1998-1999 Resolutions

These are various topics from regular season and other national tournaments. These were submitted by tournament directors. NPDA does not officially approve these topics.

College of Southern Idaho

Submitted by Chris Bragg

  • Round 1: THBT journalstic integrity is dead.
  • Round 2: TH believes American culture places too great an emphasis on athletic success.
  • Round 3: TH would use taxation to regulate behavior.
  • Round 4: TH favors censure over impeachment.
  • Round 5: TH would give aid to Russia.
  • Quarterfinals: TH would rather make the playoffs than win the home run title.
  • Semifinals: TH would get out of the stock market.
  • Finals: TH would save the surplus.

Longview Community College

Submitted by Timothy Hughes, Longview Community College

  • Round 1: TH would install a ring into it’s navel
  • Round 2: TH believes rap music is cruel & unusual punishment
  • Round 3: TH would eat sushi
  • Round 4: TH says, "God save the Queen"
  • Round 5: TH would pass GO, but not collect $200
  • Round 6: TH believes Zorro had a gay blade
  • Quarterfinals: TH would place sexual warning labels on cigars
  • Semifinals: TH would clone dinosaurs
  • Finals: TH believes discretion is a joke

Vocal Viking, Bethany Lutheran

Submitted by Dr. Tom Kuster, Bethany Lutheran College

  • Round 1: TH would let the world police itself.
  • Round 2: TH would travel through time if it could.
  • Round 3: TH would not stand by her man.
  • Round 4: TH would change instructional methods.
  • Semifinal: TH does not want justice.
  • Final: TH believes privacy is overrated.

Cheap and Easy, Oregon State

Submitted by Trischa Goodnow Knapp, Oregon State University

  • Round 1: TH would let the people decide
  • Round 2: TH would rebalance the powers
  • Round 3: TH would sacrifice a free press for individual privacy
  • Round 4: TH believes the American public has lost its work ethic
  • Round 5: TH believes revolution is necessary to evolution
  • Round 6: TH believes art is the essence of a nation’s character
  • Quarters: (in honor of the baseball playoffs) TH would root for the underdog
  • Semis: TH would not stand by her man
  • Finals: TH would steal the beggar’s tin cup

Parliamentary League of the Upper Midwest #1

Submitted by Dr. Tom Kuster, Bethany Lutheran College

  • Round 1: TH deplores the issuing of credit cards to students.
  • Round 2: TH would retaliate immediately.
  • Round 3: THBT deception is necessary to succeed in politics.
  • Bronze Round: TH would sling mud.
  • Gold Round: TH prefers fantasy to reality.

Parliamentary League of the Upper Midwest #2

Submitted by Dr. Tom Kuster, Bethany Lutheran College

  • Round 1: TH rejects the Disney style.
  • Round 2: TH desires more guns.
  • Round 3: TH would modify the U.S. system of national holidays.
  • Bronze Round: TH would require volunteering.
  • Gold Round: TH would jump off the bandwagon.

Northwest Forensics Conference

Submitted by Jim Hanson, Whitman College

  • Novice Parli Topics:
    • Round 1: THBT gun manufacturers should be held liable for gun related deaths.
    • Round 2: THBT when in conflict, rehabilitation should take precedence over punishment.
    • Round 3: TH should include illegally obtained evidence in trials.
    • Round 4: THBT the juvenile crime system should increase the rights of the accused.
    • Round 5: THBT the federal government should enact a "3 strikes and you’re out" policy.
    • Round 6: THBT the federal government should restrict hate speech.
    • Octafinals: TH should build more prisons and jails. (not used; no octas occurred)
    • Quarterfinals: The Federal government should increase support for community policing.
    • Semifinals: TH would no longer require unanimous verdicts in jury trials.
    • Finals: THBT a civil libertarian approach to the law is superior to a communitarian approach to the law.
  • Junior/Senior Parli Topics:
    • Round 1: THBT gun manufacturers should be held liable for gun related deaths.
    • Round 2: THBT when in conflict, energy production should be valued over salmon runs.
    • Round 3: TH would kick the tire.
    • Round 4: THBT the pen is mightier than the sword.
    • Round 5: THBT when in conflict, the collective good should be valued over individual good.
    • Round 6: THBT the federal government should restrict hate speech.
    • Octafinals: TH would change the law so that the US Census would use sampling.
    • Quarterfinals: TH should repeal China’s most favored nation status. (This topic was switched to "Quebec should secede" to rectify a pairing error.)
    • Semis: THBT the American economic system is more harming than helping the world economy.
    • Finals: THBT a civil libertarian approach to the law is superior to a communitarian approach to the law.

Parliamentary League of the Upper Midwest #3

Submitted by Dr. Tom Kuster, Bethany Lutheran College

  • Round 1: THBT diet-watching is overrated.
  • Round 2: TH would require every college student to possess a laptop computer.
  • Round 3: TH prefers amateur politicians.
  • Bronze Round: TH prefers alternative medicine.
  • Gold Round: TH would pluck the roses before they wither.

Parliamentary League of the Upper Midwest #4

Submitted by Dr. Tom Kuster, Bethany Lutheran College

  • Round 1: TH deplores multiple births of more than three children.
  • Round 2: TH believes the press should decline to report on the private lives of politicians.
  • Round 3: TH considers war obsolete.
  • Bronze Round: TH would limit U.S. presidential campaigns to 6 months.

THBT Classic

Submitted by Dr. Tom Kuster, Bethany Lutheran College

  • Round 1: THBT popular culture is in decline.
  • Round 2: TH would abolish the special prosecutor.
  • Round 3: TH believes the individual doesn’t matter.
  • Round 4: TH believes in the power of great clothes.
  • Round 5: TH considers public service in politics too great a sacrifice.
  • Bronze Round: TH doesn’t care enough to send the very best.
  • Gold Round: TH would live life to the fullest

Metro State (partial topic listing)

Courtesy of Scott Gratson, Metro State

  • Octafinals: TH belives that you should smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.
  • Quarterfinals: TH would recognize Taiwan.
  • Semis: TH would drink the hemlock"
  • (Finals): "THBT sexuality is the new Macarthyism".

Peachbelt Classic (Georgia College & State University)

courtesy of David Muschell, Georgia College & State University

  • Round 1:
    • TH would cry over spilt milk.
    • TH would change presidential elections.
  • Round 2:
    • TH believes in painting the town red.
    • THBT the U.S. government should take measures to substantially improve natural disaster relief.
  • Round 3:
    • THBT nice guys finish first.
    • TH would turn off the TV.
  • Round 4:
    • TH would rather be happy than healthy.
    • TH believes you should invest in foreign markets.
  • Round 5:
    • TH believes in the survival of the fittest.
    • THBT the U.S. government should stop subsidizing farmers.
  • Semifinals:
    • THBT debate should be honest.
    • THBT space travel should be privatized.
  • Finals:
    • THBT tears are the best medicine.
    • THBT childhood is more important than adulthood.

University of Colorado Ray of Hope

courtesy of Michelin Massey, University of Colorado

  • Round 1: Resolved: The United States’s drug war is justified.
  • Round 2: TH would rather die on its feet than live on its knees.
  • Round 3: The United States Government should substantially increase funding to school districts.
  • Round 4: TH believes in Kantian standards of morality.
  • Round 5: Resolved: judges should be allowed to disclose at all NPDA tournaments.
  • Round 6: TH would rethink postmodernism.
  • Quarterfinals: Resolved: Altruism is a superior value to egoism, when they conflict.
  • Semifinals: Resolved: the United States Federal Government should substantially increase its role in Kosovo.
  • Finals: TH believes in legal realism.

University of Oklahoma Sweetheart Invitational

courtesy of Michelle Mazur

  • Round 1: TH values the process over the outcome.
  • Round 2: TH should intervene in Russia.
  • Round 3: THBT the American dream is dead.
  • Round 4: TH would stop science.
  • Round 5: TH would hold education responsible.
  • Round 6: TH would listen to the marketplace.
  • Semifinals: THBT statistics are rhetoric.
  • Finals: THBT progress is a myth.

Gorlok Invitational (Webster University)

courtesy of Scott Jensen, Webster University

Note: These were the topics used — no round-by-round is available, with the exception of finals.

  • TH agrees with Don Henley that we are seeing the end of our innocence.
  • THBT America’s policies of hegemony should become policies of the past.
  • Be it Resolved that the United States expand policies of gun control.
  • TH would surf.
  • Be it Resolved that the United States reform its election process.
  • TH would push the envelope.
  • TH would be colorblind.
  • TH would forgive and forget.
  • Finals: THBT where there is smoke, there is fire.

Sunset Cliffs Classic (Pt. Loma Nazarene)

courtesy of Skip Rutledge, Pt. Loma Nazarene University

  • Round 1: THBT Americans’ Constitutional rights are being too harshly infringed.
  • Round 2: Resolved: The United States is a terrorist state.
  • Round 3: THBT a rose by any other name still smells as sweet.
  • Round 4: TH should significantly strengthen its efforts to resolve the Kosovo tragedy.
  • Round 5: THBT the truth is not out there.
  • Round 6: Resolved the current U.S. Tax Code should be replaced with a flat tax system.
  • First Elimination Round: THBT the Emperor is wearing no clothes.
  • Second Elimination Round: Resolved that the U.S. has overplayed the sanction card.
  • Third Elimination Round: TH would adopt a superior alternative to affirmative action.
  • Fourth Elimination Round: Resolved that Parliamentary Debate should be significantly reformed.
  • Fifth Elimination Round: Resolved that on balance, the impeachment trial of President Clinton has strengthened the U.S. political process.

Novice Nationals

  • Round 1: TH would live and let live.
  • Round 2: Be it resolved that Americans are too impatient.
  • Round 3: TH would make morality an important part of foreign policy.
  • Round 4: THBT the purpose of college is to prepare people for work.
  • Round 5: THBT Jerry Springer illustrates what’s wrong with America.
  • Quarters: Be it resolved that the U.S. must be harder on Israel.
  • Semis: TH would set the captives free.
  • Finals: TH should use a hammer to get its point across.