Debatepedia partners with The People Speak Global Debates and the The National Debate Series: Boston (Nov. 10)
Debate Digest Nov 19th: Medical marijuana. Next Debate Digest article: Trying 9/11 terror suspects in NYC courts

From Debatepedia

• November 9th: Lenkahabetinova has been working on Debate: Direct democracy.
• November 8th: Pranaybhatia02 has been working on Debate: Gene patents.
• November 7th: Brooks Lindsay created Debate: Federal funding for abortions in the US.
• November 3rd: Msj14031992 added 6 arguments to Debate: Gene patents.
• November 2nd: User:One of many argued/outlined that Debate: Atheism that "religion gives people something outside of themselves to live for." Renergy joined in to build the article out even more.
• November 1st: Brooks Lindsay created Public nudity, Instant replay in Baseball, Ticket scalping.
• November 1st: Visinthewise outlined a great argument on Debate: Manned mission to Mars that there is currently no way how to land large cargo and humans on Mars.
• October 31st: Lenkahabetinova outlined argument that Direct democracy was not expensive.
• October 31st: Lenkahabetinova has been building up Debate: Coca Cola and contributed also to Debate: Direct democracy.
• October 31st: Brooks Lindsay created Debate: Public nudity.
• October 30th: Fadhillah created Gender conformity, Brooks Lindsay created an intro and an argument.
• October 29th: Debatewhiz18 argued Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage decreases dependence on foreign oil.
• October 28th: Brooks Lindsay added significant content to Debate: Barack Obama awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
• October 26th: Lenkahabetinova created Debate: Barack Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize.
• October 27th: Scientists have found underground tunnels on the Moon. Does this change the Moonbase debate or the Colonization of the Moon debate? Somebody could help write this argument, that these discoveries make colonization/moonbase more logical.
• October 26th: Renergy reverted vandalism on Debate: Assisted suicide
• October 26th: Wow924 created Debate: Aid for persecuted churches.
• October 26th: Soumya singh created Debate: Equality between genders.
• October 23rd: A030394R created Debate: Should teacher pay depend on the performance of students? and edited Should homosexuality be taught in sex education classes?
• October 21st: Kazaa created Debate: Are humans the most superior beings on Earth?.
• October 21st: Renergy recently added some arguments to Debate: Should everyone in the world speak the same language? (and then removed one), Brooks Lindsay helped to improve these arguments.
• October 21st: Paulipu added a 2009 CNN poll statistic showing that 61% of Americans favor a public option to Debate: Public health insurance option.
• October 20th: Debate Digest: Debate: Gays in the US military.
• October 18th: Lenkahabetinova and Voltaire are building Ban on smoking in public places.
• October 17th: Voltaire created Debate: Should South Korea be allowed to have nuclear weapons?
• October 14th: Brooks Lindsay posted Nuclear energy to the Debate Digest.
• October 13th: Dabatewhiz18 outlined an argument on Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage, that canceling nuclear contracts carries legal liabilities for the government.
• October 13th: Renergy has been working on Debate: Models are beneficial for society.
• October 12th: Lenkahabetinova continues an ambitious effort to delete argument pages that have no content.
• October 8th: Renergy created Debate: Breeder reactors, Egg outlined the argument that England is hardly subsidizing Scotland on Debate: Scottish independence.
• October 8th: Lenkahabetinova has been developing Debate: Direct democracy.
• October 5th: Cyril Washbrook outlined an exceptionally good argument on Debate: Escalation of the War in Afghanistan under the Obama administration, that the "US should seek to make deals, not increase troop numbers."
• October 5th: Lenkahabetinova created Debate: Models are beneficial for society.
• October 5th: Wop has been building up Debate: Legalization of Marijuana with significant content contributions.
• October 4th: Lenkahabetinova continues deleting empty argument pages and links to empty pages.
• October 3rd: Liberationfromwithin added significant content to Debate: War in Afghanistan.
• September 29th: Debate: Is the caste system in India a human rights violation? was just created. See the following article, "UN says caste system is a human rights abuse." Telegraph. September 29, 2009, and consider documenting an argument on the Debatepedia article.
• September 28th: Shade1234 has added great content to Debate: Privatizing social security.
• September 27th: Liberationfromwithin added significant content to Capitalism vs socialism and built-out Humanitarian intervention.
• September 26th: Lenkahabetinova argued that "water is present on the Moon" in the Debate: Colonization of the Moon
• September 24th: Scientists recently found signs of significant quantifies of water or hydroxyl on the moon. Does this change the debate over a moonbase? Somebody could help write this argument, that these discoveries make colonization more logical.
• September 16th: Renergy continues fixing redirects all across articles on Debatepedia.
• September 11th: Saxmanb added significant content to Debate: Truthers vs. Birthers: Which conspiracy theory is the more plausible one?
• September 9th: Renergy made a number of arguments on Debate: Compressed air vehicles.
• September 8th: Lenkahabetinova continues ambitious projects across all articles on Debatepedia. In this case, moving articles, debate pages, and argument pages to more appropriate titles.
• September 6th: Brooks Lindsay carried on developing Debate: The UN should prioritize poverty over climate change.
• September 3rd: Superdebater added significant content to Debate: Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• September 2nd: Renergy added significant content to Debate: Methanol fuel.
• August 28th: Renergy has been creating "see also" section in articles in the energy category.
• August 27th: Lenkahabetinova has been creating links between articles as well as many external links and background resources for Debatepedia's pro/con articles.
• August 24th: Jabonetti made an argument on Debate: Single-payer universal health care.
• August 23rd: Coupe83 argued on Debate: Mandatory calorie counts on menus: "calorie counts rightly value health over blissful ignorance.".
• August 22nd: Egnichols argued on Debate: Prostitution, "In many other cases prostitutes choose their profession solely for their own financial survival."
• August 10th: Renergy continued developing Space elevator.
• August 5th: Lenkahabetinova continues to do a fabulous job creating "see also" links between articles and categorizing various articles.
• August 5th: Brooks Lindsay posted the latest Debate Digest article: Debate: Colonization of the Moon
• August 4th: Renergy created Debate: Space elevator.
• August 2nd: E.isac created and developed Debate: Legacy admissions
• August 1st: Lenkahabetinova made significant contributions to Debate: Equal prize money for male and female athletes
• July 28th: The Pub Debates added some links to Debate: Twitter | Debatepedia User Guide.
• July 24th: Posted Labeling of genetically modified foods to the Debate Digest (below).
• July 13th: Arpi made multiple arguments on Debate: A right to die?
• July 12th: New Debate Digest article: Criminalization of Holocaust denial.
• July 10th: Lenkahabetinova added significant content to School uniform
• July 5th: Lenkahabetinova has been building out Direct democracy.
• July 4th: The Pub Debates argued that twitter improves one's understanding of current events.
• July 2nd: New Debate Digest article: Needle exchanges
• July 2nd: Dab14763 outlined an argument on Falkland Islands, return of | Internships
• June 30th: Brooks Lindsay began developing Needle exchanges for posting on the Debate Digest on July 2nd.
• June 26th: Lenkakahabetinova argued "nuclear waste can be recycled", in favor of Debate: Nuclear energy
• June 25th: Brooks Lindsay created a strong background introduction on Debate: Election of judges that summarizes the fundamental questions involved in the debate.
• June 25th: Brooks Lindsay created Debate: Term limits for Supreme Court justices.
• June 25th: Arpi argued "Merit, not money, should sway judicial elections" on Election of judges | Internships
• June 24th: User:Anant.vijay.maria edited Debate: Election of judges
• June 21st: Savi made a comment on Talk:Debate: Should AIDS drugs be made cheaper for developing countries?
• June 18th: Alibreland argued on Debate: Executive-pay caps, "Executive-pay caps disrupt the free market."
• June 15th: Jamie.dawson created Debate: Should Human Growth Hormones be banned in sports?
• June 14th: Ali added two argument quotations to Debate: Nuclear Test Ban Treaty | Internships
• June 13th: Encryp edited Debate: Instant replay and challenge systems in sports
• June 11th, Brooks Lindsay has been finishing up a major categorization project for all roughly 1,500 debate articles on Debatepedia. This effort can be viewed on the main page of Debatepedia in the Category Browser on the left side of the page.
• June 8th, Gwats made a well-structured argument in favor of allowing priests to marry, on Debate: Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry?: "priests should be allowed to marry for the simple reason that we all have the right to procreate and leave a progeny, a legacy when we leave this world."
• June 8th, Ijeh78 argued on Debate: Animal rights: "It is necessary for humans to use animals as a source of food. There is a hierarchy in the natural world, and some living beings have more value than others. Human beings are more valuable than animals, therefore, it is justified that human beings use animals as a source of food and material."
• Dan A made the following argument on Debate: Assisted suicide on June 6th: " Denying the disabled the 'right to die' will cause them painful deaths As mentioned before, everyone has a right to end their pain. Right now, suicide is allowed in many countries while euthanasia aren't. This is a clear discrimination toward the patients who is not able to end their lives without any help of others."
• Jpfeiffer419, on June 3rd, made the following pro-choice argument on Debate: Abortion: "In a free society, abortion is truly a matter of personal belief. The issue of abortion debates the question of whether or not the unborn child is a human being, or at what point it becomes so. This question cannot be answered for the collective body of society, rather should be answered by the individual based on personal and religious beliefs. If an individual believes that an unborn child is a human being, then the "right to life" term can be justified by that individual for their own personal choice. If an individual believes that the unborn child is not a human being, then there is no justification for laws to prohibiting an abortion. Therefore It should be argued that this is an issue for the individual; that an individual seeking an abortion has their own responsibility to be informed thoroughly about the matter, but should never be forced to agree or disagree."
• Mh332890 argued the following on Debate: Should war be televised? on June 1st: "Televised war can create a misconceived notion of war. As the mainstram media today tend to paint the picture to entertain, rather than to inform. The images, clips and sounds undergo heavy editing before being presented to the viewers. Often these medium do not represent the grisly, cruel nature of war accurately. Instead, the clips are meant to stimulate a sense of heroism, of glory and patriotism, immersing the viewers in a videogame-like atmosphere, perhaps making wars look more acceptable."
• Brooks Lindsay posted Debate: Israeli settlements to the Debate Digest on June 1st (see below section).
• WestCoast argued on May 30th on Debate: Is a nuclear-armed North Korea unacceptable?, "Although totalitarian, North Korea is still a rational actor. Despite the fact that the North Korean leadership has not looked after the basic needs of its own people, it has consistently acted to ensure it retains control over the country. Carrying out an aggressive nuclear strike against another nation is therefore not in the interest of the state, as such an action will dramatically increase the willingness of the international community to enact regime change through military action."
• Whitefreak121 helped outline, on May 29th, the following argument on Debate: Ban on smoking in public places: "Banning smoking in public would cause people to smoke more at home. Heavy smokers are unlikely to give up since they are addicted to nicotine. Banning smoking in public will, therefore, only encourage people to smoke more at home. This will harm other people in their houses, particularly children. This is important, since children are not old enough to choose freely to smoke passively. Also, people smoking at home may drink more alcohol than they would if they went to a bar. This is because they can buy it more cheaply at a supermarket or off-license. Drinking more alcohol may lead to other health problems."
• Wredling invited users to Debate: Should war be televised? on his user page, May 29th.
• Bizzy created a welcome message on his user page, May 29th.
• Katguh06 argued that water privatization harms the poor, on May 27th.
• Wredling communicated with and encouraging other editors - Bizzy and User:Tanya Arora - on the 27th. Well done!
• Winterstl made helpful structural revisions to Debate: Animal testing, Debate: Zoos, Debate: Abolition of nuclear weapons, Debate: Human Genetic Engineering, Debate: Artificial intelligence and others on May 24th and 25th.
• Cogerias edited Ban on smoking in public placed on May 24th.
• Brooks Lindsay researched and helped compile Debate: Two-state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict, posting to the Debate Digest on May 23rd.
• Wredling argued on May 21st on Debate: Should war be televised? that "Televised war puts reporters in a very dangerous position."
• Bizzy created and added arguments to Debate: Should countries defeated by war be helped? on May 21st.
• 123456789 created Debate: Boycotting the 1936 Berlin Olympics on May 21st.
• ASHISH helped re-structure sub-debate sections on Debate: Has globalization worsened international terrorism?, May 21st.
• Brooks Lindsay helped flush out the arguments on plane noise in Debate: Flight Paths Over Residential Areas on May 20th.
• Brooks Lindsay posted the Debate Digest article for May 20th: Debate: Merit pay for teachers.
• DevynBlake made a number of arguments on Debate: Polygamy on May 20th.
• Wredling expanded and cleaned-up Debate: Should war be televised? on May 19th and 20th.
• Wredling reverted vandalism on Debatepedia:Manipulating debate pages and Debatepedia:Creating new pages on May 19th.
• MeganReneClark made an argument against bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the debate's talk page, on May 19th.
• Elewood helped restructure Debate:Cameras in Courtrooms on May 17th, but it still needs alot of work.
• Neoky created Debate: Has globalization worsened international terrorism? on May 16th.
• Matthew.graham26 edited Debate: Flight Paths Over Residential Areas on May 16th.
• Batho created Debate: Government should invest more money in health than education on May 15th.
• Wredling created and and added arguments to Debate: Should war be televised? on May 14th.
• UltimaWeapon made three well-structured arguments against Naming and shaming of sex offenders on May 14th.
• Linklurker eliminated vandalism on Debate: Legalization of Marijuana on May 14th.
• Efether234 made wonderful grammatical edits to Debate: Same sex marriage ban on May 13th.
• DharmaLion made the following argument in favor of Debate: Legalization of adult incest on May 13th: "there is no defined power relationship--in any other aspect of life--between a father and adult daughter or between a mother and adult son. As they are legally equals in all other aspects of life there is no reason to treat them as anything other than equals in the area of sexuality."
• Porka boy made an argument on Talk:Debate:Student Lockers, school right to search on May 13th.
• Elena added an argument to Debate: Same sex marriage ban on May 8th.
• ThatAintTrue09 created Debate: Criminalization of sexting on May 7th.
• Neopergoss argued on May 7th on Talk:Debate:Torture that sleep deprivation is torture. Part of the argument was put into Debate: Enhanced interrogation techniques.
• Cknollman added a number of arguments to Debate: Assault weapons ban in the United States on May 5, 2009.
• Brooks Lindsay cleaned up Debate: Mercenaries on May 5, 2009, preparing it to be posted on the Debate Digest on May 6.
• Heidy edited Debate:English as US national language on May 5, 2009.
• Jdplaya created Debate: Should cell phones or pagers be allowed in school. on May 5, 2009.
• Ty1980 created a sub-debate section on Debate: Legalization of Marijuana on May 5, 2009.
• Azraa created Debate: Democracy in third world countries on May 4, 2009.
• Classifired edited Debate: Euthanasia on May 4, 2009.
• Matthew.graham26 created Debate: Flight Paths Over Residential Areas on May 4, 2009.
• Sfmac made an extensive pro argument on Debate: Enhanced interrogation techniques under the argument "Enhanced interrogations" effectively obtain info, save lives on May 1st. The first part of the argument reads: "Interrogations of Khalid Sheik Mohammad resulted in confessions pertaining to the 9/11 atacks, the capture of other terrorists, and actionable intelligence used to thwart 'follow up' plans for weapons of mass destruction to be used on America, including anthrax and dirty bomb operations."[1],[2]
• Joel created Debate: Physical education in school on April 29th.
• FlyFromTheInside created Debate: hate crime legislation on April 29th.
• Gspm created Debate: Lobbying on April 29th.
• Rajatyadav edited Debate: Nuclear energy on April 28th.
• Patmac253 edited Debate: Should the Church involve itself in politics? on April 28th.
• Wesolowski313 reverted a vandalism on Debate: Abortion on April 28th.
• Thomas J. Mason outlined the following argument on Same sex marriage ban on April 20th - "Gay marriage is unacceptable because it is not private. If two people choose to engage in this behavior behind closed doors, society should remain agnostic. However, when this behavior (like other aberrant behaviors), is championed as normal, natural, and a matter of 'freedom' (as opposed to license), society has an obligation to protect children during their formative years and denounce these acts."
• Slim husband wrote the following argument on Debate: Prostitution on April 19th: "it is not difficult to decipher who the victims of prostitution are. just about everybody involved in this debate has assumed that prostitute denotes 'woman' and inform their arguments with this preconception. Is this because women choose to sell their bodies and men do not? Despite intellectual reasoning and rhetoric, we all know that it is primarily women who are exploited; we all subconsciously know through an understanding of the cultural history we've inherited -patriarchy- that it is women who do and will suffer."
• Blinkbrother created Dokdo is Korean Territory on April 16th.
• Brooks Lindsay posted a new Debate Digest article (below - Debate: Is a nuclear Iran intolerable?) on April 16th, 2009.
• KateE created, on April 15th, Direct to consumer prescription drug advertisements, seeding it with a background section and the following con argument: "Many ads don't include enough information on how well drugs work. For example, Lunesta is advertised by a moth floating through a bedroom window, above a peacefully sleeping person. Actually, Lunesta helps patients sleep 15 minutes faster after six months of treatment and gives 37 minutes more sleep per night. The Majority of ads are based on emotional appeals, but few include causes of the condition, risk factors, ore important lifestyle changes. In a studyof 38 pharmaceutical advertisements researchers found that 82 percent made a factual claim and 86 percent made rational arguments for product use. Only 26 percent described condition causes, risk factors, or prevalence."
• Brooks Lindsay posted 2009 troop "surge" in Afghanistan on Debate Digest (below) - April 9, 2009.
• CUsten has made substantial contributions to Debate:Turkey, EU membership, April 8, 2009.
• UlinGhost created Debate: White lies on April 9, 2009.
• Psychopathicgenius outlined the following argument on "Nigger", use of the word - "White people should be able to use it, but realistically they can't use it first. It has to start with the people who get offended by it. Black people have to use this word towards white people the same way they use towards their own. It is already belived that if a white person says it they're racist so it has to start from the interior. Black people have to start acknowldeging white people as niggers for the word to lose its racial potency."
• Kglick created the following argument on Nationalization of banks during economic crisis - "It doesn't matter who has the toxic assets The Government will be just as successful at handeling the assets as private banks are but the private entities will be better equiped to change with the markets when they recover."
• Cicero created a fairly open-ended but pretty thought provoking pro/con article on March 31st: Debate: Should responsibilities outweigh rights?.
• Dillygirl created Debate: Secular state on March 31st.
• Sheenabobeena84 made an ambitious content-building effort on Recognizing Wicca as a religion. - March 30th, 2009.
• Matthew.graham26 made the following argument, and many others, on Drugs in Sport on March 30th, 2009: "Sport is based on natural ability. The idea of competiting in sport is that you are using your natural ability. Performance-enhancing drugs are unfair and give athletes an advantage beyond their natural ability. This should not be allowed."
• Azqwe wrote the following argument on Debate: Death penalty - "Mistakes in executions can be very cruel/unusual. It can be cruel and unusual. e.g, if someone is hanged, but strangle to death. Also, sometimes, criminals do not die, and are still taking the effects of the punishment, for example, being electrocuted, but still being alive, and taking the pain of the volts."
• Brooks Lindsay created Securitization debate article on March 30th, 2008.
• Brooks Lindsay posted the March 30th, 2009 Debate Digest article below - AIG bonuses
• Akshitasharma created Debate: Extension of retirement age on March 24, 2009.
• Ktbjimmy created Debate: Do weapons promote peace better than diplomacy? on March 24, 2009.
• Huey created a new section in the Water fluoridation‎ article on March 24, 2009.
• John denver wrote on Debate:Homosexuality an argument positing that there is no evidence that the homosexual community is more promiscuous. - March 22, 2009.
• Mookie1177 created Debate: Collective bargaining on March 18th.
• Aher has recently made great edits on Is the US a "Christian nation"?‎ and Legalization of Marijuana. They also suggested on the community forum that Debatepedia incorporate polling into each article.
• Noanfesnoux created really great content on the video games debate article on March 17th.
• Burgjsa created Voting rights for legal immigrants on March 15th, 2009.
• Drawingshadows outlined, on March 11th, the following argument on Debate: Atheism - "religion all around has caused some of the most high death tolling wars in history such as the crusades. Religion may preach peace but tends to promote fighting amongst people of different religions."
• Sweetest Gal created Debate: home-based entertaintment creates a lonely society on March 9.
• TheEqualizer contributed - on March 1 - to the following pro argument in Debate: Adoption of children by same-sex couples - "Nuclear families are failing; can hardly be held up against gay adoption. Of all families in Australia, 22% of them are single parent families. Few will fully establish a child's potential. Over 45,000 Australian marriages will end in divorce, few of these will be families. So, it is wrong to promote the nuclear family when it is failing so badly, and it is wrong to hold-out on gay adoption in favor of the nuclear family, for the same reason."