20th anniversary special edition

I'm a big believer in being involved in the community. I don't really care what it is. Just do something. Out There. With people you wouldn't normally see.

For me, it's working with high school kids. I like teenagers. They're old enough to take care of themselves and young enough not to know what they're not supposed to be able to do.

Let me clarify. I like other people's teenagers. They're coachable and talented and energetic.

In small doses, and then I go home. Without them.

Maybe I'll see you around next year, when the Clayton Fall Classic speech and debate tournament turns old enough to drink.

You know, the coffee and coke necessary to hang out with teenagers. At 8:00 am. On a Saturday.

Speaking of anniversaries, blogger says this is my 500th post. I don't know if that's a lot or a little? It's at least a big fat round number. Maybe it's the public service announcement tax. Every 500 posts, plug helping the kiddies! Being involved with kids is much better than moaning about kids these days trampling your lawn in their unkempt suits and ties and heels. I mean, what's the world coming to? They have girl debaters. And racial minorities. And children of immigrants.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........be very afraid............of something...........that's just so inferior about kids now..........that totally wasn't the case when you were growing up.........

the iphone is no longer new

Sad news to report. I'm sitting here in between rounds at MSHSAA districts checking on the game time for the Big 12 championship (Seriously, did KU, OU, and TX all lose??) I notice something catch the light, just below the screen. I try to wipe it away.

No luck.

Now I scrape a bit, trying to get it off.

Still no luck.

I'm afraid, as of 11:41 am CST, my iPhone is no longer new. There's a hairline fracture about 1.5 millimeters long parallel to the screen just to the left of the home button. If I were a betting man, I'd bet Apple doesn't replace 17 month old equipment for cosmetic reasons. It's a darn shame.

Ooh, but the pizza arrived. All is not lost.

nfl policy debate judge 04j142

Hi! Sorry, I've been overseas traveling, and my judging philosophy didn't get in the Judge Paradigm Book.

Judge 04J142 National Forensic League NFL Nationals 2008 Desert Lights Henderson Las Vegas Nevada Foothill High School FHS judging book paradigm book policy debate cross-examination debate team debate judge code judging code judging philosophy judging paradigm list of judges.

Here's the data in the form it's listed in the Judge Paradigm Book:

04J142 Nathaniel Dempsey Clayton High School MO Yes, No, No, Yes, No, Yes, 7 years, 21-30 rounds, TR, 4, NP, 7, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3, 3.

For Question 1B, I actually did do a tiny bit of policy debate in college (and I did a fair amount of parliamentary debate) but not enough that someone who was on the circuit regularly would consider me to have been an NDT or CEDA debater, so for the purposes of telling you about my experience, the technical answer is I didn't do much CEDA/NDT debate in college.

For Question 3, after TR, I would rank PM, SI, SS, GP, and finally HT.

For Questions 7 through 12, I made notes off to the side:
7) That doesn't necessarily mean I like T debate.
8) If they're actually competitive (CPs)
9) Make sure they link (generic positions)
10) Unless you're talking about things like CPs (conditional positions)
11) Just not too much--I want to see things get done (theory)
12) I don't really like Ks, but if you run it well and give me a clear way to evaluate it, do what you think is best for your strategy (critiques)

[Edit] removed cross-links to other web sites.

vegas, er, henderson

This weekend has been very exciting! NFL districts are the culmination of the year's worth of competition for speech and debate. That's the National Forensic League, by the way, not the National Football League, nor CSI type work. [No offense MSHSAA, but frankly, at least in the Northwest district, you absolutely blow.] It's the kind of weekend where I sleep little (never a preference of mine!) and make notes of lots of comments worth blogging about but then forget or lose motivation by the time I have time to do so.

This year was extra exciting because one of the debate teams at Clayton had a good chance to go to the national tournament, being held this year in Henderson, NV. Don't worry, it's nowhere near Las Vegas...

Well not only did Michal and Ka end up qualifying to nats, they were District champs! Woohoo. There is lots of value in debating. But at the end of the day, the point is to win! Now we've got three months to get them ready to compete at a national level. And I've got to convince my work to let me take another week off in June. This is where it starts getting to the limit of my personal experience. I know what it takes to compete at a national level, but I'm not so familiar with actually winning deep into the tournament. What I do know is that you have to take advantage of the opportunities you get, which is pretty much one of those cheesy life lessons you really do learn doing debate.

And while I'm at it, I just have to say my bluejays kicked some mighty fine Heart of America butt.

back to school

When you spend all weekend back in high school, you see and hear some interesting things. Particularly when most of that time is spent with high school kids saying things at you.

My favorite Freudian slip? President Cheney. Oops.

But there were lots of good ones.

One puffer thought that the con's statistical evidence was seriously screwed. Repeatedly so, in fact.

An orator seemed to go out of his way to emphasize he was only opposed to illegal immigration, then left an awkward sentence hanging with immigrants notably lacking a preface of illegal. Also, among other things, we need to stop border smuggling of drugs before they get out of hand. Before? High schools are shopping malls. Then the next speaker mentioned how Ritalin could be considered kiddie cocaine so many kids abuse it. Considered? It's only a schedule II drug just like meth and cocaine and amphetamines.

An extemper was talking about how peace in the Middle East means the US needs to protect Israel better. After all, it's where the civilized nations, er, cities, are.

And one guy tried to convince me that Hugo Chavez is so dangerous that his influence is unstoppable in creating some kind of evil anti-capitalist socialism. He has so much influence he can make a PhD in economics do it [whatever exactly this horrible it is]. I mean, the US is such a great example of free trade in South America, from the DEA's coca eradication efforts to such open borders with Cuba.

And then there were the debate rounds. Ah, good times. Did you know that 277% of housing foreclosures are due to bankruptcy? Or that a war with North Korea is imminent unless we expand the army...7 years ago?

But perhaps those lovely posters teachers love to plaster all over the walls take the cake. I share two. On one, a very comfortable Garfield lies down, thinking in thoughtbubbleland that to make your dreams come true, you have to stay awake. Right. My dream after setting an alarm for 5:45am was precisely to not be awake. And 30 years from now, it won't matter what jeans you wore or what hairstyle you had...it's what you learned and how you used it. Uh huh, let's see, you didn't graduate from high school, but you say you learned a lot. Welcome aboard Johnson!

westcountyness

So I did the drive Interstate 64 as fast westward as possible today. It's so almost comfortable yet so not what I really want. It just feels a little dirty hightailing it out of the city as fast as possible after work.

But, it was for a good cause today. Districts have started! Debate tonight, IEs in the morning, then more debate, then some IEs, then back on Saturday.

Oh, and I made some good time, too. 19 minutes from my work parking lot to 141 and Clayton Rd. Take that you regular Ballwin/Chesterfield/Des Peres types.


Also, exciting basketball news. Liberty boys and girls are both headed to Warrensburg. I decided this was postworthy when I noticed that opposite them in the bracket is a certain McCluer North High School. I was already planning on being in Columbia next weekend anyway with my Clayton kiddies. How fabulous would that be?

Seriously, how fabulous?

sotu partay

So I come home and my roommates aren't watching. Apparently, they are concerned about becoming angry :)

First, a couple random things. In addition to needing to go to the dentist, doctor, and auto shop, I need to see an eye doctor too. My vision is changing in the wrong direction. Grrr.

But there's good news, too. We got to help Jodi make her first snowman! Good times. The big, fat flakes that are perfect for tightly packed snowmen. And snowballs. Also, two of my Clayton kiddies took first place at GSL! Take that all you other StL debaters.

So, is it just me, or did this sound like the same old thing? I know I missed the very first part, but I didn't hear anything really at all. I'm just rather apathetic right now. One thing I will add, though, is that Pelosi needs to just lean over and take a nap. The blinking was out of control.

One thing I would clarify is that Bush's claim that the country was unified going into Iraq in 2003 is pretty funny. You don't hard sell like the Administration did if you think everybody supports you. But really aside from that, I kind of felt sorry for him. What boring, redundant blathering. I know the Fox commentators are using adjectives like bold right now, but I think they're saying that because it's really anything but...

And the contrast with Webb, wow. It even makes the Fox guy remark he was strong. Webb was serious, direct, forceful. Goodness, maybe this Congress really will be different.

hanging by a moment

Having reached my 7th year more or less in St. Louis, an event has occurred (a Special Report at CNN) which causes me to reflect upon a rather memorable event from one of my first visits to St. Louis. Now, it is related with Iraq and Saddam Hussein and the Bush family and so forth, but this isn't a post on our current Iraq policy. That can be summed up pretty simply by stating it's an unmitigated disaster whose perpetrators should be impeached and investigated for violating several criminal statutes.

No, the hanging of Saddam Hussein actually brings back a rather fun, almost jovial feeling of a long-lasting discussion that my old debate partner and I started on a trip to St. Louis in high school the first time we qualified to nationals.

You see, Brian made some offhand claim about how Bush won the Gulf War, and me, largely just being smart, said not so fast, he really didn't win anything. We having nothing but a car ride ahead of us (like my school would fly us anywhere we could drive to), and Brian having already read the Cosmo quizzes from Mrs. Hale's magazines, fleshed this out a bit over the next hour or so, and as is the tendency, one starts to grow an affection for the merits of a position sustained for so long.

On the surface obviously, Saddam lost. His military was destroyed, sovereignty overran by years of US fighter jet sorties, and crippling sanctions enacted (well, crippling for poor Iraqis, at least). But scratch that surface, and look what happened. Bush lost the presidency. A generation of operatives ready for complete conservative dominance of governance was swept aside. Meanwhile, Hussein, while having lost offensive military capabilities, gained other forms of respect and power in the Arab world. His became the country that suffered at the hands of US-led sanctions. He became an important wedge between countries that wanted trade, like France and Russia, and those that wanted regime change, like the United States. And, absent massive disenfranchisement of huge numbers of black people, very shady post-election maneuvering in a state controlled by a Bush, and a remarkable, coincidental party-line vote, he would have seen the thwarting of the next generation of Bushies.

With another Bush in the White House, and lots of Reagan/Bush personnel in key positions, Saddam was due for another obvious setback. It's hard to argue that being executed is kind of the ultimate loss. And yet, scratch that surface, and Bush managed to end Hussein in a way that just about elevated his legacy as high as possible considering that he was, in fact, a hated dictator and perpetrator of war crimes. My goodness, Saddam is going to be remembered not for looking hollow and defeated in a legitimate court of law for his most serious crimes against humanity, but rather for valiantly fighting for his country against a hated invasion force. He wasn't kept from a trial because he got old and decrepit and developed serious health problems. He was denied justice under the law in a state able to not only claim injustices against him but even press his case in the very moments before his execution. And of course, it's all caught on camera. The grainy, cell-phone variety that adds that bit of legitimacy you just don't get on the fancy expensive equipment.

Meanwhile, he has ensured that the Bush legacy, at best, will be a remarkable combination of hubris and ignorance, and more likely, one of the worst presidencies in the history of the republic. He quite possibly has prevented Jeb from getting a nomination any time soon, if ever. Even if the opinion doesn't gain widespread adoption, certainly a significant minority of Americans will view the Bush/Cheney Administration as the greatest traitors to the Constitution and war criminals in recent US history, perhaps ever. Conservative governance has been completely discredited, to the point that even massive vote tampering, fraud, and shady tactics couldn't stop a landslide Democratic victory in 2006. In the Arab world, meanwhile (and much of Europe and Asia, for that matter), Saddam Hussein has managed to make himself look like the victim here. He will be martyred and glorified by a not insignificant number of Arabs. How does a man responsible for tremendous human rights abuses and (at least) two strategically challenged military engagements pull that off, particularly when he was so close with the Reagan/Bush "infidels" in the first place?

Just throw in a little Bush. The family helped create an evil dictator (or two or three). And then they replaced him with a hero. Bravo, our fearless replace-the-Kennedys family. Bravo.

And Brian, you still think Bush won the Gulf War?