That brilliant line is one of the Cardinal Virtues of writing a good case. I sort of sloughed it last week when I was going through meeting odds and ends, treading water so to speak, but its relevance was clear last night. In the demo round of Senor Matt v NoShow, one of these professors used some Nozick analysis on the individual to underly the concept of treating people equally, and the other professor sort of made something up. The Nozick seemed a lot more convincing for some reason. I mean, I'm not particularly a fan of Nozick, and I'm certainly not a fan of the authority of famous people saying it so it must be true, but either of these seems to trump pulling it out of the top of one's head. But that's just me.
The round was interesting enough personally, in that my flowing skills have really degenerated. Or maybe it's that my handwriting has degenerated. I've got to work on this more. I'll hit the floor at Scarsdale, at least, with great urging of the debaters not only to talk slowly, but if they wouldn't mind, to come to the back of the room and write it down while they're talking. That should be a big hit.
Meanwhile, I think we need a new Hardware Engineer. Last night we had no room, and the engineer turned out to be an imagineer (he'd imagined that he'd signed up for Scarsdale, for instance, despite any evidence of his doing so). I consulted with the Captains Emeritus (or, I guess, Captains Emerita, it's been a long time since I took Latin) and they made a great suggestion for next year that I'll almost definitely follow. Picking the HE is the most difficult job of judging, truth to tell. Anyone can brainstorm a topic. But picking a Hardware Engineer? That takes skill.
Which reminds me. No doubt there's a new resolution floating around today. I'm looking forward to it. Those of you who stumbled upon the great controversy at Ripon (the University of Wisconsin has banned pornographic snow scultpures) know that things can get pretty dicey in the cold country. And those of you who watched the Commander-in-Chief addressing the country last night know that things can also get pretty dicey inside the Beltway. I don't know about you, but I sleep better at night knowing that Bush is in the Oval Office. I mean, do we really want this guy roaming the streets?
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