Jesus Christ

I thought speech and debate in the States was hypercompetitive.

Scandal hits famed Oxford debating club

Though, to be fair, that kind of drama is everywhere.

We hit an Oxford debate team my freshman year of college. They traveled all over the U.S. debating American teams. They kicked our asses fair and sqaure. On our home turf with our own students and professors and hometown folks voting. It was a great time.

Wouldn't it be nice to have reasonable debates and discussions, somewhere, about important matters where the ideas and outcomes mattered more than the egos?

Though I have to say that speech, debate, literary, comedy, film, research, and university cirlces are about as close as you get. It'd just be nice to have more of that, especially around important political issues, occur in a location that you could count on. Presidential debates hardly fit the bill. The blogosphere is nice and broad and accessible, which is what I like about it. But I'm thinking about something more engaged and serious, with maybe some room for the Eric Cartman in all of us. I'll keep working on that one.