Debate Digest: Teacher-student friendships on Facebook, Law school, Balanced budget amendment, US debt ceiling deal.
Editorial news and tasks
From Debatepedia
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- Debate: Boy Scouts of America ban on gay membership doesn't have any content, but has gotten some news recently, as Texas Governor Rick Perry, and a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination was part of the Boy Scouts and supported their move to ban gay membership.
- Debate: Voter identification cards has been hot in the news recently with multiple American states now requiring voter IDs. If you're interested, consider building up Debatepedia's article on the topi.
- Debate: Does Obama deserve a second term? is up next for the Debate Digest.
- Founder Brooks Lindsay is developing Debate: Keystone XL US-Canada oil pipeline for the Debate Digest. - August 31st.
- Myclob is experimenting with a new way of organizing argument pages, so that they are structured like main debate pages - in a pro/con structure with reasons to agree and disagree. See Argument: Polygamy leaves some men with no women to marry; socially destabilizing. A debate on the value of this kind of approach is occurring on Debatepedia's Facebook group. - August 26th.
- Debate: Teacher-student friendships on Facebook was created and is being developed as some states and municipalities, such as Missouri, have banned such relationships by law. - August 24th.
- August 22nd. Debate: Law school was posted to the Debate Digest after multiple days of development.
- August 15th. Debate: Slut Walks was created as a stub article in light of the phenomenon of Slut Walks spreading around the world. In India, a slut walk was organized that gained global media attention and some local condemnation. The aim of slut walks is to, by dressing in provocative clothing in mass, criticize the practice in some societies of men forcing women to dress ultra conservatively in order to prevent them from supposedly provoking men into fits of sexual excitement and subsequently sexual abuse (as if it was women's fault).
- August 12th. New editor account creation was put on hold for a short period due to spamming attempts.
- July 9th. Lavanya.Hero argued that teachers have an easier job working in single-sex schools because they don't have to worry about equal opportunity.
- July 2nd. Debate: Dogs vs cats was created as a stump article.
- June 30th. Debate: Mandatory ultrasounds before abortions was posted to the Debate Digest.
- June 25th. Debate: China is headed for a revolution was created and developed quite well by MrtDbt and Bakunin.
- June 24th. MrtDbt added an argument to Debate: Infant male circumcision.
- June 19th. Debate: US intervention in Libya was posted to the Debate Digest.
- June 15th. Debate: Should colleges ban fraternities? was posted to the Debate Digest.
- England4Ever created and edited Debate: Aaland Islands.
- June 13th. Founder Brooks Lindsay created Debate: Dowries, without arguments (open for editing).
- June 12th. Ace45954 made the following argument on Debate: Colonization of the Moon: "Moon base would spark public interest in Mars mission. The creation of a base on our small companion would spark the public's interest, as the creation of such a base would most likely take less than a decade. After this, wait perhaps another decade or so and viola, you have yourself a Mars landing. If we were instead to mount a mission to Mars directly, it would take decades before the mission would be underway. The general public despises long waits, which equals to a lack of funds completely immobilizing the would be Mars landing."
- June 6th. Ggowdy1972 created the following argument against two-party systems: "Two-party systems create false dichotomies. By framing debate in terms of only two-parties or points of view the two-party system gives the false impression that their are only two choices on any given issue. the reality is that issues facing any country are deeply complex with multiple view points. This is particularly harmful when political parties begin to enforce ideological purity and shout down party dissent. [1]
- June 3rd. A number of arguments were added to Debate: Safe injection sites for heroin addicts by Ikassamsha.
- June 2nd. Reenem improved an argument on Debate: Dividing Jerusalem.
- Watty added a long-form argument in favor of Pete Rose in Baseball Hall of Fame.
- June 1. Debate: Home plate collision rule in baseball on the Debate Digest.
- May 30th. Wingzero898 created Marriage under 18.
- May 24th. Debate: Child beauty pageants next for the Debate Digest.
- May 19th. Debate: Trans fat ban completed for the Debate Digest.
- May 18th. Dadula argued on Debate: Is dancing a sport? that "dancing cannot be objectively judged."
- May 17th. Jasonschantz wrote the following in favor of releasing Osama bin Laden's death photos: "Al-Qaeda will see withholding photos as sign of their impact. Why they released the death picture of Saddam but don't dare to release that of Osama's? The only reason is that Iraq is down but Al-Qaeda is still there, so their path of terrorism is effective. It is an encouragement to them."[2]
- May 6th. Debate: Release of Osama bin Laden death photos posted to the Debate Digest.
- May 3rd. Debate: Osama Bin Laden Sea Burial was finished for the Debate Digest.
- April 30th. Debate: Return of Israel to pre-1967 borders was finished for the Debate Digest.
- April 28th. The following comment was written on Debate: Term limits for legislators by Oscar Levant: We DO have 'term limits'.. they are called 'elections.' I'd rather my choices not be restricted by draconian obstacles which are, to be blunt, based on little more than a penchant for lazy thinking. There have been many elected officials whose best work has been done during terms that would not have existed if limits were imposed."
- April 24th. Debate: Return of Israel to pre-1967 borders is under development for the Debate Digest.
- April 19th. Debate: Term limits for legislators on the Debate Digest.
- April 12th. Stacy Rivera created Debate: Self-defense in public schools.
- March 27th. Houndog made a comment on Talk:Debate: Ban on extremist political parties.
- March 26th. Fowlee42: Debate: Force feeding prisoners on hunger strike.
- March 25th. Debate: Free speech should not protect hate speech was created by Jesskim4.
- Garybaldwin helped build-out Debate: High-speed rail.
- Sobsology edited Debate: Sabbath Day.
- March 21st. E65Hawke wrote the following argument in favor of compulsory voting: "Voting is not only a right, but a responsibility. The whole point of freedom is that everyone has a say and has a responsibility to voice their opinion, otherwise the system doesn't work. non-compulsory voting encourages entire classes of people to not bother with voting, since it is demanding, having to stand in long queues all day. People should exercise their right and responsibility to vote."
- March 20th. NPaul added some arguments to Debate: Should South Korea be allowed to have nuclear weapons?.
- March 19th. Valexion improved some arguments on Debate: Cap-and-trade versus carbon tax.
- March 14th. Brooks Lindsay is working on Debate: No-fly zone over Libya.
- March 11th. Debater98 created the new, stub article, Debate: Animals should not be used as objects of sport.
- March 4th. Mark the Harp added a number of arguments to Debate: National DNA database.
- March 3rd. Youngvictoria49 made a grammatical edit on Debate: Full-body scanners at airports.
- February 27th. Kryostat created Debate: Is psychology a science?.
- Myclob edited Debate: Ban on sodomy.
- February 26th. MonkeeRench edited Debate: Electronic voting.
- February 25th. Debator101 added the following argument on Debate: European social democracy: "European social democracy has a higher value on health care. European social democratic countries, such as France or Great Britain, believe health is a basic neccessity. As such, European social democratic countries offer universal health care, resulting in higher life expectancies than industrialized nations without universal health care systems."
- February 11th. FilmBuff84 wrote the following pro argument on Debate: Standardized Testing For Graduation: "Standardized testing is an objective measure of learning. All students deserve an equal chance to prove their competency. Testing weeds out those who are more likely to be poor academic performers in colleges and universities."
- February 10th. Pokemon and OPzZ edited Debate: Should business be allowed on Sundays?.
- February 8th. Ultrasarim wrote a couple arguments in Debate: Toys in Happy Meals.
- February 5th. Aiman edited Debate: 2009 troop "surge" in Afghanistan.
- February 3rd. Lidavidli created Debate: Egyptian President Mubarak should go immediately.
- February 2nd. Daniel999 added a sub-question to Debate: Anti-depressants: "Can anti-depressants do more harm than good?"
- January 28th. Debate: Gender equality on sports teams was created by Fero4real.
- January 26th. Dude97 argued on the con side of Debate: Should the rich pay more taxes to reduce inequality?, writing: "People will lack motivation to work."
- January 25th. Halebobbdotcom edited Debate: War on Drugs.
- Halebobbdotcom commented on Talk:Debate: Legalization of drugs: "The only things that should remain illegal are actions against others. All torts should remain unlawful; All non-tort acts should be legalized."
- Jamie86078 wrote the following on Talk:Debate: Merit pay for teachers: "One thing that could happen is foul play. Teachers may help kids to much with test, change actual answers given by students and strikes. Teachers may go on strike because they may think pay is unfair. Then what happens to our teachers. WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR COMMUNITY! No teachers to teach students! All merit pay will lead to is problems!"
- January 23rd. Debate: Female NFL referees was created.
- January 20th. NoahTruesdale commented on Debate: Landmines in the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
- January 16th. Verglaze edited Debate: Gays in the US military.
- January 15th. Kliewer2013 edited Debate: In some cases juveniles should be tried as adults. "Rights of juveniles. The adult justice system gives juveniles a jury, a proper judge, and good representation. The juvenile system however has no jury, the judge is over-worked along with the counsel provided."
- January 14th. Debate: Money is the religion of the 21st century is an empty article that was just created by P0rnst4r.
- January 13th. GetReal95 wrote the following argument on Debate: Deporting illegal immigrants in the US: Deporting illegals not akin to expulsion of Native American. You can not use the trail of tears as a acceptable and relevant argument. The topic is whether deporting illegals is moral. The cheeroke were legally aloud to be there but after losing a war, the U.S.A kicked them out. Illegal aliens have no ethical claim to remain.
- January 9th. Myclob added the following argument to Debate: Should free, public universities be free to foreigners?: "Foreign students have not 'paid their dues'. College is expensive. Government can pay for education when they know the student will stay in the country, or their parents have paid taxes their whole lives, but foreign students might not stay, and have not paid."
- January 5th. Philly.Phanatic put Debate: Ban on mountaintop removal coal mining at the top of the Upcoming features for the Debate Digest cue.
- January 4th. Bgmkrhsrl developed and improved Debate: Harmfulness of Facebook.
- January 3rd. Joe.salvan: "I believe the use of full-body scanners at airports are necessary to help prevent future attacks to our country. For those who complain about our rights being invaded, full-body scanners are unnecessary, or child pornography laws to name a few must not care or remember why we are implementing these security measures. Our country has been attacked and many Americans gave their life unknowingly. The protection of our country is necessary and to be delayed at the airport to ensure you or others are not a terrorist, hi-jacker or just someone wanting to do harm to others is necessary and should not be taken lightly."
- December 24th. Myclob edited Debate: Abortion and Talk:Argument: Abortion may be immoral, but it is still a woman's right.
- December 23rd. Renergy edited Debate: Christmas presents.
- December 20th. Debate: Should the rich pay more taxes to reduce inequality? was under development by Myclob.
- December 17th. Debate: Should telephone tapping be legalized? - was created by JonShrestha.
- Schocrane123 created Debate: Colonization of the Moon
- December 16th. Foreverytree created Debate: Sustainable development.
- December 15th. Debate: Estate tax in the United States was factually edited and improved by Jbrmit.
- December 13th. Debate: Joint JD/MBA degree posted to Debate Digest.
- Debate: Ban on music that glorifies violence against women Edited by LenkaHabetinova.
- December 10th. Debate: Should school hallways be open to advertisers? was created and built out by Kalpajc.
- December 8th. Posted Debate: WikiLeaks release of US diplomatic cables to Debate Digest.
- December 3rd. Debate: Pesticides created by LJhox8.
- Debate: Military recruiting in public schools was worked on by Sparky-578.
- Debate: Should the U.S. ban offshore drilling for oil? under development by User:Uchicagoharris oil.
- December 2nd. Articles have arisen regarding the F-35 fighter jet and whether it's a good idea for the United States to continue to develop this expensive and advanced plane - given the US budget deficit and debt. Feel free to work on the debate article on the topic here: Debate: F-35 fighter jet.
- November 30th. Kristen Anne16 edited Debate: Should mothers stay at home to raise their children?.
- Austeja created Debate: Reporting on private lives of politicians.
- Gups.happy created Debate: Coalition government preferable to single party rule.
- November 29th. Medo29 created Debate: Arranged marriage.
- November 28th. Dotsmints edited Debate: Law school.
- November 24th. ProCon edited: Debate: Ban on advertising targeting children.
- November 23d. Cali edited Debate: US health care reform.
- November 21st. Renergy edited Debate: Full-body scanners at airports
- November 20th. Harrisschool edited Debate: Genetically modified salmon.
- November 11th. Jakehjortland created and has extensively build-out Debate: The use of propranolol in dampening a person's memory. Very ambitious effort!
- November 10th. Rhoojung made the following argument against legalizing prostitution: "Considering that majority of men who visit prostitutes are married, this should be considered as morally wrong. It breaks harmony of the family and dooms the ethical aspect of the society."
- November 8th. Renergy edited, and has been building out into a great resource: Debate: War in Afghanistan.
- November 6th. Acdcallnight made excellent edits on Debate: Single-sex schools and Debate: Death penalty.
- November 4th. Spring 0119 made the following argument on Debate: Video games: "Video games are a great way to relax after school or work. They are good for people who feel tired after a long day of work or school. It is important that people take the time to relax and have fun in this way. It makes people happier as well as more productive when they do work."
- November 3rd. Debate: International adoption based on child well-being was developed by JoshuaJenny.
- November 2nd. Brooks Lindsay completed major effort to create argument pages for all quotes in debate articles.
- Banakeg developed a number of arguments on Debate: Should the voting age be reduced from 18 to 16?.
- November 1st. I hate social: Debate: First past the post voting.
- Swspartan created Debate: Re-testing elderly drivers.
- October 31st. Rawapz added a number of arguments to Debate: Banning cell phones in schools.
- October 30th. Debate: Are social networking sites a major distraction from education? developed by 21soumik and Sudhanshu shekhar.
- October 27th. Editor Brooks Lindsay is overhauling all past featured articles on Debatepedia.org, creating argument pages for every major argument that has an accompanying quotation, thus making them searchable on the web, and opening up the possibility for talk-page discussion on these arguments.
- October 26th. Silverfoot edited Debate: Hunting for sport and Debate: Designer babies.
- October 23rd. Leo added arguments to Debate: Hunting for sport.
- October 22nd. JoshuaJenny: Debate: International adoption based on child well-being.
- October 20th. Debate: Should US foreign aid be tied to recipient abortion policy? created by KorissaJulia.
- October 19th. Tassadar edited Debate: Is the US a "Christian nation"?
- October 18th. AmandaMcKay added the following argument to Debate: Condoms in schools: "If students in school are having sex they should have the option of having safe sex and they need to know the advantages of having safe sex."
- October 1st. Editorial: Carbon Capture and Storage: Can the Talk Be Walked? was posted on the Editor's Blog.
- September 29th. Debate: Cellulosic ethanol was posted to the Debate Digest.
- September 27th. Debate: Carbon capture and storage was posted to the Debate Digest.
- September 24th. Willandraguindin changed the order of subdebate sections on Debate: Developed countries have a higher obligation to combat climate change.
- September 20th. Debatersdav12 made a grammatical edit to Debate: Kangaroo culling in Australia.
- September 17th. Carbon capture and sequestration is under development for the Debate Digest.
- September 15th. Lenkahabetinova. created Debate: Is a hunger strike a legitimate form of protest?.
- September 11th. Brooks Lindsay began working on Debate: Geoengineering for the Debate Digest.
- September 6th. Kittycooks started up a debate on deforestation.
- September 4th. Jgorman corrected a grammatical error in Debate: Expiring Bush tax cuts for the wealthy in 2010.
- September 2nd. Acd91 added a number of new arguments to Debate: Gun control.
- August 31st. The con side of the most recent Debate Digest article: Debate: Expiring Bush tax cuts for the wealthy in 2010 is fairly weak, with not enough sources and arguments documented. Have a look, and feel free to strengthen it.
- August 29th. Svaha created her user page with a very brief bio.
- August 28th. Lenkahabetinova has been building out Debate: In some cases juveniles should be tried as adults.
- August 27th. Junb20000. added a number of arguments to Debate: Compulsory foreign languages in school.
- August 26th. Star editor Lenkahabetinova builds out Debate: In some cases juveniles should be tried as adults.
- Renergy reverted a vandalism by DJ on Debate: Ground zero mosque.
- August 25th. Bezuidenhout outlined four arguments on Debate: Should Israel return the Golan Heights to Syria?.
- August 24th. Mtraven. Made a grammatically edit on Debate: Ground zero mosque, changing discrete to discreet.
- August 21st. Silverfoot. added to the background section of Debate: Ban on cage fighting.
- August 21st. StudentCongress added some arguments to Debate: Living together before marriage.
- August 20th. Renergy re-added (after it was deleted) the following argument to Debate: Nuclear energy: "Ill-informed public opinion the main obstacle for nuclear energy. The majority of the public consider nuclear power plants to be unsafe. They really are very safe, but the public opinion in countries currently not using nuclear power is predominantly against nuclear energy. The public opinion really is the only factor stopping nuclear energy coming into place globally."
- August 18th. Opulasereth laid out the following argument on Debate: Should abortion require consent of fathers?: "a father is part of the baby & should require the fathers consent."
- August 17th. Renergy added some links to Debate: Nuclear energy.
- LJ completely built out from scratch Debate: Smaller schools better than larger schools. Great, heavy, editorial work!
- August 16th. Debate: Birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants is under development for the Debate Digest.
- August 12th. Debate: Living together before marriage was started up with a couple arguments.
- August 10th. Debate: Ground zero mosque posted to Debate Digest.
- August 9th. Alkus wrote on Debate: Would unmitigated climate change be catastrophic?: "Catastrophic, but not for all. Unmitigated climate change will certainly be catastrophic, but only for a relatively small percentage of the human population. To borrow a quote from the movie "Jurassic Park", life will find a way. A sufficient percentage of the human population will survive, and eventually thrive in the "New Biotic Order" of post-cataclysmic Earth to send the human species careening toward our next anthropogenic disaster."
- August 5th. Quothmar edited the talk page of Debate: Animal rights.
- August 4th. Brooks Lindsay posted Debate: Democrats vs. Republicans to the Debate Digest.
- August 3rd. Street art was created, and is empty, awaiting arguments and contributions. This article is based off of the debate surrounding whether street art is vandalism or art, and whether it should be allowed. Here's an interesting article in the Independent on the topic: "Graffiti: Street art – or crime?" Independent. July 16th, 2010.
- August 1st. Lenkahabetinova wrote on Debate: Countries should ban the import of goods produced by child labor: "Trade and economic growth do not necessarily help. [Evidence from the Industrial Revolution suggests that] it is not inevitable that growth will drive child labour to the economic margins before rooting it out completely. As in the past, if associated with an unequal distribution of income and child-intensive production processes, economic growth can increase child labour rather than eliminate it." ["Child labour: lessons from the Industrial Revolution", by Jane Humphries, Centre for Economic Policy Research (VoxEU.org), April 2008.'"
- July 27th. Debate: Open primaries was polished and posted to the Debate Digest.
- July 26th. Pschneible made a grammatical edit on Debate: Military recruiting in public schools.
- July 23rd. Founder Brooks Lindsay is working on Debate: Open primaries for the Debate Digest. The topic has become particularly important in recent weeks after California passed Proposition 14 in early June, establishing Open Primaries in the state. Here's a New York Times article on the event and the topic.
- July 21st. Richa has been adding instructions to the talk pages on argument pages so that users and editors better know what to do and how on these particularly pages.
- July 21st. Gadret made an argument on Debate: Was the world created in six days?.
- July 20th. Ifisher18 has been working on Debate: Democrat vs. Republican.
- July 19th. Rita-Bella. argued on Debate: Prisoners right to vote: "Prisoners are still citizens. It is common fact among government that the right to vote belongs to all legal aged citizens. While the opposing side may argue that criminals are not citizens one should remember that we continue to give them the right to an attorney and other such obvious inalienable rights. By doing this we recognize they are still citizens. And citizens have the right to vote."
- July 19th. Jkorn and Clarence.ct developed arguments on Debate: Does "God" really exist?
- July 19th. LuisLuis argued that a slippery slope will not occur upon allowing or accepting pornography.
- July 18th. Feeling Guilty wrote an argument on Debate: Ban on Muslim veils in France.
- July 16th. Debate: Deporting illegal immigrants in the US under development for the Debate Digest.
- July 14th. Debate: MBA was completed for posting on the Debate Digest.
- July 13th. Lenkahabetinova has been working like crazy, making hundreds of link-corrections, editorial corrections, and in constituting talk pages on argument and debate pages.
- July 10th. Debate: Master's degree was completed for posting on the Debate Digest.
- July 9th. Debate: Democrat vs. Republican was created by Ifisher18, but has little content, and needs development.
- July 6th. Richa edited Debate: Closing US military base in Okinawa.
- July 4th. Rishabh edited Debate: Should plastic shopping bags be banned?, adding to the following argument: "There is an easy, practical replacement for plastic bags. The main use of plastic bags is to carry shopping in. Getting rid of plastic bags would just mean that we would need to find a replacement for them. That is easy - we just need to use reusable cloth bags or paper bags and that is the problem solved. Plastic bags do have a practical replacement. More than that Jute bags have emerged a successful replacement of plastic Jute bags.The Govt. of Himachal Pradesh (a hill state of India which also a tourist hot spot) has banned plastic completely for over 3 years now. The transition has proved successful and now shopping bags are more reusable sturdy and beneficial."
- July 1st: Debate: European Monetary Fund was built out for the Debate Digest and posted."
- June 28th: User:Lenkahabetinova added the following pro argument to Debate: Fusion power: "Radiation risk is small. Calculations suggest that the total amount of tritium and other radioactive gases in a typical power plant would be so small, about 1 kg, that they would have diluted to legally acceptable limits by the time they blew as far as the plant's perimeter fence. "Fusion power", Wikipedia"
- June 27th: Lenkahabetinova deleted a range of obsolete debate and argument pages.
- June 23rd: Debate: Instant Replay in FIFA World Cup was created by User:Ifisher18 (empty currently).
- June 22nd: Posted Debate: Breastfeeding in public to Debate Digest.
- June 20th: Lenkahabetinova continues expansive work to clean-up links on argument pages back to their respective debate pages.
- June 18th: Debate: Medical marijuana dispensaries posted to the Debate Digest.
- June 16th: Lenkahabetinova has been cleaning up links on a wide swath of articles.
- June 13th: Danicae13 added the following argument to Debate: Twitter : "Twitter is just a distraction. "TWEETING" what you're doing does not always make you appreciate more what you're doing. You'll get to enjoy what you're doing when you are with you're friends or family or a love one and not through tweeting. Besides, how can people be so sure that what the person tweeted is true or not. Once a person tweeted something it's out in the public and this could affect the privacy and even the security of a person. It will be publicize, what a person is doing, where a person is and the like. Plus not all of the topics in twitter are that academic and intellectual (such as Bustin Jieber, mini lady gaga and such). Tweeting can't add more appreciation to what a person is doing and it can even risk the security of a person."
- June 12th: PhillTellsYou added a pro video: Debate: Ending US sanctions on Cuba.
- Irzamj made an argument on Debate: Does Islam promote violence?.
- June 11th: Founder Brooks Lindsay just completed Debate: Instant replay in baseball for the debate digest.
- June 10th: Lipi argued US drinking age "has failed to reduce the ailing habit of drinking".
- June 7th: Renergy fixed a couple of links on Debate: Superdelegates and reverted vandalism on Debate: Gays in the US military.
- Martzianu made the following argument on Debate: Is Internet access a human right?: "Internet access is no right, but means of entertainment. It enables individuals to acquire information and other activities. But is also harmful. How many nights have you stood in front of the PC surfing the net wildly or playing a game? Also there is a lot of free pornografic material that any child who can type his name using a keyboard can access them. Do you want to make a world when a mother tells her child: "you cannot stay on the internet anymore" that she has taken a right from him? Compare taking the right for a home or for education with taking the "right" to access the internet."
- May 28th: Destinero made excellent contributions to Debate: Gay marriage, Debate: Gay adoption.
- May 27th: Wingzero898 edited Debate: Abolition of nuclear weapons.
- May 26th: Brooks Lindsay finished writing an op-ed on the burqa ban debate: Op-ed: Criticize the burqa, don’t ban it (unless necessary)
- May 22nd: Brooks Lindsay has been editing Debate: Ban on Muslim burqa and niqab in order to prepare it for the Debate Digest.
- May 22nd: Lenkahabetinova added the following argument to Debate: Globalization: "On the whole, women have been harmed more than men by globalization. Structural adjustment programs often force countries in the developing world to streamline the economy and redirect spending away from social welfare and toward export sectors and other profit-yielding enterprises. This can lead to a reduction in or elimination of many social welfare programs such as health, food, and housing subsidies. Women on average are poorer than men and, as such, are the majority of those dependent on social welfare programs. Therefore, elimination or reduction in these programs affects them disproportionately to men."
- May 20th: User:Lenkahabetinova continues excellent review of others' work via Recent Changes and has been organizing articles by categorizing them (by placing something like [[Category:Economics]] at the bottom of an article. In addition, she's been deleting inappropriate articles, or ones that don't qualify for existence on Debatepedia.org, like articles that are merely descriptions of a famous person and not debates.
- May 19th: Cartoonhead5 added a number of quotes from the Quran to Debate: Does Islam promote violence?, supporting the pro side of the debate. The included: Qur'an 2:10: "In their hearts is a disease, and Allah increaseth their disease. A painful doom is theirs because they lie." Qur'an 98:6: "Verily those who believe not, among those who have received the scriptures, and among the idolaters, [shall be cast] into the fire of hell, to remain therein [for ever]. These are the worst of creatures."
- Faltzer wrote on Debate: Gun control: "The idea of a criminal not messing with you if you have a firearm is flawed, and it is contradictory to the definition of concealed. To be concealed is to be out of visual reach; to not be seen. How exactly would an assailant know if the intended victim is carrying a concealed firearm?"
- May 17th: Debate: Mine Ban Treaty (Ottawa Treaty) - just finished refining this article for the Debate Digest.
- May 16th: Ektamehandru created Debate: Social injustice is the root cause of terrorism. Debate article is empty.
- May 15th: Ifisher18 has been developing Debate: Greece bailout.
- May 14th: ProCon wrote on Debate: Path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the US: "Illegal immigrants do more harm than good; deport them. Illegal immigrants undoubtably bring many benefits to the US. However, they bring much more harm than good. They increase the poverty rate in the areas they live in. They most likely are a bad influence on the Americans they live near with. They come to the US illegally and beg for legal citizenship so they can get rights they don't deserve. They came to here illegally and want citizenship so that they can have rights and abuse the US system. They decrease the morale of the parts they live in because of discrimination and also because of the suspicion, the fear they bring in because of their image of being criminals and drug dealers. Why should we grant them citizenship when they're here first illegaly?"
- May 13th: On Debate: Abortion: In response to the idea of abortion being a way to protect a child from an adverse upbringing, Christinahahn94 wrote, "The child's life is being taken away. His or her life is gone before he or she has gotten a chance to live. That is the ultimate injustice, hazard."
- May 12th: Debate: Mine Ban Treaty (Ottawa Treaty) in the news as US considers joining.
- May 11th: Blahh edited Debate: Military draft.
- May 10th: Jhammond930. created and built-out Debate: Illegal immigration.
- May 9th: Obama and the US consider joining the land mine ban.[3] See: Debate: Mine Ban Treaty (Ottawa Treaty)
- May 7th: Himbeerstee pointed out on Debate: South Ossetia independence that S. Ossetian independence has been diplomatically recognized by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Nauru.
- May 5th: Tascha edited Debate: Are schools that are not current on technology limiting their students?.
- Founder Brooks Lindsay created Debate: Pantheism vs. Deism (empty).
- Helala documented a number of argument quotes on Debate: Climate change mitigation vs adaptation, including: "The Stern Review argues that mitigation is economically efficient. ". HM Treasury. 14 April. 2009 - "The Review estimates the annual costs of stabilisation at 500-550ppm CO2e to be around 1% of GDP by 2050 - a level that is significant but manageable."... "BAU (business as usual) climate change will reduce welfare by an amount equivalent to a reduction in consumption per head of between 5 and 20%."
- May 4th: Fajar edited Debate: Gay adoption, laying out the argument that some religions have rules laying out that homosexuality is not healthy and therefore that gay adoption is not healthy.
- May 3rd: Lenkahabetinova reverted a vandalism on Debate: Single-sex schools.
- May 2nd: Pandeism built out his user profile page.
- May 1st: Ifisher18 has been building out Debate: US special relationship with Israel
- PrasannaJugade created a background section for Debate: Are social networking sites a major distraction from education?
- April 30th: Scottsblufffergie created Debate: School issued laptops.
- Penwen360: On Debate: Compulsory voting: "Even if enforceable, compulsory voting causes anti-govt feelings. Democracy is based on the freewill of the individual. Enforcing participation invalidates this."
- April 25th: Andrdfry added the following argument to Debate: Women in combat: "Russia used women in many different battles during WWII and saw great things with the all female unites. The problem was not about the female unites though. The problem was with the male unites around the female unites had the lowest morale out of all the unites. Seeing women injured or killed made many unites lose complete control."
- April 25th: Andrdfry added the following argument to Debate: Women in combat: "Russia used women in many different battles during WWII and saw great things with the all female unites. The problem was not about the female unites though. The problem was with the male unites around the female unites had the lowest morale out of all the unites. Seeing women injured or killed made many unites lose complete control."
- Voltaire wrote the following argument on Debate: Graduated response antipiracy laws: "Enforcing copyright law online is simply infeasible. Copyright violations are numerous. Many don't even know that they're breaking the law. Even more don't care. Copyright violations is a huge problem, but trying to tackle is like trying to tackle the problem of drugs. It's impossible, and we let the problem balloon up even before we knew what the problem was. Monitoring everybody in the internet is one thing, trying to stop them from violating copyrights is another. Too expensive, too wasteful, too huge. The money and resources spent on tackling this problem by graduated antipiracy response laws would be better spent on creating more jobs, and fighting terrorists in the Middle East."
- April 24th: Dyermaker. added a number of arguments to Debate: Rehabilitation vs retribution
- April 20th: John W added a number of useful links to Debate: Is climate change chiefly human-caused?, and made an argument on Debate: Is global warming a crisis?.
- Lenkahabetinova added related article links to a number of articles surrounding climate change.
- Gracec94 made a grammatical edit on Debate: Lowering of drinking age
- April 17th: Lenkahabetinova added the following argument to Debate: China "one child" policy: "China's "one child" policy causes "gendercide". According to The Economist [4], at least 100 million girls have disappeared in China. They were either "aborted, killed, or neglected to death"- and the number is rising. "...[C]ouples want two children—or, as in China, are allowed only one—they will sacrifice unborn daughters to their pursuit of a son. That is why sex ratios are most distorted in the modern, open parts of China and India."
- April 15th: Community begins work on next Debate Digest article: Debate: Graduated response antipiracy laws
- April 14th: Debate Digest: Debate: Network neutrality.
- April 12th: Ihlybro made a comment on the discussion page of Debate: Lowering US drinking age from 21 to 18: "Yes they should because if you can die for your country you should be able to drink."
- April 11th: Bbritton made major grammatical edits to Debate: Legalization of Marijuana.
- April 8th: Debate Digest: Debate: Constitutionality of US health insurance mandates.
- April 5th: Ruth wrote the following on Debate: Was the world created in six days?: "God did create in six days literally. He is God after all, don't you think He is supposed to be that good? For some reason people don't want to believe it because according to us, it is impossible. Fact is, God can do all things, even those things that seem impossible to us."
- April 4th: Sjdixon wrote the following argument on Debate: Google decision to stop censoring results in China: "Google's decision to step out of China has reduced access to free and fair information. An important consequence of the Google search engine is that it is possible to look up information on an extremely diverse range of topics in a short amount of time. By withdrawing from China, Google reduces the opportunity for individuals to find relevant information. Consequently, individuals have less information to make important decisions regarding economic transactions, and form independent opinions on political, social, or human rights issues."
- April 2nd: Lenkahabetinova wrote on Debate: Ban on advertising: "Advertising curbs imperfect information. Advertising curbs imperfect information. Advertising is necessary for consumers, as it not only promotes new products, but it also provides essential information. Imperfect information can result in market failure, therefore anything that limits it should be encouraged."
- April 1st: TheDream245 wrote on the discussion page of Debate: Condoms in schools: "YES Because most teens today dont get the proper talk about safe sex and how protection is the best way to go...."
- March 31st: Lenkahabetinova reverted an edit made on Debate: Military draft. You can see that change here.
- March 29th: Browneyedlady made the following comment on Talk:Debate: Legalization of Marijuana: "IN THE BIBLE (GENESIS 1;29-30) GOD HAS SAID HERE I HAVE GIVEN TO YOU ALL VEGETATION BEARING SEED WHICH IS ON THE SURFACE OF THE WHOLE EARTH AND EVERY TREE ON WHICH THERE IS THE FRUIT OF A TREE BEARING SEED TO YOU LET IT SERVE AS FOOD. AND TO EVERY WILD BEAST OF THE EARTH AND TO EVERY FLYING CREATURE OF THE HEAVENS AND TO EVERY THING MOVING UPON THE EARTH IN WHICH THERE IS LIFE AS A SOUL I HAVE GIVEN ALL GREEN VEGETATION FOR FOOD."
- March 27th: Rmjharris outlined the following argument on Debate: Abortion: " Abortion may be immoral, but it is still a woman's right Norval Morris and Gordon Hawkins, The Honest Politician's Guide to Crime Control, 1970: "Abortion may be sinful or immoral, but it is not the function of the law to enforce the whole of morality. It is difficult to understand what religious or moral principle, what divine or human purpose, is served by compelling underprivileged women to undergo pregnancy for the full term and to bear unsought and frequently unwanted children or to risk sickness or death at the hands of incompetent and frequently lecherous and importunate abortionists. No doubt the fact that the price of maintaining this principle is paid almost exclusively by the poor has delayed its critical examination."[5]
- March 25th: Sholek wrote the following argument/comment on Talk:Debate:TV does more harm than good: "Television Does More Harm Than Good. Rather than increasing the educational channels, television are promoting harmful programs such as violence, sexual activities and also drugs. Television promotes harmful programs rather than focusing on education."
- March 24th: Concluding site-wide effort to make it clearer how to comment on the discussion pages that come with every article. (See the "discussion" tab at the top of every article).
- March 22nd: Rohan G outlined on Debate: Death penalty the following argument: "Wrongful convictions do not mean that the system is wrong. It is true that occasionally people are wrongly executed under the capital punishment. However, this does not mean that the death penalty should be abolished. Rather, it means that suspects should be scrutinized more closely."
- March 21st: Lenkahabetinova has been helping post the following message to talk pages in order to make it easier for users to understand what they can do: "Click on the '+' tab above to add a comment, or just click 'edit'. Sign your comment by writing "~~~~" at the end. Join us on Facebook for broader community discussion."
- March 20th: TeaCii wrote on Debate: Crime cameras: "Inexpensive camera viewing services are availalable. There are professional services which provide very inexpensive camera viewing over the internet. This is a serious option for people who cannot view their own cameras 24x7 but still would like the service. Check out."Virtual Video Guard
- March 19th: Debate: War on Drugs was posted to the Debate Digest. It was left, though, with many sections blank or under-developed in order to give other users a greater opportunity to write and document arguments."
- March 17th: Founder Brooks Lindsay created the empty pro/con article Debate: Pill testing at night clubs. Feel free to be the first to edit this article.
- March 16th: JusticeForAll. made an extensive argument on Talk:Debate: Gay marriage. "To understand Christ's view on marriage, it is worthwhile to consider his own words. In particular Matthew 19 which covers Christs general notes on marriage and divorce. Matthew 19:12: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2019:12&version=KJV "For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." In Christs day, the Greek word Eunukos was used for gay people. The same word is used in Daniel 1:4-9 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=daniel%201:4-9&version=KJV which concludes "Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. [...] So why do so-called "Christians" use out of context passages to punish innocent taxpaying citizens for what they are? Certainly Christ himself would be "rolling over in his grave" to see this type of behavior. Or perhaps it is simply a test of who understands the Word, and who doesn't."
- March 15th. Wayne Smith added content to Debate: Proportional Representation and an argument on it: Argument: Proportional representation and coalition governments are weaker.
- March 14th. Debate: Democracy was further developed by Lenkahabetinova.
- March 13th. Debate: National firearms registry was created by Marykay.
- March 12th. Debate: Allowing Lehman Brothers to fail was created by TheKing.
- March 11th. Liberationfromwithin argued on Debate: Capitalism vs socialism that "capitalism necessitates war for profit."
- March 10th. Mr.hamilton made some editorial improvements to Debate: Guantanamo Bay detention center.
- March 9th. Stc123 vandalized Debate: Gun control and his/her edits were reverted.
- March 6th. Lenkahabetinova. added the following argument to Debate: Trade vs aid: "Free trade benefits developing countries more than protectionism. People naturally want to trade with each other, seeking to turn their particular resources or skills to their advantage. All too often trade is limited not because government action is needed, but because the government actually gets in the way with restrictive rules and statist controls. For example, regardless of their terms of trade with developed nations, developing countries could all become more prosperous if they removed the barriers they have erected to trade with each other. Putting the emphasis on trade rather than aid redirects attention from what developed states should or could be doing for the developing world, to what developing countries can and should do for themselves."
- March 1-5: Debate: Gay marriage was built-out on Debatepedia for the Debate Digest. It is the most comprehensive pro/con article available on the topic, representing a major achievement and contribution to this historic controversy and settling it.
- March 2: Suzy argued against Kangaroo culling in Australia on the basis that Kangaroos are native to Australia, living in harmony with the environment, and that it is unfair to kill them for not cooperating with unnatural farmland.
- February 27th: Lenkahabetinova created and built-out Debate: Is NATO a relic?. Needs a background section, more arguments, and a pro/con sources section.
- February 25th/26th: Debate: Gay marriage became the focus of efforts on Debatepedia, in an initiative to make it into the next Debate Digest article. This will be accompanied by efforts across all the.
- February 23rd: Liberationfromwithin and Founder User:Brooks Lindsay continued to work on Debate: Capitalism vs socialism. The argument that was deleted was "School uniforms are a tradition worth keeping.".
- February 19th: Rust5532 created and built-out Debate: Saving parking spaces in snow storms.
- February 18th: Debatepedia completed a major portal on The People Speak Global Debates (Spring 2010) as well as a significant pro/con article on the topic: Debate: Increase UN Annex I aid for climate change adaptation. Lenkahabetinova added a resource to the portal on adaptation to drought in Ethiopia.
- Debate: US special relationship with Israel was created by Founder Brooks Lindsay.
- February 17th: Salman2135: edited an argument on Civil unions vs. gay marriage: "Civil unions still 'separate, but equal' if straights can do it. The idea that opening civil unions to straights solves the problem of civil unions be "separate, but unequal" fails a very simple test. While heterosexuals may have equal access to civil unions, do gays have equal access to marriage? No. Clearly, therefore, allowing straights to participate in civil unions while continuing to deny gays the right to marry does not nullify the argument that civil unions are akin to "separate but equal" and actually unequal."
- February 15th: JZ outlined on Debate: Vegetarianism the following argument: "A strictly vegetarian diet can promote health problems. Humans with vegetarian diets are more likely to suffer from fatigue, apathetic behavior, and a lack of concentration. These could negatively affect proficiency in school and the ability to perform well at the site of someone's profession. Other conditions include frequently becoming ill, frequently becoming depressed, and malnourishment."
- Scottxilla started some arguments on Debate: One-way, one-person mission to Mars. Lenkahabetinova then wrote a message of encouragement to Scottxilla.
- February 14th: Farel 85 created a debate article: Debate: Privatization of education.
- February 13th: Legoktm Added a sentence to the argument "Capitalism fosters, does not prevent, charity" on Debate: Capitalism vs socialism, writing "Some examples of rich people who donated to charity are Bill Gates, Oprah, and others."
- February 10th: Lenkahabetinova has been overhauling Debate: Gay marriage, which has needed attention for months. The article has received over 60,000 page views in-counting, and thus justifies an extensive effort on the part of Debatepedia's community to improve the article (if you feel like helping out! :) ).
- February 8th: Work is being done on two debate articles in particular: Debate: Capitalism vs socialism and Debate: Corporate personhood. The second debate follows the controversy surrounding the US Supreme Court's Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission ruling which ruled in favor of giving corporations rights such as the right to free speech, which allows them to spend unlimited amounts of money on campaign ads, with the defense of "free speech".
- February 3rd: Cvenable created Debate: Are the ads or game more entertaining on Super Bowl Sunday?. The article has few arguments, so fee free to add some.
- February 1-4: Founder Brooks Lindsay worked on Debate: Corporate free speech.
- January 28th: Voltaire outlined on Debate: Capitalism vs socialism, "Socialism has control, unlike capitalism. Socialist economies are very well planned and has control over all the industries, thus providing a guiding hand in building and contstructing its economy. A government wants its country to succeed, however a corpo
- January 26th: Debatewhiz18 created Debate: Should Congress delegate law-making authority?.
- January 27th: Liberationfromwithin has been building Capitalism vs socialism.
- January 26th: Voltaire outlined the following argument on Debate: Big government: Big govenment = Big growth. Throughout history, there were several big, liberal governments. Peter the Great (Russia), Catherine the Great (Russia), FDR (US), Park-Chung-Hee (South Korea), Sejong the Great (South Korea), Elizabeth the First (Britain), among other leaders. Under these leaders, the country they governed reached great economic growth. For example, look at Park-Chung-Hee of South Korea. Although a military dictator, he funneled growth by government leadership. He sharpened the industrial sector, began ordering production, and spent taxpayer's money on expanding the economy. Now, look at South Korea. It's one of the finest success stories in the world. South Korea was turned from a devastated, farming, poor country into the 13th largest economy in 3 decades. There is overwhelming evidence that big, liberal governments help improve the economy dramatically."
- January 25th:
- On Full-body scanners at airports fill out empty health-effects and economics sub-debate sections.
- On College football playoffs document the arguments and quotations found in ProCon.org's article on the topic into Debatepedia's article and structure.
- Build out new debates: Debate: "Too big to fail", Debate: Gambling tax, [[Debate: Full-body scanners at airports].
- Read Andrew Coyne. "The Case Against First Past the Post." September 26, 2007 and document arguments/quotes in Debate: First past the post voting.
- January 24th: Sleepless edited Debate: "Under God" in the American Pledge of Allegiance, outlining the following argument: added the argument: "Testing demonstrates 'under God' is not secular. For a religious person to understand the impact of this phrase, one can hypothetically propose a slight change. Introduce the phrase 'Under Godess' a phrase that would be compatible with some religions. Most religious people would take offense to such a change, on the grounds that you would be warping the minds of the young people who have to say this every day. If it is true that the phrase 'Under God' is not to be construed as a religious ceremony, then what difference would changing this to 'Goddess' make? Clearly, those who believe in a Goddess, would be offended by the current phrase, and this does not preserve the proper separation of church and state."
- January 24th: Jambaugh outlined on Debate: Communism the argument that "common ownership of the means of production is impossible: Ownership is control. The means of production will not be plentiful enough that all who choose to utilize it will have it available. Someone will need to decide who is granted access to the means and who is not worthy. That someone is the true owner of the means of production. Note that the same is true in capitalistic corporations. Nominally the share-holders own the company collectively but it is the executive board who controls it."
- January 23rd: HeisenbergUncertainty outlined an argument in the "economics" section of Debate: Full-body scanners at airports which read: "A Human Life is priceless." This was refined by Lenkahabetinova to read "The price of a human life is incalculable." The point being that the economic cost of implementing a full-body scanner may pail in comparison to the value of the human life it may save.
- January 22nd: HeisenbergUncertainty outlined an argument against gun control, noting that "The 2008 Supreme Court Case of District of Columbia v. Heller affirmed the earlier D.C. Appeals Court case of Parker v. District of Columbia, which determined that handguns qualify as, and should thus be considered as, "arms" under the Second Amendment."
- January 21st: 78.monkeys outlined the following argument on Debate: Year-round school: "Year-round schooling offers three month-long breaks. Instead of having summer break for 3 months year long school would have school for 3 months and a month of break. Students that like winter sports will have a chance to play them. Students that like summer sports they will be able to swim too. Every body is happy...."
- January 20th: DominekB and Founder Brooks Lindsay have been working on the case for Debate: Lobbying. The case against it needs to be developed as well if anybody would like to give this a try.
- January 19th: Webeditor outlined the following argument on Debate: DNA database of criminals: "DNA database solves less than one per cent of recorded crimes: Figures suggest that less than 1% of all recorded crime is solved with the help of the DNA database, which equates to 32,200 crimes."[6]
- January 15th: Shrey13 argued on Debate: Full-body scanners at airports: "safety comes first."
- January 14th: Mason11987 edited Debate: Evolution.
- January 14th: Founder Brooks Lindsay added three con arguments to Debate: First past the post voting.
- January 11th: Thedurbinator argued that "Sleep Deprivation is Wholly up to the Subject" on Debate: Enhanced interrogation techniques.
- January 10th: Crazykid created Debate: Civil disobedience is justified to protest UC fee hikes.
- January 8-11th: Renergy created and developed Debate: Twin Towers reconstruction.
- January 8th: Pippipip developed Restriction on freedom of speech.
- January 8th: TVaclavicek outlined a defense of Debate: Barack Obama awarded Nobel Peace Prize, by arguing that Barack Obama inherited war, and is not a war-monger.
- January 6th: Luijime made an argument on Debate: Geothermal energy that the industry does not create jobs, it just saves jobs lost from the decline of the oil industry.
- January 3rd: Paranoid argued, "Socialism in the Soviet Union has been successful in many regards" on Debate: Capitalism vs socialism.
[Edit]
2009
- December 19-20: Lenkahabetinova continued to refine debates all across Debatepedia, adding table of contents, categorizing and tidying up the source code.
- December 17th: Brooks Lindsay created a number of new debate articles: Debate: Developed world climate change debt to developing world, Debate: Freeze on new Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, Debate: US arms sales to Taiwan.
- December 15th: AtLiberty argued voters have a right to vote on all legislation on Debate: Direct democracy.
- December 15th: The guy argued for the historicity of Jesus on the basis of documents outside of the Bible, such as Lucian and Tacitus.
- December 14th: Kinderlissie created and extensively developed Debate: Upper oceanic heat transport.
- December 14th: Karleyberry created Debate: Curfew laws.
- 13th: Lenkahabetinova has launched a site-wide effort to link similar articles together in "see also" sections appearing at the bottom of every article.
- December 11th: Kinderlissie created and developed Debate: Upper oceanic heat transport in a really eloquent way, Renergy retouched the title.
- December 10th: Liberationfromwithin has been developing Business with human rights violators
- December 9th: Dipesh created Debate: Are degrees eseential to success in life?
- December 8th: Pranaybhatia02 added a couple of arguments to Debate: EU federalism
- December 7th: Femi created Debate: Safe injection sites for heroin addicts.
- December 6th: Phoenix outlined argument: "Having an abortion is just as wrong as the rape itself" on Debate: Abortion.
- December 6th: Roshni90 made new contributions to Debate: National DNA database.
- December 4th: Lenkahabetinova cleaned up Debate: Tibet independence.
- December 3rd: Brooks Lindsay worked on Debate: Affirmative action.
- December 2nd: Renergy added arguments to Debate: Fusion power.
- November 30th: Brooks Lindsay created Debate: National DNA database.
- November 30th: Lenkahabetinova worked on Video surveillance.
- November 30th: Mvanhoomissen created Debate: Geoengineering
- November 30th: Lovemusic3005 created Debate: American supremacy is sacrosanct.
- November 29th: Lenkahabetinova developed Argument: Direct democracy lacks accountability of decision-making on Debate: Direct democracy.
- November 28th: Renergy made new contributions to Debate: French health care system.
- November 26th: Msj14031992 created Debate: Legalization of homosexuality in India
- November 25th: Cardtosser argued that evolution does not teach enough about God on Debate: Creationism vs evolution in schools.
- November 25th: Ruffles50 improved grammar and argument structure on Debate: Ban on smoking in public places.
- November 25th: Renergy wrote the con argument that "social networking sites make it possible to maintain fictional identity" on Debate: Social networking sites.
- November 24th: User:Renergy argued on Debate: Manned mission to Mars that a "manned mission to Mars could bring medical advancements."
- November 22nd: Lenkahabetinova outlined an argument for Debate: Direct democracy.
- November 20th: Brooks Lindsay has been building up Debate: Trying 9/11 terrorist suspects in New York civilian courts.
- November 18th: Pliddell outlined on Debate: Hydroelectric dams the argument that "The construction of dams destroys previous recreational opportunities."
- November 18th: Meyerjr created Debate: Should we eat fast food?
- November 17th: Renergy has been doing excellent, hard work building Debate: Thorium based nuclear energy.
- November 13th: Neolithicman made significant contributions in building arguments against Debate: Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- November 13th: Brooks Lindsay has been building up Debate: Gene patents.
- November 12th: Jambaugh outlined the following argument against a fat tax: "The virtue of a free society is the diversity of individual behavior."
- 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: More troops to Afghanistan under Obama, 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 Mandatory 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: Comprehensive 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: Gay marriage 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: Gay marriage 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 official language on May 5, 2009.
- Jdplaya created Debate: Student cell phones in school on May 5, 2009.
- Ty1980 created a sub-debate section on Debate: Legalization of Marijuana on May 5, 2009.
- Azraa created Debate: Has democracy helped third world countries? on May 4, 2009.
- Classifired edited Debate: Assisted suicide 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."[7],[8]
- Joel created Debate: Physical Education 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 Debate: Gay marriage 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