Friday, June 08, 2007

It's (almost) summertime; mind the gap; is hiatusable a word; my God is bigger than your God; finalizing the Pups

I’ve had Sailors on the mind this week. I sent out a reminder about summer reading, angling more toward the sociological/political than the philosophical books, given the way things are going these days topic-wise. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that; I should probably also remind philosophy fans that summer is a good time to attack Caveman. I mean, it takes at least three months, plus an empty head, so it’s perfect summer vacation fodder.

I’m also in a sort of public relations mode on Pffft. There seem to be a number of levels of forensics interest, various plateaus if you will, and Pffft fills a gap for those who want to, literally, debate, but who are neither wonk-dedicated enough for policy or philosophy-dedicated enough for LD. That one-month window lets a lot of breezes in. Those students who disappear after their sophomore year would now have something to maintain their interest without controlling their lives. That’s a good thing.

I’ve been keeping Nostrum up. I think I’ll be able to manage one a weekend for the foreseeable future (my writing project is otherwise eating most of my chez time). Normally I would set up for a summer hiatus with something like this, but podcasts don’t seem to be hiatusable as much as some other things. Neither is this blog. If I were to stop for too long, no one would remember it existed (unless, of course, I blew the lid off WTF by publishing the rap sheets of—well, we’ll hold off on that one for now, but if I have to be the LD Smoking Gun at some point in the future, so be it).

Speaking of WTF, they have an interesting mention of a debate league for the home-schooled, whose goal is to proclaim biblical truth through forensics. Really. If they debate among themselves, it would be one thing, but if they debate opponents who don’t subscribe to the same theology, all hell (if you’ll pardon the expression) would break loose. I like their topic, though (which apparently is for a full year): Democracy is overvalued by the United States government. Not to argue it from a religious context but from the simple policy context: if I remember correctly, Iraqis were going to toss rose petals at our soldiers’ feet as they installed a democracy and capitalism and a healthy respect for Halliburton right after the shock and awe wore off. There is a whole western-centered approach to politics that considers democracy the teleological conclusion of government, but one can question this objectively from a variety of perspectives. One can make various socialist claims, or Third Way claims, or whatever, for interesting discourse. Absent God, of course. The problem with God, especially in the Middle East where our innate belief in democracy as a panacea is most manifest, is that there are dueling God conceptions. Both sides are, to some degree, fighting with God on their side. But it’s a different God. Who wants to debate that, aside from missionaries?

Meanwhile, earlier this week there was a flurry of discussion amongst the male tabbers (i.e, the pronounced lunatics) about the Pups, and various changes were wrought. Most importantly, we cut down to two rounds on Friday, balanced by a longer Sunday. This looks good. Three Friday rounds meant an awfully late night for everyone (including the poor tabbers). My guess is that we can catch up on Sunday with back-to-back elimination rounds. A handful of Sailors have expressed their interest in the event; we should have a quorum soon enough. Same hotel as last year, not close enough to walk but nice enough not to worry for your life late at night.

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