood draw for a test? No and it’s ridiculous to ask. Should a 14 year old drug overdose decide whether or not to get treatment? Probably not. There needs to be some conflict in the debate so be sure you’re value clash is clear.

3.      POLICY DEBATE (JUNIOR VARSITY and VARSITY): NSDA 2015-2016 Topic—“Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance."

a.      US Domestic surveillance programs

                                                  i.      There’s really only a few federal government agencies involved in domestic surveillance, the FBI and the NSA primarily. Other groups like the CIA have surveillance programs but those are supposed to be focused on foreign targets and other domestic law enforcement agencies like the DEA have tools they can focus on domestic targets but not really large scale programs. That said the resolution doesn’t specifically limit to government programs. You might for example, consider mobile phone tracking by service providers like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint or online tracking by advertising companies such as Google. Both of those could be considered as surveillance programs and could be curtailed by law, executive order or some other policy. You’ll probably face more topicality attacks by running a case on something commercial rather than governmental, but there are some interesting case areas.

                                                ii.      Second, make sure you have cards regarding the Senate’s failure to extend provisions of the Patriot Act for NSA bulk data collection programs in May / June of 2015. You’ll probably see one or two aff cases early in the year that are rushed and this is a way to make quick work of those. NSA programs have been officially stripped back already but these changes could also be seen as simply “reforms” to the programs rather than curtailing them, so you have to work a little harder than that on the aff. Start here: https://nsa.gov1.info/surveillance/ since the NSA publishes this stuff, its good background.

                                              iii.      On the flip side of things, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has a lot of good information on NSA programs, they even put it into a nice timeline https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying/timeline Incidentally, if you should ever have to build cases on intellectual property (e.g. patents, copyrights) the EFF has a ton of good stuff for that as well. The history of the EFF is kind of amusing, staring from the WELL in the late 80’s early 90’s when you could still pop an MF trunk on a payphone with a tone generator. As I digress into nostalgia for technology that doesn’t exist anymore, the point is that the EFF is a good central starting point for you on the affirmative side.

                                               iv.      Read Bruce Schneier. He’s a pretty smart guy. Just don’t get thrown by the squids https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/10/friday_squid_bl_496.html Schneier is largely focused on security, though the discussion extends to surveillance and privacy issues it’s generally shaped around what should be the proper context for security – risk management.

                                                 v.      Ostensibly the intent of these government surveillance programs is security. In the case of the federal government, we assume national security. It’s possible, probable even, that you’ll see arguments about surveillance for other law enforcement reasons – immigration enforcement, drug interdiction, human trafficking, stuff like that, but the main crux is going to come down to security. Should you see things slipping into the realm of law enforcement rather than security, you should immediately swing towards the idea of efficacy. Large-scale domestic surveillance programs almost always have a “big data” approach that’s designed to find needles in haystacks. They can help you find interesting connections and point out targets for specific and more thorough investigation but they rarely give you any kind of actionable evidence that might be used in criminal or civil lawsuits, which is the point of law enforcement. Tools like PRISM are more like Person of Interest than Law and Order or CSI. On the negative side of this resolution, it’s an interesting angle to take to talk about the potential law enforcement benefits but you have to be careful about how those arguments are structured. It’s true that FBI wiretaps can collect lots of information necessary for law enforcement agencies and even for trial, but those tools are usually applied in specific instances rather than the large-scale “domestic surveillance” programs.  While it could be argued that the tools and application of them are topical, you’ll have a harder time proving significance / harms when dealing specifically with tools rather than with the more far-reaching programs like PRISM. You might identify a target with PRISM but you rarely gain sufficient trial evidence from PRISM alone.

Okay, I’ve been going at this for a couple of hours now. I’m ending here, at some point when I get motivated I’ll add more.

[edited: 5 Oct. 2015] - PDF version here (Google Drive)

Extemp Questions Sept. 2015

September 2015

• Should the US do more to help refugees and immigrants fleeing from the Middle East?
• Does the political clout of the NRA prevent necessary gun control legislation?
• Does America have an effective strategy for combatting ISIS?
• Is politics exacerbating the water shortages in the Southwest?
• Will new elections help stamp out government corruption in Guatemala?
• How should Europe handle the current immigration crisis?
• Does the rise of immigration to Europe risk strengthening nationalist movements in EU nations?
• How will a slowdown in China’s economy affect the US?
• Does the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner mean a government shutdown won’t happen?
• Does John Boehner’s resignation indicate the Republican Party leadership is moving further to the right?
• Should the US push for an international coalition to fight IS militants?
• Can America best help the European migrant crisis by putting more effort into the fight against ISIS?
• How much is US policy in Syria to blame for the migrant crisis in Europe?
• Does the immigration crisis pose a risk to the German economy?
• Should the US armed forces reevaluate the assignment of women in front line combat roles?
• Is the Taliban still a major threat to Afghan stability?
• Can economic sanctions work to cut off funding for ISIS?
• What more should the US be doing to combat human trafficking globally?
• Should the federal government limit the non-medicinal use of antibiotics?
• Does the buildup of Chinese military bases in the South China Sea pose a threat to regional security?