I almost forgot to post my topic proposal.

Should marriage between same sex be legalized in all U.S. states?

1. Legal marriage should limited to union between a man and a woman.
2. Marriage should be legal between any two people.
3. Marriage should be legal only between a man and a woman, but civil union between same sex should allowed.
4. Marriage protection amendments should be passed in all states to prohibit same sex marriage.

I guess I'm a little late with posting my topic, I forgot that we had to. "Should NCAA football establish a playoff system?" There seem to be 3 identifiable positions: abolish the bowls and go to a 16 team playoff system, have a 4 team playoff system but retain the other bowls, or just keep the bowl system the way it is.

I am planning on doing mine on one of two things:
Assisted Suicide
This one's pretty self-explanatory. It actually follows many of the same lines of logic and reason as abortion.
or
The importance and validity of grades
This topic is a little more original, but also I haven't found all that much information on it. Either way, some people argue that grades really aren't that important. There are questions of what a grade actually says about a student. For example, is it a measure of individual progress or overall mastery, or mastery relative to other students? It's interesting, but might be difficult to find mucho info on.

Im still undecided about what i want to write about but I thinking about the environment maybe issues with Global Warming!

I'd like to write about the debate over the influence of the Israeli Lobby in US policy. The positions would probably be that they have too much influence, that their level of influence is perfectly reasonable, and then in between those two poles there are probably arguments criticizing particular aspects without arguing against the whole.

Ajai Raj

Should clothes be made from animal fur?

Should the fashion industry promote a healthier-sized body image?

More to come, I'm not so enthused with these.

Idea the first:
Wikipedia - The main argument comes from whether or not this is a good source of information. There are many aspects to both sides. Some argue simply that the information is unreliable, often wrong. Others argue that it is too simple, biased, or incomplete to be respected. On the other side of the argument, many think that it is revolutionary and empowering, arguing that a public-edited encyclopedia is not so much at risk for vandalism and poor information, but instead is always improvable and improving. One major example always given is an anecdote about a boy in the 50's who finds an error in his brand new Encyclopedia Britannica set, writes the editors, and is assured in a response letter that they will correct the error in the next edition, due out in 10 years. With Wikipedia, instead of 10 years to fix an error, it takes 10 seconds.

idea two:

MP3s, filesharing, and copyright infringement - Is it stealing? Should it be illegal? Who should be prosecuted, if anyone? Are the artists losing money or just the record company? Is it right to slow down technology so that a corporation can profit from an older system? Is it right for people to just take music that cost money and passion rather than pay for it? Should music be free? Can music be free?

In no particular order of importance or preference:

Grandparents and the Elderly:

1. Duty to contact vs. access to gifts;
2. Wisdom and time-honored insight vs. long, windy stories;
3. Remembrance of baseball game/trip to zoo vs. unsettling, vaguely hospital-like odor;
4. Love vs. that crushing sense of one's own mortality.

Illegal Immigration from Mexico:

1. National sovereignty vs. universal desire for better life;
2. Impact on funding/provisioning of U.S. social programs (education, healthcare, etc.);
3. Economic costs/benefits re wages, business competitiveness;
4. Issues of national identity/common values (language, theories of business and law, etc.).

Tort Reform:

1. Economic costs/benefits re domestic business, healthcare;
2. Economic cost/benefits re global competitiveness;
3. Impact on availability/absence of goods/services;
4. Impact on availability to recourse.

Executive Compensation:

1. Excessiveness/reasonableness;
2. Market driven or privileged status;
3. Correlation/disconnect between compensation and performance;
4. Effects/lack thereof on social contract.

The Corporation as a Legal Entity:

1. Economic cost/benefit of corporation vs. other business models;
2. Correlation/disconnect between model and social/environmental consequences;
3. Positive/negative impacts on recourse availability;
4. Maximization of shareholder value vs. legal/ethical/moral responsibility of employees.

I think a good debate topic would be what to do about the war in Iraq. Also we could discuss time frames of bringing home or adding troops.

1. We should leave all the troops there.
2. We should bring home some troops.
3. We should add more troops to secure the region.
4. We should bring all the troops home.

Is it harmful to the American Economy to sell foreighn appliances.

1. It is harmful to the economy.
2. It is not harmful to the economy.
3. It is ok, but foreign appliances should be heavily taxed.

We could also discuss policy issues on the last topic.

Paul Montoya

I was considering debating the appropriateness of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

I really don't have any idea but maybe issues/benefits of reycling. I saw an article about growth being stunted, and if its a just cause for the person involved. Not sure yet.

Anadeli De Jesus

I'm thinking about looking at the issues people are having with online college gossip sites. Some people hate them and want them abolished, some people think they breed creativity, and some think they should be monitored for content and censored. There is a big debate on the first ammendment and its role in the debate.

I am thinking about addressing the legalization of marijuana. It seems there are various positions that can be argued.

1 Marijuana should be completely illegal.
2 Marijuana should be completely legal.
3 Marijuana should be allowed for medicinal use.
4 Marijuana legalization should be decided on a state-by-state basis (though this may be more of a Constitutional issue about who decides if it should be legal rather than whether it should be legal).
5 Marijuana should be decriminalized but not legalized.
6 Marijuana should be legal to grow and use for yourself but not legal to sell to others.

I am also thinking about the issue of reforming the electoral college.

1 The electoral college is fine as is.
2 The electoral college should be abolished and replaced by pure popular vote.
3 The electoral college should be kept but changed from a winner-take-all system to a proportional system.
4 Keep the electoral college but add a bonus for winning the popular vote.
5 Replace the electoral college with a popular vote of the Borda count type.

My top two ideas:

1) Intelligent design being taught alongside evolutionary theory in public schools.

2) Performance enhancing drug use and blood doping in professional cycling. There are so many different opinions and views on this particular subject: how to test for it, why to test for it, infringement on riders' personal liberties, etc. This could really develop into an interesting analysis...

-Daniel Kietzer

I was thinking of addressing the debate of whether John McCain is actually conservative. Some people think that he leans a little left, but is still fundamentally conservative, others think he is just a moderate with no real inclination, and others think McCain is completely liberal even though he is trying to act conservative (they think he will act differently if elected).

Philip Kerr

HPV Mandatory Vaccine:

1. The decision should be up to the parents, not the government.
2. Long-term tests of the vaccines are not yet conclusive/available.
3. The vaccine has the potential to save lives; therefore, should be enforced.

OR

Sex Education in Public Schools

1. Pregnancy rates for HS students are high; sex ed could alleviate some of this.
2. Children are likely to get misconstrued information without proper sex ed.
3. Not all parents teach their children.
4. Schools should not be involved with sex. It's a waste of time, tax $, and come parents don't even teach them.
5. Violates religious teachings (Catholicism)
6. Teach about abstinence or safe-sex?

Just thoughts! :)

I have thought of several topics dealing with the bigger topic of immigration. I'm not sure which I am going to pick yet until I do further investigation.

Issue: Bilingual Nation-- Developing a nation with two national Languages
-Those who agree that there should be two national languages: Spanish and English
-Those who believe that our country was founded on English and should be the only national language
-Those who believe there should be a mix of the two languages with English remaining the dominant language

Issue: Building a wall to stop illegal immigrants from entering the United States
-Those who believe that a wall should not be built
-Those who believe that a wall should be built
-Those who believe a wall should only be built in certain areas that need increased security

Legalizing Illegal Aliens: this argument discuses what to do with all of the United States' Illegal Residents
- Kick all illegal residents out of the United States
- Let all of the illegal residents stay in the United States after a certain date
- only let families stay that have American born children and kick out the rest of illegal aliens

I was thinking of two things:

Legalizing Marijuana
1. It should be made legal
2. It should remain illegal
3. It should only be legal if used for medicinal purposes
4. It should only be legal if age limits and ounce restrictions are placed

or

Intelligent Design
1. It should not be taught in public school science
2. It should be allowed to be taught in public school science
3. It can only be taught in public school science if the theory of evolution gets the same amount of time in the classroom

Sound good?

I think for my public debate proposal, I would like to look at all the opinions on how to solve America's health care crisis. I would try to take a position from each side of the political spectrum, and maybe one or two in the middle. So far I have thought of...

1. Privatization of health care
2. A single/pair proposal
3. Universal health care (and there are two main kinds under this umbrella, so I could look at those either together or separately, or at least clarify the differences but use it as one main position).

I know there are more positions, but these seem to be some of the main ones I could address for this paper.

Possibilities:

Steroid Usage in sports.

-some people argue to what extent steroid usage actually is.
-others say no enhancers period.
-some argue that it increases excitement in professional sports e.g. more home runs
-some argue that it mutes the values on which modern sports are founded.

more ideas to come...

Is abortion off the table, since the book discusses it so much?

I was thinking of doing something like health care, since it's in the news:

1. All citizens should be covered completely by the government and we should institute at tax like the VAT tax to pay for it.
2. All health care should be private.
3. Health care should correspond to the level of tax one pays on it; middle class and wealthy Americans would naturally be more covered than impoverished Americans.
4. Any of the various suggested mixes of the above.

Marriage could also be interesting, but hard to argue logically on all sides:

1. Marriage is between a man and woman and a constitutional amendment should support this fact.
2. All people should be able to marry legally.
3. Marriage should remain between a man and a woman, but homosexual couples should be able to obtain civil unions.
4. Marriage is a religious institution and there should be no government-sanctioned marriages; all citizens should obtain civil unions and marriages may be conducted through any church. The choice of whether to unite homosexual couples or polyamorous groups should be up to the church.

Immigration has been a very controversial issue in the American community as well as smaller communities such as states near the U.S.-Mexico border. There are many varied positions taken on this topic with different arguments that go beyond pro vs. con.

A few examples:
-Some believe that we should build a wall and place guards along the U.S.-Mexico border, completely shut down immigration from this area and deport all those that are already in the country.
-Some argue that we should close the border to new immigrants, but those that have already made lives here should be assisted in starting the path to citizenship.
-Some see all attempts to regulate immigration as a violation of civil rights.
-Some feel the need for a guest worker program.

You could go on and on with all the variations of these arguments.