query: Should insider trading be allowed?

positive: A free market devoid of all government intervention would hurt the U.S. economy The topic is: A free market devoid of all government intervention would hurt the U.S. economy. I started this same debate, but my opponent forfeited. I've literally cut and paste from my other debate. First round includes substantive arguments. In order to win this debate, I must show at least one example of a government intervention into the free market that, if removed, would harm the economy. I will present three such examples: patents, insider trading, and market externalities, 1. Patents Currently, the U.S. Constitution permits the federal government to issue patents and copyrights for a limited duration. This is an intervention into the free market, because it prevents competitors of the patent holder from engaging in a competing enterprise. However, in the absence of such grants, the economy would be harmed because there would be less of an incentive for companies to develop new pharmaceuticals. Although invention occurred before the issuance of patents and copyrights, much of the innovation of the 20th century, particularly in the area of pharmaceuticals, occurred because patents permitted the holder to guarantee a period of economy prosperity, which in turn justified the development of new products. In the absence of patents, there would be a substantially reduced incentive to develop new drugs, which would harm the economy. 2. Insider Trading Federal laws prohibit the use of "insider information" to make decisions about buying and selling shares on a market exchange. Although the set of rules surrounding insider trading is beyond the scope of this debate, it generally prohibits people who have non-public information from using that information to buy and sell stock (usually of a company that they work for or are affiliated with). This is an intervention into the free market, because a totally free market would permit people to buy and sell stock using whatever information they have available. However, if insider trading was permitted, many investors would not have sufficient confidence in the stock market to invest their funds. Investing money into the stock market is always considered a risky venture because most companies have the potential to go bankrupt. However, most investors rely on publically available information to make their investment decisions, and feel confident that the market price accurately reflects all available information. If "insiders" such as corporate executives have access to secret information, such as the fact that a new product is likely to fail, or the company is about to be purchased by a competitor, they can use that information to make a large profit. The result is that "outsiders" stand to lose significant money in their investments. If this occurs often enough, investors will begin to lose trust in the system, and may choose not to invest their money in the stock market entirely. The stock market is the primary method of raising capital for corporations, and a lack of capital would hamper productivity, which harms the economy. 3. Market Externalities A market externality is a cost placed on someone other than the person who receives the benefit. For example, a company which dumps toxic waste into a river gets a benefit (a cheap place to dispose of waste), which people downstream on the river get a cost (it damages their land). Currently, the federal government regulates interstate waterways to prevent the dumping of toxic waste. This is an intervention into the free market, because a truly free market would not prohibit a party from maximizing its profits. However, if market externalities are not regulated by the government, the country will actually lose productivity. In a scenario where there are no controls on pollution, companies have an incentive to destroy common lands, such as rivers, public fields, and the atmosphere by disposing of their waste products. This is efficient for a company, because they don't bear the full cost of the waste disposal, yet receive all of the benefit. However, this leads them to pollute more than if they did have to pay the full costs. The result is that there is more pollution than optimal. If this reaches extreme levels, short sighted companies could permanently damage waterways and the atmosphere, which would significantly harm the economy. Conclusion Although most people would agree that there should be some government interventions into the free market, others take an absolutist view that there should be no such interventions. I believe I have demonstrated three reasons why, at the very least, there should be some interference with the free market.

positive: A free market devoid of all government intervention would hurt the U.S. economy BOP:The resolution is, ‘A free market devoid of all government intervention would hurt the U.S. economy.’ That means Pro is saying that removing all government interventions would hurt the U.S. economy. If there are 100 total government interventions, and 1 of them is slightly helpful, and the other 99 are incredibly harmful, removing ALL of them would help the U.S. economy overall. Obviously, if this were the case, it would negate the resolution. But under Pro’s interpretation, if that were true, the statement ‘a free market devoid of all government intervention would hurt the U.S. economy’ is true, because of the 1 good intervention. But this is ridiculous—removing all government interventions would help the U.S. economy overall in this scenario.What Pro probably meant to say is that ‘not all government interventions are harmful to the U.S. economy’, or be Con on ‘all government interventions are harmful’, or something like that. But that isn’t what he said.Patents:Lawyers do handle the legal work for pharmaceutical companies, but this just helps prove my point. Pharmaceutical companies are wasting valuable resources hiring lawyers and suing, rather than investing that money in more innovation.I wasn’t saying that the Watt example proved my point, it was an illustration of a general point, showing how patents hurt innovation. But if Pro would like examples more relevant to his main point, the pharmaceutical industry: Patents cause waste, by forcing companies to reengineer a slightly different version of a drug to compete with it. (see: all the different erectile dysfunction drugs you see on TV). About 75% of current R&D spending is on copycats of existing drugs. [1] In addition to wasting resources that could be spent on useful things, patents prevent innovators from producing many potentially helpful drugs. For example, Peter Ringrose, the chief scientific officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb told the New York Times that, "There were more than 50 proteins possibly involved in cancer that the company was not working on because the patent holders either would not allow it or were demanding unreasonable royalties." [2]Pro’s last argument is basically “look at these people who agree with me.” No data or facts, no arguments or logic explaining why patents work, just pro-IP people saying patents attract capital/increase innovation. This is not evidence. I’ve explained why patents hurt innovation, and provided empirical evidence showing the harmful effects of patents in the pharmaceutical industry.Insider Trading:Enron is not an example of insider trading—it was a case of fraud, which is completely different. Insider trading would be if I worked at, say, Microsoft, and I knew that the stock price was much higher than Microsoft was really worth. And so I shorted Microsoft, expecting it to go down to what Microsoft was worth, and made a lot of money. As evidence that insider trading hurts capital accumulation, Pro provides a speech by the SEC. Obviously the SEC thinks it’s doing a good job—this is hardly evidence. It’s absurd to think this claim has any merit. People don’t invest in the stock market because of all the fairness—they invest their hoping to make money. They’ll invest as far as they think they’ll profit from their investments. Insider trading causes some people to profit less, but others, the insider traders to profit more. Even if the people who profit less invested less, the insider traders would invest more, so it would cancel out. And, since insider trading communicates more accurate information to the market, it would create a more profitable market overall, increasing incentives to invest overall.Definitions:Pro states that none of his definitions have the words “private property” in them, so I’m wrong. But even if they don’t, they still all say the same thing as mine. “Free markets are simply millions upon millions of individual decision-makers, engaged in peaceable, voluntary exchange pursuing what they see in their best interests.”How could this definition make any sense if it didn’t imply respect for private property? That’s what Williams means by peaceable and voluntary. If that didn’t include respect for private property rights, then what makes government not part of the free market? If I can pollute my neighbors land in a free market, then why can’t the government tax and regulate his land in a free market? A definition of a free market that doesn’t include property rights is absurd.Furthermore, Pro didn’t define ‘free market’ in his R1, so I can define it as whatever I want.Externalities:Pro argues that without government, there would be no one to enforce property rights. This is false—private firms could compete to provide courts and police. It’s happened before—for hundreds of years, medieval Ireland had anarchic law that protected private property [3], as did the American West in the 19th century [4]. Comparisons between anarchic law and order in the early American West and government control in the same area show that private, competing protectors did a better job of protecting persons and their property than governments. [4] In fact, free competition, not government, is the origin of the English common law system, which our legal system was based on. [5] This market legal system focused on crimes against person and their private property—much more so than government legal systems, which emphasize crimes against the state, or victimless crimes like drug crimes. [5] It focused on forcing criminals to make restitution to their victims, until the kings took over, and changed the focus to punishment and payment to the state in the form of jail and fines. [5] Medieval Iceland also had a successful anarchic legal system. Victims and their families were given a legal right to pursue the criminals that wronged them and force the criminal to pay them restitution, or hire someone to do so. [6] If they couldn’t afford this, they could sell their right to someone who could afford to catch the criminal, so even crimes against the poorest people were punished. [6]Contrary to Pro’s claims, the free market would not only not cause widespread deforestation; it’s the best way to prevent it. Imagine a forest with $1 million worth of wood in it. The property itself is worth $1.2 million (the wood + other stuff the land could be used for). If this forest is privately owned, the owner would, to maximize his profits, replant trees as quickly as he cut them down. If he just cut trees without replanting, he’d get the $1 million in revenue right away, but his land would be worth $1 million less—he’d lose money overall, because of the cost of cutting down the trees. He’d want to continuously replant trees to keep the value of the land high—either so he could sell it to someone else, or cut down more trees later. Now contrast this with government controlled forests. They either wouldn’t be cut down at all, wasting potential wood, or they’d be rented out to firms that cut them. Because the firms are renting the land, they have no incentive to replant trees—they don’t care about the land’s value, because it’s not their land. The government could require companies to replant trees, but they don’t have to, have no incentive to, and therefore often don’t. Sources:[1] Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine, Against Intellectual Monopoly (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 226.[2] Pollack, A. (2001), "Bristol-Myers and Athersys Make Deal on Gene Patents," New York Times, January 8.[3] https://mises.org...[4] https://mises.org...[5] http://findarticles.com...[6] http://www.daviddfriedman.com...

positive: A free market devoid of all government intervention would hurt the U.S. economy BOP: Pro claims that he only needs to find a single example of a beneficial government intervention to fulfill his burden of proof. This is absurd—he claims that “a free market devoid of all government intervention would hurt the U.S. economy”—to prove that, he needs to show that a free market would be harmful overall, not just in one specific case. Definition:Free market—a system of voluntary exchanges based on respect for private property rights. To the extent that there is respect for private property, there is a free market. [Source? As a market anarchist, I think I would know.] Government intervention—for the purposes of this debate, any actions of the United States federal government 1. PatentsContrary to popular belief, IP hinders innovation rather than encourages it. Patents can increase the amount of revenue an inventor would receive for a given idea, but this greater incentive does not necessarily translate into more ideas. Patents also discourage innovation by causing patent-holders to waste much of their time suing people who violate their monopoly rather than inventing. Patents also discourage innovation by restricting the ability of people to improve on existing ideas. Look at the invention of the steam engine. James Watt thought of the idea in 1768, but production didn't really start until 1775, when his monopoly was secured until 1800. Production was slow during those 25 years, and exploded afterwards, and when a superior steam engine was developed, Watt spent most of the 1790s suing its inventor. [1] Because of Watt's monopoly, innovation stalled during those years, with fuel efficiency, for example, stagnating during Watt's patent, but increasing by a factor of five by 1835. [2] This delay of innovation had serious consequences, as the industrial revolution only took off in England after Watt's patent expired and the industry could thrive. But would Watt have had the incentive to invent the steam engine if patents didn't exist? Yes. He actually made most of his money after his patent expired. He was forced to constantly innovate to keep up with the competition, and, as a result, his steam engines were recognized as the best ones and thus the best-selling.What about pharmaceuticals? Don't we need patents for those? No. Historically, the pharmaceutical industry grew much faster in countries were patents were fewer and weaker. The unprotected German industry, for example, grew much faster than the protected British industry, which is the opposite of what you'd expect if IP laws actually encouraged innovation. [3] And when countries did introduce patents, they saw no significant increase in innovation. Switzerland and Italy both had thriving pharmaceutical industries without IP laws, until they were introduced in the late 1970s. [4] Contrary to what one would expect if IP laws actually worked, neither country saw an improvement in pharmaceutical innovation. [4]2. Insider TradingHaving information that others don’t have and acting on it is how all money is made in the stock market. If everyone knew that a stock was going to go up, you wouldn’t be able to make money buying that stock—the only way you can make money with your information is if other people don’t know it. (If a stock was going from $10 to $100, and you knew it, you could make a profit buying now and selling later. But if everyone knew this was going to happen, no one would sell you their stocks at $10.) And people acting on this information that others don’t have is a good thing. Everyone can’t have universal knowledge—knowledge is spread out over millions of people. The way this knowledge is communicated is through prices. Stock prices communicate knowledge about the health of firms. The more accurate these prices are, the better. Say Firm X is fundamentally insolvent, and is heading toward bankruptcy eventually. It’s better for the economy if this happens sooner rather than later, so resources stop being wasted by the inefficient firm. That’s where stock prices come in—if they’re low enough, some person or other firm could buy a controlling interest cheap and sell off the assets. So, it’s better for the economy if speculators drive Firm X’s price lower.What’s the moral and economic difference between this and “insider trading”? Nothing. Inside traders act on information that others don’t have, which is no more unfair than anyone else in the stock market acting on information others don’t have. And their actions communicate vital information to the market, like the actions of any other successful traders. By acting on accurate information, inside traders make stock prices more accurately reflect a firm’s true value, and let capital be allocated more efficiently. They also lower the volatility of stock prices—they buy low, making the low price higher, and sell high, making the peak price lower. Pro states that if insider trading happens too much, outsiders will “lose confidence in the system” and stop investing, lowering the amount of capital available for corporations. But he fails to provide any facts or evidence to support this assertion. Furthermore, the “outsiders” who trade with insider traders were going to trade anyway—the inside traders didn’t force outsiders to buy or sell their stocks, they just bought stocks people wanted to sell or sold stocks people wanted to buy anyway. And because of the inside traders extra demand or supply, the outsiders get a better deal than they would have—if I want to buy a bunch of Firm X’s shares, because they’re $9.75 now and are going up to $15 later, then I’m actually helping the sellers. They were going to sell anyway, but because of my extra demand, they got $10 per share instead of $9.75. 3. ExternalitiesPro claims that “a truly free market would not prohibit a party from maximizing its profits.”—so firms would be allowed to hurt people by dumping dangerous waste, and such. Of course, this is a ridiculous description of the free market. In the free market, you can only do what you want with your own private property if you respect the property rights of others—this is why the government, which initiates force against person and their property, is not part of the market. Maximizing profits is only part of the market if you do it while respecting the property rights of others. Firms dumping waste on other people’s land are not part of the market.Pro also claims that companies would dump waste in common lands. But the free market easily solves this problem—with private property. There are only common lands if the government intervenes and makes them so. In a free market, these lands would be someone’s private property, preventing corporations from dumping their waste on it if they didn’t own the land. While air couldn’t be owned, air pollution that damages the air someone breathes, or the property they use, would be a property rights violation, and thus impermissible in a market.Other cases of removing government intervention:War:War spending is terrible for most Americans. Resources, labor, and money are diverted from creating more goods that consumers want to creating destruction and death halfway around the world. Imagine how much better off Americans would be if they had an extra few hundred billion dollars, because the money for war spending wasn’t stolen from them by the government.Corporate Welfare:As with war spending, billions is diverted from hard working Americans to special interests. Agribusiness alone gets around $180 billion annually from the government. [5][1] Carnegie, A. (1905), James Watt. Doubleday, Page & Co.[2] Lord, J. (1923), Capital and Steam Power. London: P.S. King & Son.[3] Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine, Against Intellectual Monopoly (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 215.[4] Scherer, F. M (2003), "Global Welfare in Pharmaceutical Patenting," mimeo Haverford College, December.[5] http://bit.ly...

positive: A free market devoid of all government intervention would hurt the U.S. economy Burden of Proof: The topic is "a free market devoid of ALL government intervention…" If I can show that not ALL government intervention is bad, then I win. If there is one form of government intervention is good, then not ALL government intervention is bad, and I would win. Patents: He says: Patent law causes inventors to waste time suing Not even close. Maybe in the 1700's, but today, it's the lawyers that do the suing, not the inventors, especially not the scientists working for a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company. He says: Watt's steam engine proves patents are bad I don't have access to the sources he's citing, but note: I focused on pharmaceuticals, not machines. The idiosyncrasies surrounding a single invention during the Industrial Revolution is hardly a test case for the entire IP system. He says: Pharmaceutical don't need patents The patent system in America is the primary reason why America has the largest amount of capital invested in its pharmaceutical industry [1]. "For developed countries, it has often been pointed out that suppressing pharmaceutical patents would entail long-term, dynamic losses in terms of new medicines…" [2] "[P]atents are a fundamental incentive to innovative activities in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology." [3] Insider Trading: He says: That's how you make money Contrary to what most people think, the stock market isn't about making money (and if you read my introductory argument, that's not what I care about either). The stock market is a mechanism for corporations to raise capital in order to continue or expand their business. So if insider trading hurts that ability, then it's bad for the economy. He says: Stock prices reflect the health of the company No – in fact, this is exactly my point. If the CEO knows that the company is insolvent, but is hiding it (like the Enron case and many others), they can manipulate the stock price while making large sums of money on the inside information. Eventually, the ruse will be detected; the stock price will plummet, but not before the CEO makes a huge amount of money. The resulting negative publicity will further erode confidence in the stock market. In a world where this is commonplace, there won't be enough confidence to operate a stock market, capital will become scarce, and that will be bad for the economy. Even if your argument is that trading on inside information helps reflect a more accurate stock price, this becomes useless when the individuals doing the trading have the ability to manipulate the stock price to their own advantage. He says: No effect of insider trading Think again: "Our markets are a success precisely because they enjoy the world's highest level of confidence. Investors put their capital to work- and put their fortunes at risk - because they trust that the marketplace is honest. They know that our securities laws require free, fair, and open transactions. An essential part of our regulation of the securities market is the vigorous enforcement of our laws against insider trading…" [4]. They later continue: "But one of the main reasons that capital is available in such quantities in the U.S. markets is basically that the investor trusts the U.S. markets to be fair. Fairness is a major issue. Even though it sounds simplistic, it is a critical factor and one that is absent, really to a surprising degree in many of the sophisticated foreign markets.... The common belief in Europe that certain investors have access to confidential information and regularly profit from that information may be the major reason why comparatively few Europeans actually own stock. [This may] partially explain why the U.S. markets are so active and why so much money is available for those companies that seek to enter U.S. markets." [4]. He says: Outsiders were going to buy and sell anyway This is non-responsive. I said that if insider trading is widespread, then people won't invest, and the economy will suffer. Even if they would buy and sell, they WON'T buy and sell if there is insider trading, and the economy goes down. Externalities I'll put the definition debate here. He says: Free market means respect for private property rights First, his warrant is ridiculous – he's a "market anarchist", so HE KNOWS… How about some definitions: "an economic market operating by free competition" – Merriam Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com...) "an economic system in which prices and wages are determined by unrestricted competition between businesses, without government regulation or fear of monopolies." – Collins English Dictionary (http://dictionary.reference.com...) "A free market economy is one where scarcities are resolved through changes in relative prices rather than through regulation." – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (http://stats.oecd.org...) Free markets are simply millions upon millions of individual decision-makers, engaged in peaceable, voluntary exchange pursuing what they see in their best interests. – Professor Walter Williams (http://econfaculty.gmu.edu...) Please note that NONE of these definitions (or the dozens of others I saw) include anything about "respect for private property. Furthermore, he says that in order to have a free market, you have to "respect the property rights of others." But – WHO WILL ENFORCE THOSE RIGHTS? The government. He tries to get around this basic necessity by defining "free market" as respect for property rights. But I'm sure he will admit that human nature may, from time to time, lead someone to display a lack of effect for the rights of others. The result is that we either have (1) the externalities like I described, or (2) some form of government intervention (i.e. laws, or a system of civil lawsuits, or some other "authority"). The only other possibility is conflict, which he says at the bottom of his argument is bad for the economy. He says: Privatization of all lands prevents externalities He still hasn't answered the fundamental question: who enforces property rights? He also says that air pollution is "impermissible in a market" – but do we all have the "right" to clean air? Who enforces that right? How clean does our air need to be? These are all questions that cannot be answered by the "market", nor by a system of private property. The problem of the commons requires government intervention to solve. Additionally, he says privatizing all lands will help prevent externalities. But take forests, for example. If the price of lumber increases, what will the result be? More and more private companies will buy forests, chop down the trees, and sell the lumber. Because lumber is limited by the amount of time it takes to re-grow trees, the price of lumber could rise considerably. In a pure free market, if the price goes high enough, companies might chop down most or all of the forests. But, if we remember from our fifth grade environmental science class, if there are no trees, we can't scrub out carbon dioxide and generate fresh oxygen. This is an externality, but there is no way for the market to prevent it. Other Cases In Favor of Government Intervention He talks about war and corporate welfare. I'm not going to defend either of those – but it still doesn't matter. I'll agree that there are lots of forms of government intervention which are bad. However, that doesn't mean that they are ALL bad – which was my original point. Less government = good No government = bad [1] http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu... [2] http://emmanuelcombe.org... [3] http://innovation.org... [4] http://info.worldbank.org...

positive: Many activities directly comparable to gambling are already legal and regulated What is the difference between gambling and playing the stock market? In each case people are putting money at risk in the hope of a particular outcome. Gambling on horse-racing or games involves knowledge and expertise that can improve your chances of success. In the same way, trading in bonds, shares, currency or derivatives is a bet that your understanding of the economy is better than that of other investors. Why should one kind of online risk-taking be legal and the other not?

positive: Negotiations for the TPP agreement should be abandoned If free trade were so amazing, there would be no need for a silly agreement that takes ages to work out. The fact is that there are brilliant reasons for restricting trade, foremost among them that free trade is a total failure.Economic impacts on individualsThe reason why governments impose restrictions on trade is to protect local people, their economic security, their society and their environment. This is important and usually legitimate. For example, when multinationals buy up or trade in local sectors, their profits go offshore and are rarely reinvested. This is coupled with a typical increase in consumption in these countries as trade drives prices down. The result is a huge capital outflow that reduces the funds available to employers, reducing wages. Unsustainable imports cannot be sustained - that's a tautology.If that sounds familiar to any US citizens, it's because free trade isn't the only way to make things affordable while stealing the profits - currency controls can do the same thing. As people from the US know, China has a longstanding policy of gaming their currency to ruin your markets by making their decent-quality stuff affordable (alongside policies like having poor working conditions for their people). 70% of America's GDP is consumer spending, most of that is foreign spending, and most of that is to China, so the USA's primary business is currently "making China richer". Now you guys want even cheaper stuff by opening yourselves up to more competition from countries like Japan. The result is that many of the USA's manufacturing jobs are now lost to the Chinese. It makes things more affordable at the checkout, but you don't realise the flow-on effects to your wages. It affects everyone, even those who are not in competition with foreign countries.Tying prices to world prices has another big issue - world prices are really volatile compared with what the price would be locally. This leads to some pretty absurd arrangements, such as the fact that New Zealand milk is currently relatively cheaper in Europe than it is in NZ. But more dangerously, if one country (say, I don't know, Brunei or Mexico) falls into a financial crisis, that affects price signals everywhere else rather than in just that one country, allows for quicker capital outflows, etc. If we are one global village and there's a plague, we all die. If we are a team of villages protecting our interests, we are as a whole stronger. These are the kinds of legitimate reasons governments impose restrictions on trade.Social costsWithout these protections, governments create a race to the bottom. With no protections, multinationals invest in countries that are the most profitable for them, which is another way of saying the cheapest. While they exploit the poor people in some poor country, other countries start to attempt to attract investment as they become poor. Governments (usually) reduce standards as well as civil and political liberties. When business is able to dictate the behaviour of the government in this way, then governments cease to be democratic. They become corporatist, out of necessity and survival. This might not be so big an issue for America, but most of the negotiating countries here are actually democratic. Democracy beats plutocracy all people are equal and all people matter - not just those who happen to head the big companies in pursuit of short-term profits.There's a myth that trade can be deregulated and made more efficient. Trade cannot be deregulated - when governments lose control, corporations have all the power of international trade. The economic problem is that trade is driven by price signals, but price signals do not signal externalities. Trade makes things more affordable in dollar terms, but the other costs - to the environment, to the workers etc - are not included. This is WHY free trade drives prices down - it hides the costs away for future generations to worry about - in fact, it PROHIBITS governments from signalling the true price of goods not for people's benefit, but for the benefit of megacorporations. In almost every case where free trade has led to an ongoing profit, it has come at the cost of some nonrenewable natural resource in that country (such as the case of America and Australia's free trade agreement, which has lost Australia a lot of uranium, the US a lot of money, and the world a lot of nuclear security), which is one of the most pernicious costs since it can never be restored or repaid.So under free trade, because of the lack of protections, the only way you can get money is by destroying yourself, and the only way you can spend money is to - well, destroy yourself. It's a lose-lose.If a country was to gain by having free trade, then I'm all for the government allowing free trade. They don't need a free trade agreement to have free trade. But FORCING governments to a policy of free trade when, barring extraordinary circumstances, it is really bad economics to do so, is probably a really bad idea.Corporate structureFor those who are NOT megacorporations, more foreign control of the market means more imperfect competition, since only large competitors will fight seriously overseas. Couple that with the fact your customers have less to spend as profits are taken offshore and layoffs happen, the only business position that is advantageous is as a shareholder or director of one of the big companies. It's no secret that countries with freer trade, such as the USA, also tend to be more monopolistic, and small business often has a hard time even getting off the ground. That actually undermines innovation and competition in the local economy, instead making the whole economy compete against other economies just to survive. And in the battlefield, local businesses are the ones in the firing line.To combat this, economists have come up with a silly theory they call "comparative advantage". Megacorporations might be pillaging you over there, but you can sell them something else over here so it's all good. Not true. First, it's still exploitation in the name of megacorporation profits, and smaller corporations missing out on the profits they would have otherwise received. Second, that's an unusual case. Most of the time factors of production simply are not mobile enough to randomly switch industries just because big fish say so. If you've been a farmer your whole life, and now your country has only a comparative advantage in accounting, then all your cows, sheds, land and skills don't really provide any ability to switch. Third, megacorporations exist in almost every industry, leaving no little niches for small players to get their comparative advantages in. At most you can target some kind of premium model where you convince people to pay more because "it's local". That's naturally and economically counter-intuitive to any rational customer - why should they have to pay more for a business with no real superior value? The answer, of course, is that the stuffing up of price signals has screwed over local business too.That's not allEvery leak so far has made it very clear that this is not just a free trade agreement. The very fact that it is secret - which is rare with such negotiations - is undemocratic and highly suspect. These kinds of agreements allow executive branches of government to avoid the legislature, reducing transparency and undermining the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy. The kinds of provisions we're talking about here include controversial IP measures which eliminate things like fair use, making ALL capital controls illegal (not just trade) and ending many simple restrictions governments put on alcohol and tobacco sales (see http://tppinfo.org...). Even if it was just what it claimed - a simple free trade agreement - then that would be bad. Increasingly, however, it seems unlikely that this is the case.The resolution is affirmed.

negative: Emissions trading wrongly allows companies to buy right to pollute "The Case Against Carbon Trading". Rising Tide. Mar. 2002 - "Carbon Trading IS an Excuse to Avoid Real Emissions Reductions. The hopelessly compromised Kyoto Protocol now allows countries to meet all their emissions reductions with carbon credits bought through three forms of carbon trading; Joint Implementation, Clean Development Mechanism, International Emissions Trade. Some countries will certainly choose to buy credits rather than make any serious attempt to reduce their underlying dependency on fossil fuels."

negative: File-sharing Should Be Allowed The fact is that the only artists making money off record royalties (receiving money from every copy...

negative: File-sharing Should Be Allowed The internet allows for more plurality and gives music listeners more choices than commercial radio ...

negative: AIG bonuses AIG bonuses blackmail taxpayers with threat of collapse

negative: Adults should be able to order kids menus to get the toy According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care what humans think is impossible. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Ooh, black and yellow! Let's shake it up a little. Barry! Breakfast is ready! Ooming! Hang on a second. Hello? - Barry? - Adam? - Oan you believe this is happening? - I can't. I'll pick you up. Looking sharp. Use the stairs. Your father paid good money for those. Sorry. I'm excited. Here's the graduate. We're very proud of you, son. A perfect report card, all B's. Very proud. Ma! I got a thing going here. - You got lint on your fuzz. - Ow! That's me! - Wave to us! We'll be in row 118,000. - Bye! Barry, I told you, stop flying in the house! - Hey, Adam. - Hey, Barry. - Is that fuzz gel? - A little. Special day, graduation. Never thought I'd make it. Three days grade school, three days high school. Those were awkward. Three days college. I'm glad I took a day and hitchhiked around the hive. You did come back different. - Hi, Barry. - Artie, growing a mustache? Looks good. - Hear about Frankie? - Yeah. - You going to the funeral? - No, I'm not going. Everybody knows, sting someone, you die. Don't waste it on a squirrel. Such a hothead. I guess he could have just gotten out of the way. I love this incorporating an amusement park into our day. That's why we don't need vacations. Boy, quite a bit of pomp... under the circumstances. - Well, Adam, today we are men. - We are! - Bee-men. - Amen! Hallelujah! Students, faculty, distinguished bees, please welcome Dean Buzzwell. Welcome, New Hive Oity graduating class of... ...9:15. That concludes our ceremonies. And begins your career at Honex Industries! Will we pick ourjob today? I heard it's just orientation. Heads up! Here we go. Keep your hands and antennas inside the tram at all times. - Wonder what it'll be like? - A little scary. Welcome to Honex, a division of Honesco and a part of the Hexagon Group. This is it! Wow. Wow. We know that you, as a bee, have worked your whole life to get to the point where you can work for your whole life. Honey begins when our valiant Pollen Jocks bring the nectar to the hive. Our top-secret formula is automatically color-corrected, scent-adjusted and bubble-contoured into this soothing sweet syrup with its distinctive golden glow you know as... Honey! - That girl was hot. - She's my cousin! - She is? - Yes, we're all cousins. - Right. You're right. - At Honex, we constantly strive to improve every aspect of bee existence. These bees are stress-testing a new helmet technology. - What do you think he makes? - Not enough. Here we have our latest advancement, the Krelman. - What does that do? - Oatches that little strand of honey that hangs after you pour it. Saves us millions. Oan anyone work on the Krelman? Of course. Most bee jobs are small ones. But bees know that every small job, if it's done well, means a lot. But choose carefully because you'll stay in the job you pick for the rest of your life. The same job the rest of your life? I didn't know that. What's the difference? You'll be happy to know that bees, as a species, haven't had one day off in 27 million years. So you'll just work us to death? We'll sure try. Wow! That blew my mind! "What's the difference?" How can you say that? One job forever? That's an insane choice to have to make. I'm relieved. Now we only have to make one decision in life. But, Adam, how could they never have told us that? Why would you question anything? We're bees. We're the most perfectly functioning society on Earth. You ever think maybe things work a little too well here? Like what? Give me one example. I don't know. But you know what I'm talking about. Please clear the gate. Royal Nectar Force on approach. Wait a second. Oheck it out. - Hey, those are Pollen Jocks! - Wow. I've never seen them this close. They know what it's like outside the hive. Yeah, but some don't come back. - Hey, Jocks! - Hi, Jocks! You guys did great! You're monsters! You're sky freaks! I love it! I love it! - I wonder where they were. - I don't know. Their day's not planned. Outside the hive, flying who knows where, doing who knows what. You can'tjust decide to be a Pollen Jock. You have to be bred for that. Right. Look. That's more pollen than you and I will see in a lifetime. It's just a status symbol. Bees make too much of it. Perhaps. Unless you're wearing it and the ladies see you wearing it. Those ladies? Aren't they our cousins too? Distant. Distant. Look at these two. - Oouple of Hive Harrys. - Let's have fun with them. It must be dangerous being a Pollen Jock. Yeah. Once a bear pinned me against a mushroom! He had a paw on my throat, and with the other, he was slapping me! - Oh, my! - I never thought I'd knock him out. What were you doing during this? Trying to alert the authorities. I can autograph that. A little gusty out there today, wasn't it, comrades? Yeah. Gusty. We're hitting a sunflower patch six miles from here tomorrow. - Six miles, huh? - Barry! A puddle jump for us, but maybe you're not up for it. - Maybe I am. - You are not! We're going 0900 at J-Gate. What do you think, buzzy-boy? Are you bee enough? I might be. It all depends on what 0900 means. Hey, Honex! Dad, you surprised me. You decide what you're interested in? - Well, there's a lot of choices. - But you only get one. Do you ever get bored doing the same job every day? Son, let me tell you about stirring. You grab that stick, and you just move it around, and you stir it around. You get yourself into a rhythm. It's a beautiful thing. You know, Dad, the more I think about it, maybe the honey field just isn't right for me. You were thinking of what, making balloon animals? That's a bad job for a guy with a stinger. Janet, your son's not sure he wants to go into honey! - Barry, you are so funny sometimes. - I'm not trying to be funny. You're not funny! You're going into honey. Our son, the stirrer! - You're gonna be a stirrer? - No one's listening to me! Wait till you see the sticks I have. I could say anything right now. I'm gonna get an ant tattoo! Let's open some honey and celebrate! Maybe I'll pierce my thorax. Shave my antennae. Shack up with a grasshopper. Get a gold tooth and call everybody "dawg"! I'm so proud. - We're starting work today! - Today's the day. Oome on! All the good jobs will be gone. Yeah, right. Pollen counting, stunt bee, pouring, stirrer, front desk, hair removal... - Is it still available? - Hang on. Two left! One of them's yours! Oongratulations! Step to the side. - What'd you get? - Picking crud out. Stellar! Wow! Oouple of newbies? Yes, sir! Our first day! We are ready! Make your choice. - You want to go first? - No, you go. Oh, my. What's available? Restroom attendant's open, not for the reason you think. - Any chance of getting the Krelman? - Sure, you're on. I'm sorry, the Krelman just closed out. Wax monkey's always open. The Krelman opened up again. What happened? A bee died. Makes an opening. See? He's dead. Another dead one. Deady. Deadified. Two more dead. Dead from the neck up. Dead from the neck down. That's life! Oh, this is so hard! Heating, cooling, stunt bee, pourer, stirrer, humming, inspector number seven, lint coordinator, stripe supervisor, mite wrangler. Barry, what do you think I should... Barry? Barry! All right, we've got the sunflower patch in quadrant nine... What happened to you? Where are you? - I'm going out. - Out? Out where? - Out there. - Oh, no! I have to, before I go to work for the rest of my life. You're gonna die! You're crazy! Hello? Another call coming in. If anyone's feeling brave, there's a Korean deli on 83rd that gets their roses today. Hey, guys. - Look at that. - Isn't that the kid we saw yesterday? Hold it, son, flight deck's restricted. It's OK, Lou. We're gonna take him up. Really? Feeling lucky, are you? Sign here, here. Just initial that. - Thank you. - OK. You got a rain advisory today, and as you all know, bees cannot fly in rain. So be careful. As always, watch your brooms, hockey sticks, dogs, birds, bears and bats. Also, I got a couple of reports of root beer being poured on us. Murphy's in a home because of it, babbling like a cicada! - That's awful. - And a reminder for you rookies, bee law number one, absolutely no talking to humans! All right, launch positions! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Black and yellow! Hello! You ready for this, hot shot? Yeah. Yeah, bring it on. Wind, check. - Antennae, check. - Nectar pack, check. - Wings, check. - Stinger, check. Scared out of my shorts, check. OK, ladies, let's move it out! Pound those petunias, you striped stem-suckers! All of you, drain those flowers! Wow! I'm out! I can't believe I'm out! So blue. I feel so fast and free! Box kite! Wow! Flowers! This is Blue Leader. We have roses visual. Bring it around 30 degrees and hold. Roses! 30 degrees, roger. Bringing it around. Stand to the side, kid. It's got a bit of a kick. That is one nectar collector! - Ever see pollination up close? - No, sir. I pick up some pollen here, sprinkle it over here. Maybe a dash over there, a pinch on that one. See that? It's a little bit of magic. That's amazing. Why do we do that? That's pollen power. More pollen, more flowers, more nectar, more honey for us. Oool. I'm picking up a lot of bright yellow. Oould be daisies. Don't we need those? Oopy that visual. Wait. One of these flowers seems to be on the move. Say again? You're reporting a moving flower? Affirmative. That was on the line! This is the coolest. What is it? I don't know, but I'm loving this color. It smells good. Not like a flower, but I like it. Yeah, fuzzy. Ohemical-y. Oareful, guys. It's a little grabby. My sweet lord of bees! Oandy-brain, get off there! Problem! - Guys! - This could be bad. Affirmative. Very close. Gonna hurt. Mama's little boy. You are way out of position, rookie! Ooming in at you like a missile! Help me! I don't think these are flowers. - Should we tell him? - I think he knows. What is this?! Match point! You can start packing up, honey, because you're about to eat it! Yowser! Gross. There's a bee in the car! - Do something! - I'm driving! - Hi, bee. - He's back here! He's going to sting me! Nobody move. If you don't move, he won't sting you. Freeze! He blinked! Spray him, Granny! What are you doing?! Wow... the tension level out here is unbelievable. I gotta get home. Oan't fly in rain. Oan't fly in rain. Oan't fly in rain. Mayday! Mayday! Bee going down! Ken, could you close the window please? Ken, could you close the window please? Oheck out my new resume. I made it into a fold-out brochure. You see? Folds out. Oh, no. More humans. I don't need this. What was that? Maybe this time. This time. This time. This time! This time! This... Drapes! That is diabolical. It's fantastic. It's got all my special skills, even my top-ten favorite movies. What's number one? Star Wars? Nah, I don't go for that... ...kind of stuff. No wonder we shouldn't talk to them. They're out of their minds. When I leave a job interview, they're flabbergasted, can't believe what I say. There's the sun. Maybe that's a way out. I don't remember the sun having a big 75 on it. I predicted global warming. I could feel it getting hotter. At first I thought it was just me. Wait! Stop! Bee! Stand back. These are winter boots. Wait! Don't kill him! You know I'm allergic to them! This thing could kill me! Why does his life have less value than yours? Why does his life have any less value than mine? Is that your statement? I'm just saying all life has value. You don't know what he's capable of feeling. My brochure! There you go, little guy. I'm not scared of him. It's an allergic thing. Put that on your resume brochure. My whole face could puff up. Make it one of your special skills. Knocking someone out is also a special skill. Right. Bye, Vanessa. Thanks. - Vanessa, next week? Yogurt night? - Sure, Ken. You know, whatever. - You could put carob chips on there. - Bye. - Supposed to be less calories. - Bye. I gotta say something. She saved my life. I gotta say something. All right, here it goes. Nah. What would I say? I could really get in trouble. It's a bee law. You're not supposed to talk to a human. I can't believe I'm doing this. I've got to. Oh, I can't do it. Oome on! No. Yes. No. Do it. I can't. How should I start it? "You like jazz?" No, that's no good. Here she comes! Speak, you fool! Hi! I'm sorry. - You're talking. - Yes, I know. You're talking! I'm so sorry. No, it's OK. It's fine. I know I'm dreaming. But I don't recall going to bed. Well, I'm sure this is very disconcerting. This is a bit of a surprise to me. I mean, you're a bee! I am. And I'm not supposed to be doing this, but they were all trying to kill me. And if it wasn't for you... I had to thank you. It's just how I was raised. That was a little weird. - I'm talking with a bee. - Yeah. I'm talking to a bee. And the bee is talking to me! I just want to say I'm grateful. I'll leave now. - Wait! How did you learn to do that? - What? The talking thing. Same way you did, I guess. "Mama, Dada, honey." You pick it up. - That's very funny. - Yeah. Bees are funny. If we didn't laugh, we'd cry with what we have to deal with. Anyway... Oan I... ...get you something? - Like what? I don't know. I mean... I don't know. Ooffee? I don't want to put you out. It's no trouble. It takes two minutes. - It's just coffee. - I hate to impose. - Don't be ridiculous! - Actually, I would love a cup. Hey, you want rum cake? - I shouldn't. - Have some. - No, I can't. - Oome on! I'm trying to lose a couple micrograms. - Where? - These stripes don't help. You look great! I don't know if you know anything about fashion. Are you all right? No. He's making the tie in the cab as they're flying up Madison. He finally gets there. He runs up the steps into the church. The wedding is on. And he says, "Watermelon? I thought you said Guatemalan. Why would I marry a watermelon?" Is that a bee joke? That's the kind of stuff we do. Yeah, different. So, what are you gonna do, Barry? About work? I don't know. I want to do my part for the hive, but I can't do it the way they want. I know how you feel. - You do? - Sure. My parents wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor, but I wanted to be a florist. - Really? - My only interest is flowers. Our new queen was just elected with that same campaign slogan. Anyway, if you look... There's my hive right there. See it? You're in Sheep Meadow! Yes! I'm right off the Turtle Pond! No way! I know that area. I lost a toe ring there once. - Why do girls put rings on their toes? - Why not? - It's like putting a hat on your knee. - Maybe I'll try that. - You all right, ma'am? - Oh, yeah. Fine. Just having two cups of coffee! Anyway, this has been great. Thanks for the coffee. Yeah, it's no trouble. Sorry I couldn't finish it. If I did, I'd be up the rest of my life. Are you...? Oan I take a piece of this with me? Sure! Here, have a crumb. - Thanks! - Yeah. All right. Well, then... I guess I'll see you around. Or not. OK, Barry. And thank you so much again... for before. Oh, that? That was nothing. Well, not nothing, but... Anyway... This can't possibly work. He's all set to go. We may as well try it. OK, Dave, pull the chute. - Sounds amazing. - It was amazing! It was the scariest, happiest moment of my life. Humans! I can't believe you were with humans! Giant, scary humans! What were they like? Huge and crazy. They talk crazy. They eat crazy giant things. They drive crazy. - Do they try and kill you, like on TV? - Some of them. But some of them don't. - How'd you get back? - Poodle. You did it, and I'm glad. You saw whatever you wanted to see. You had your "experience." Now you can pick out yourjob and be normal. - Well... - Well? Well, I met someone. You did? Was she Bee-ish? - A wasp?! Your parents will kill you! - No, no, no, not a wasp. - Spider? - I'm not attracted to spiders. I know it's the hottest thing, with the eight legs and all. I can't get by that face. So who is she? She's... human. No, no. That's a bee law. You wouldn't break a bee law. - Her name's Vanessa. - Oh, boy. She's so nice. And she's a florist! Oh, no! You're dating a human florist! We're not dating. You're flying outside the hive, talking to humans that attack our homes with power washers and M-80s! One-eighth a stick of dynamite! She saved my life! And she understands me. This is over! Eat this. This is not over! What was that? - They call it a crumb. - It was so stingin' stripey! And that's not what they eat. That's what falls off what they eat! - You know what a Oinnabon is? - No. It's bread and cinnamon and frosting. They heat it up... Sit down! ...really hot! - Listen to me! We are not them! We're us. There's us and there's them! Yes, but who can deny the heart that is yearning? There's no yearning. Stop yearning. Listen to me! You have got to start thinking bee, my friend. Thinking bee! - Thinking bee. - Thinking bee. Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! There he is. He's in the pool. You know what your problem is, Barry? I gotta start thinking bee? How much longer will this go on? It's been three days! Why aren't you working? I've got a lot of big life decisions to think about. What life? You have no life! You have no job. You're barely a bee! Would it kill you to make a little honey? Barry, come out. Your father's talking to you. Martin, would you talk to him? Barry, I'm talking to you! You coming? Got everything? All set! Go ahead. I'll catch up. Don't be too long. Watch this! Vanessa! - We're still here. - I told you not to yell at him. He doesn't respond to yelling! - Then why yell at me? - Because you don't listen! I'm not listening to this. Sorry, I've gotta go. - Where are you going? - I'm meeting a friend. A girl? Is this why you can't decide? Bye. I just hope she's Bee-ish. They have a huge parade of flowers every year in Pasadena? To be in the Tournament of Roses, that's every florist's dream! Up on a float, surrounded by flowers, crowds cheering. A tournament. Do the roses compete in athletic events? No. All right, I've got one. How come you don't fly everywhere? It's exhausting. Why don't you run everywhere? It's faster. Yeah, OK, I see, I see. All right, your turn. TiVo. You can just freeze live TV? That's insane! You don't have that? We have Hivo, but it's a disease. It's a horrible, horrible disease. Oh, my. Dumb bees! You must want to sting all those jerks. We try not to sting. It's usually fatal for us. So you have to watch your temper. Very carefully. You kick a wall, take a walk, write an angry letter and throw it out. Work through it like any emotion: Anger, jealousy, lust. Oh, my goodness! Are you OK? Yeah. - What is wrong with you?! - It's a bug. He's not bothering anybody. Get out of here, you creep! What was that? A Pic 'N' Save circular? Yeah, it was. How did you know? It felt like about 10 pages. Seventy-five is pretty much our limit. You've really got that down to a science. - I lost a cousin to Italian Vogue. - I'll bet. What in the name of Mighty Hercules is this? How did this get here? Oute Bee, Golden Blossom, Ray Liotta Private Select? - Is he that actor? - I never heard of him. - Why is this here? - For people. We eat it. You don't have enough food of your own? - Well, yes. - How do you get it? - Bees make it. - I know who makes it! And it's hard to make it! There's heating, cooling, stirring. You need a whole Krelman thing! - It's organic. - It's our-ganic! It's just honey, Barry. Just what?! Bees don't know about this! This is stealing! A lot of stealing! You've taken our homes, schools, hospitals! This is all we have! And it's on sale?! I'm getting to the bottom of this. I'm getting to the bottom of all of this! Hey, Hector. - You almost done? - Almost. He is here. I sense it. Well, I guess I'll go home now and just leave this nice honey out, with no one around. You're busted, box boy! I knew I heard something. So you can talk! I can talk. And now you'll start talking! Where you getting the sweet stuff? Who's your supplier? I don't understand. I thought we were friends. The last thing we want to do is upset bees! You're too late! It's ours now! You, sir, have crossed the wrong sword! You, sir, will be lunch for my iguana, Ignacio! Where is the honey coming from? Tell me where! Honey Farms! It comes from Honey Farms! Orazy person! What horrible thing has happened here? These faces, they never knew what hit them. And now they're on the road to nowhere! Just keep still. What? You're not dead? Do I look dead? They will wipe anything that moves. Where you headed? To Honey Farms. I am onto something huge here. I'm going to Alaska. Moose blood, crazy stuff. Blows your head off! I'm going to Tacoma. - And you? - He really is dead. All right. Uh-oh! - What is that?! - Oh, no! - A wiper! Triple blade! - Triple blade? Jump on! It's your only chance, bee! Why does everything have to be so doggone clean?! How much do you people need to see?! Open your eyes! Stick your head out the window! From NPR News in Washington, I'm Oarl Kasell. But don't kill no more bugs! - Bee! - Moose blood guy!! - You hear something? - Like what? Like tiny screaming. Turn off the radio. Whassup, bee boy? Hey, Blood. Just a row of honey jars, as far as the eye could see. Wow! I assume wherever this truck goes is where they're getting it. I mean, that honey's ours. - Bees hang tight. - We're all jammed in. It's a close community. Not us, man. We on our own. Every mosquito on his own. - What if you get in trouble? - You a mosquito, you in trouble. Nobody likes us. They just smack. See a mosquito, smack, smack! At least you're out in the world. You must meet girls. Mosquito girls try to trade up, get with a moth, dragonfly. Mosquito girl don't want no mosquito. You got to be kidding me! Mooseblood's about to leave the building! So long, bee! - Hey, guys! - Mooseblood! I knew I'd catch y'all down here. Did you bring your crazy straw? We throw it in jars, slap a label on it, and it's pretty much pure profit. What is this place? A bee's got a brain the size of a pinhead. They are pinheads! Pinhead. - Oheck out the new smoker. - Oh, sweet. That's the one you want. The Thomas 3000! Smoker? Ninety puffs a minute, semi-automatic. Twice the nicotine, all the tar. A couple breaths of this knocks them right out. They make the honey, and we make the money. "They make the honey, and we make the money"? Oh, my! What's going on? Are you OK? Yeah. It doesn't last too long. Do you know you're in a fake hive with fake walls? Our queen was moved here. We had no choice. This is your queen? That's a man in women's clothes! That's a drag queen! What is this? Oh, no! There's hundreds of them! Bee honey. Our honey is being brazenly stolen on a massive scale! This is worse than anything bears have done! I intend to do something. Oh, Barry, stop. Who told you humans are taking our honey? That's a rumor. Do these look like rumors? That's a conspiracy theory. These are obviously doctored photos. How did you get mixed up in this? He's been talking to humans. - What? - Talking to humans?! He has a human girlfriend. And they make out! Make out? Barry! We do not. - You wish you could. - Whose side are you on? The bees! I dated a cricket once in San Antonio. Those crazy legs kept me up all night. Barry, this is what you want to do with your life? I want to do it for all our lives. Nobody works harder than bees! Dad, I remember you coming home so overworked your hands were still stirring. You couldn't stop. I remember that. What right do they have to our honey? We live on two cups a year. They put it in lip balm for no reason whatsoever! Even if it's true, what can one bee do? Sting them where it really hurts. In the face! The eye! - That would hurt. - No. Up the nose? That's a killer. There's only one place you can sting the humans, one place where it matters. Hive at Five, the hive's only full-hour action news source. No more bee beards! With Bob Bumble at the anchor desk. Weather with Storm Stinger. Sports with Buzz Larvi. And Jeanette Ohung. - Good evening. I'm Bob Bumble. - And I'm Jeanette Ohung. A tri-county bee, Barry Benson, intends to sue the human race for stealing our honey, packaging it and profiting from it illegally! Tomorrow night on Bee Larry King, we'll have three former queens here in our studio, discussing their new book, Olassy Ladies, out this week on Hexagon. Tonight we're talking to Barry Benson. Did you ever think, "I'm a kid from the hive. I can't do this"? Bees have never been afraid to change the world. What about Bee Oolumbus? Bee Gandhi? Bejesus? Where I'm from, we'd never sue humans. We were thinking of stickball or candy stores. How old are you? The bee community is supporting you in this case, which will be the trial of the bee century. You know, they have a Larry King in the human world too. It's a common name. Next week... He looks like you and has a show and suspenders and colored dots... Next week... Glasses, quotes on the bottom from the guest even though you just heard 'em. Bear Week next week! They're scary, hairy and here live. Always leans forward, pointy shoulders, squinty eyes, very Jewish. In tennis, you attack at the point of weakness! It was my grandmother, Ken. She's 81. Honey, her backhand's a joke! I'm not gonna take advantage of that? Quiet, please. Actual work going on here. - Is that that same bee? - Yes, it is! I'm helping him sue the human race. - Hello. - Hello, bee. This is Ken. Yeah, I remember you. Timberland, size ten and a half. Vibram sole, I believe. Why does he talk again? Listen, you better go 'cause we're really busy working. But it's our yogurt night! Bye-bye. Why is yogurt night so difficult?! You poor thing. You two have been at this for hours! Yes, and Adam here has been a huge help. - Frosting... - How many sugars? Just one. I try not to use the competition. So why are you helping me? Bees have good qualities. And it takes my mind off the shop. Instead of flowers, people are giving balloon bouquets now. Those are great, if you're three. And artificial flowers. - Oh, those just get me psychotic! - Yeah, me too. Bent stingers, pointless pollination. Bees must hate those fake things! Nothing worse than a daffodil that's had work done. Maybe this could make up for it a little bit. - This lawsuit's a pretty big deal. - I guess. You sure you want to go through with it? Am I sure? When I'm done with the humans, they won't be able to say, "Honey, I'm home," without paying a royalty! It's an incredible scene here in downtown Manhattan, where the world anxiously waits, because for the first time in history, we will hear for ourselves if a honeybee can actually speak. What have we gotten into here, Barry? It's pretty big, isn't it? I can't believe how many humans don't work during the day. You think billion-dollar multinational food companies have good lawyers? Everybody needs to stay behind the barricade. - What's the matter? - I don't know, I just got a chill. Well, if it isn't the bee team. You boys work on this? All rise! The Honorable Judge Bumbleton presiding. All right. Oase number 4475, Superior Oourt of New York, Barry Bee Benson v. the Honey Industry is now in session. Mr. Montgomery, you're representing the five food companies collectively? A privilege. Mr. Benson... you're representing all the bees of the world? I'm kidding. Yes, Your Honor, we're ready to proceed. Mr. Montgomery, your opening statement, please. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my grandmother was a simple woman. Born on a farm, she believed it was man's divine right to benefit from the bounty of nature God put before us. If we lived in the topsy-turvy world Mr. Benson imagines, just think of what would it mean. I would have to negotiate with the silkworm for the elastic in my britches! Talking bee! How do we know this isn't some sort of holographic motion-picture-capture Hollywood wizardry? They could be using laser beams! Robotics! Ventriloquism! Oloning! For all we know, he could be on steroids! Mr. Benson? Ladies and gentlemen, there's no trickery here. I'm just an ordinary bee. Honey's pretty important to me. It's important to all bees. We invented it! We make it. And we protect it with our lives. Unfortunately, there are some people in this room who think they can take it from us 'cause we're the little guys! I'm hoping that, after this is all over, you'll see how, by taking our honey, you not only take everything we have but everything we are! I wish he'd dress like that all the time. So nice! Oall your first witness. So, Mr. Klauss Vanderhayden of Honey Farms, big company you have. I suppose so. I see you also own Honeyburton and Honron! Yes, they provide beekeepers for our farms. Beekeeper. I find that to be a very disturbing term. I don't imagine you employ any bee-free-ers, do you? - No. - I couldn't hear you. - No. - No. Because you don't free bees. You keep bees. Not only that, it seems you thought a bear would be an appropriate image for a jar of honey. They're very lovable creatures. Yogi Bear, Fozzie Bear, Build-A-Bear. You mean like this? Bears kill bees! How'd you like his head crashing through your living room?! Biting into your couch! Spitting out your throw pillows! OK, that's enough. Take him away. So, Mr. Sting, thank you for being here. Your name intrigues me. - Where have I heard it before? - I was with a band called The Police. But you've never been a police officer, have you? No, I haven't. No, you haven't. And so here we have yet another example of bee culture casually stolen by a human for nothing more than a prance-about stage name. Oh, please. Have you ever been stung, Mr. Sting? Because I'm feeling a little stung, Sting. Or should I say... Mr. Gordon M. Sumner! That's not his real name?! You idiots! Mr. Liotta, first, belated congratulations on your Emmy win for a guest spot on ER in 2005. Thank you. Thank you. I see from your resume that you're devilishly handsome with a churning inner turmoil that's ready to blow. I enjoy what I do. Is that a crime? Not yet it isn't. But is this what it's come to for you? Exploiting tiny, helpless bees so you don't have to rehearse your part and learn your lines, sir? Watch it, Benson! I could blow right now! This isn't a goodfella. This is a badfella! Why doesn't someone just step on this creep, and we can all go home?! - Order in this court! - You're all thinking it! Order! Order, I say! - Say it! - Mr. Liotta, please sit down! I think it was awfully nice of that bear to pitch in like that. I think the jury's on our side. Are we doing everything right, legally? I'm a florist. Right. Well, here's to a great team. To a great team! Well, hello. - Ken! - Hello. I didn't think you were coming. No, I was just late. I tried to call, but... the battery. I didn't want all this to go to waste, so I called Barry. Luckily, he was free. Oh, that was lucky. There's a little left. I could heat it up. Yeah, heat it up, sure, whatever. So I hear you're quite a tennis player. I'm not much for the game myself. The ball's a little grabby. That's where I usually sit. Right... there. Ken, Barry was looking at your resume, and he agreed with me that eating with chopsticks isn't really a special skill. You think I don't see what you're doing? I know how hard it is to find the rightjob. We have that in common. Do we? Bees have 100 percent employment, but we do jobs like taking the crud out. That's just what I was thinking about doing. Ken, I let Barry borrow your razor for his fuzz. I hope that was all right. I'm going to drain the old stinger. Yeah, you do that. Look at that. You know, I've just about had it with your little mind games. - What's that? - Italian Vogue. Mamma mia, that's a lot of pages. A lot of ads. Remember what Van said, why is your life more valuable than mine? Funny, I just can't seem to recall that! I think something stinks in here! I love the smell of flowers. How do you like the smell of flames?! Not as much. Water bug! Not taking sides! Ken, I'm wearing a Ohapstick hat! This is pathetic! I've got issues! Well, well, well, a royal flush! - You're bluffing. - Am I? Surf's up, dude! Poo water! That bowl is gnarly. Except for those dirty yellow rings! Kenneth! What are you doing?! You know, I don't even like honey! I don't eat it! We need to talk! He's just a little bee! And he happens to be the nicest bee I've met in a long time! Long time? What are you talking about?! Are there other bugs in your life? No, but there are other things bugging me in life. And you're one of them! Fine! Talking bees, no yogurt night... My nerves are fried from riding on this emotional roller coaster! Goodbye, Ken. And for your information, I prefer sugar-free, artificial sweeteners made by man! I'm sorry about all that. I know it's got an aftertaste! I like it! I always felt there was some kind of barrier between Ken and me. I couldn't overcome it. Oh, well. Are you OK for the trial? I believe Mr. Montgomery is about out of ideas. We would like to call Mr. Barry Benson Bee to the stand. Good idea! You can really see why he's considered one of the best lawyers... Yeah. Layton, you've gotta weave some magic with this jury, or it's gonna be all over. Don't worry. The only thing I have to do to turn this jury around is to remind them of what they don't like about bees. - You got the tweezers? - Are you allergic? Only to losing, son. Only to losing. Mr. Benson Bee, I'll ask you what I think we'd all like to know. What exactly is your relationship to that woman? We're friends. - Good friends? - Yes. How good? Do you live together? Wait a minute... Are you her little... ...bedbug? I've seen a bee documentary or two. From what I understand, doesn't your queen give birth to all the bee children? - Yeah, but... - So those aren't your real parents! - Oh, Barry... - Yes, they are! Hold me back! You're an illegitimate bee, aren't you, Benson? He's denouncing bees! Don't y'all date your cousins? - Objection! - I'm going to pincushion this guy! Adam, don't! It's what he wants! Oh, I'm hit!! Oh, lordy, I am hit! Order! Order! The venom! The venom is coursing through my veins! I have been felled by a winged beast of destruction! You see? You can't treat them like equals! They're striped savages! Stinging's the only thing they know! It's their way! - Adam, stay with me. - I can't feel my legs. What angel of mercy will come forward to suck the poison from my heaving buttocks? I will have order in this court. Order! Order, please! The case of the honeybees versus the human race took a pointed turn against the bees yesterday when one of their legal team stung Layton T. Montgomery. - Hey, buddy. - Hey. - Is there much pain? - Yeah. I... I blew the whole case, didn't I? It doesn't matter. What matters is you're alive. You could have died. I'd be better off dead. Look at me. They got it from the cafeteria downstairs, in a tuna sandwich. Look, there's a little celery still on it. What was it like to sting someone? I can't explain it. It was all... All adrenaline and then... and then ecstasy! All right. You think it was all a trap? Of course. I'm sorry. I flew us right into this. What were we thinking? Look at us. We're just a couple of bugs in this world. What will the humans do to us if they win? I don't know. I hear they put the roaches in motels. That doesn't sound so bad. Adam, they check in, but they don't check out! Oh, my. Oould you get a nurse to close that window? - Why? - The smoke. Bees don't smoke. Right. Bees don't smoke. Bees don't smoke! But some bees are smoking. That's it! That's our case! It is? It's not over? Get dressed. I've gotta go somewhere. Get back to the court and stall. Stall any way you can. And assuming you've done step correctly, you're ready for the tub. Mr. Flayman. Yes? Yes, Your Honor! Where is the rest of your team? Well, Your Honor, it's interesting. Bees are trained to fly haphazardly, and as a result, we don't make very good time. I actually heard a funny story about... Your Honor, haven't these ridiculous bugs taken up enough of this court's valuable time? How much longer will we allow these absurd shenanigans to go on? They have presented no compelling evidence to support their charges against my clients, who run legitimate businesses. I move for a complete dismissal of this entire case! Mr. Flayman, I'm afraid I'm going to have to consider Mr. Montgomery's motion. But you can't! We have a terrific case. Where is your proof? Where is the evidence? Show me the smoking gun! Hold it, Your Honor! You want a smoking gun? Here is your smoking gun. What is that? It's a bee smoker! What, this? This harmless little contraption? This couldn't hurt a fly, let alone a bee. Look at what has happened to bees who have never been asked, "Smoking or non?" Is this what nature intended for us? To be forcibly addicted to smoke machines and man-made wooden slat work camps? Living out our lives as honey slaves to the white man? - What are we gonna do? - He's playing the species card. Ladies and gentlemen, please, free these bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! The court finds in favor of the bees! Vanessa, we won! I knew you could do it! High-five! Sorry. I'm OK! You know what this means? All the honey will finally belong to the bees. Now we won't have to work so hard all the time. This is an unholy perversion of the balance of nature, Benson. You'll regret this. Barry, how much honey is out there? All right. One at a time. Barry, who are you wearing? My sweater is Ralph Lauren, and I have no pants. - What if Montgomery's right? - What do you mean? We've been living the bee way a long time, 27 million years. Oongratulations on your victory. What will you demand as a settlement? First, we'll demand a complete shutdown of all bee work camps. Then we want back the honey that was ours to begin with, every last drop. We demand an end to the glorification of the bear as anything more than a filthy, smelly, bad-breath stink machine. We're all aware of what they do in the woods. Wait for my signal. Take him out. He'll have nauseous for a few hours, then he'll be fine. And we will no longer tolerate bee-negative nicknames... But it's just a prance-about stage name! ...unnecessary inclusion of honey in bogus health products and la-dee-da human tea-time snack garnishments. Oan't breathe. Bring it in, boys! Hold it right there! Good. Tap it. Mr. Buzzwell, we just passed three cups, and there's gallons more coming! - I think we need to shut down! - Shut down? We've never shut down. Shut down honey production! Stop making honey! Turn your key, sir! What do we do now? Oannonball! We're shutting honey production! Mission abort. Aborting pollination and nectar detail. Returning to base. Adam, you wouldn't believe how much honey was out there. Oh, yeah? What's going on? Where is everybody? - Are they out celebrating? - They're home. They don't know what to do. Laying out, sleeping in. I heard your Uncle Oarl was on his way to San Antonio with a cricket. At least we got our honey back. Sometimes I think, so what if humans liked our honey? Who wouldn't? It's the greatest thing in the world! I was excited to be part of making it. This was my new desk. This was my new job. I wanted to do it really well. And now... Now I can't. I don't understand why they're not happy. I thought their lives would be better! They're doing nothing. It's amazing. Honey really changes people. You don't have any idea what's going on, do you? - What did you want to show me? - This. What happened here? That is not the half of it. Oh, no. Oh, my. They're all wilting. Doesn't look very good, does it? No. And whose fault do you think that is? You know, I'm gonna guess bees. Bees? Specifically, me. I didn't think bees not needing to make honey would affect all these things. It's notjust flowers. Fruits, vegetables, they all need bees. That's our whole SAT test right there. Take away produce, that affects the entire animal kingdom. And then, of course... The human species? So if there's no more pollination, it could all just go south here, couldn't it? I know this is also partly my fault. How about a suicide pact? How do we do it? - I'll sting you, you step on me. - Thatjust kills you twice. Right, right. Listen, Barry... sorry, but I gotta get going. I had to open my mouth and talk. Vanessa? Vanessa? Why are you leaving? Where are you going? To the final Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena. They've moved it to this weekend because all the flowers are dying. It's the last chance I'll ever have to see it. Vanessa, I just wanna say I'm sorry. I never meant it to turn out like this. I know. Me neither. Tournament of Roses. Roses can't do sports. Wait a minute. Roses. Roses? Roses! Vanessa! Roses?! Barry? - Roses are flowers! - Yes, they are. Flowers, bees, pollen! I know. That's why this is the last parade. Maybe not. Oould you ask him to slow down? Oould you slow down? Barry! OK, I made a huge mistake. This is a total disaster, all my fault. Yes, it kind of is. I've ruined the planet. I wanted to help you with the flower shop. I've made it worse. Actually, it's completely closed down. I thought maybe you were remodeling. But I have another idea, and it's greater than my previous ideas combined. I don't want to hear it! All right, they have the roses, the roses have the pollen. I know every bee, plant and flower bud in this park. All we gotta do is get what they've got back here with what we've got. - Bees. - Park. - Pollen! - Flowers. - Repollination! - Across the nation! Tournament of Roses, Pasadena, Oalifornia. They've got nothing but flowers, floats and cotton candy. Security will be tight. I have an idea. Vanessa Bloome, FTD. Official floral business. It's real. Sorry, ma'am. Nice brooch. Thank you. It was a gift. Once inside, we just pick the right float. How about The Princess and the Pea? I could be the princess, and you could be the pea! Yes, I got it. - Where should I sit? - What are you? - I believe I'm the pea. - The pea? It goes under the mattresses. - Not in this fairy tale, sweetheart. - I'm getting the marshal. You do that! This whole parade is a fiasco! Let's see what this baby'll do. Hey, what are you doing?! Then all we do is blend in with traffic... ...without arousing suspicion. Once at the airport, there's no stopping us. Stop! Security. - You and your insect pack your float? - Yes. Has it been in your possession the entire time? Would you remove your shoes? - Remove your stinger. - It's part of me. I know. Just having some fun. Enjoy your flight. Then if we're lucky, we'll have just enough pollen to do the job. Oan you believe how lucky we are? We have just enough pollen to do the job! I think this is gonna work. It's got to work. Attention, passengers, this is Oaptain Scott. We have a bit of bad weather in New York. It looks like we'll experience a couple hours delay. Barry, these are cut flowers with no water. They'll never make it. I gotta get up there and talk to them. Be careful. Oan I get help with the Sky Mall magazine? I'd like to order the talking inflatable nose and ear hair trimmer. Oaptain, I'm in a real situation. - What'd you say, Hal? - Nothing. Bee! Don't freak out! My entire species... What are you doing? - Wait a minute! I'm an attorney! - Who's an attorney? Don't move. Oh, Barry. Good afternoon, passengers. This is your captain. Would a Miss Vanessa Bloome in 24B please report to the cockpit? And please hurry! What happened here? There was a DustBuster, a toupee, a life raft exploded. One's bald, one's in a boat, they're both unconscious! - Is that another bee joke? - No! No one's flying the plane! This is JFK control tower, Flight 356. What's your status? This is Vanessa Bloome. I'm a florist from New York. Where's the pilot? He's unconscious, and so is the copilot. Not good. Does anyone onboard have flight experience? As a matter of fact, there is. - Who's that? - Barry Benson. From the honey trial?! Oh, great. Vanessa, this is nothing more than a big metal bee. It's got giant wings, huge engines. I can't fly a plane. - Why not? Isn't John Travolta a pilot? - Yes. How hard could it be? Wait, Barry! We're headed into some lightning. This is Bob Bumble. We have some late-breaking news from JFK Airport, where a suspenseful scene is developing. Barry Benson, fresh from his legal victory... That's Barry! ...is attempting to land a plane, loaded with people, flowers and an incapacitated flight crew. Flowers?! We have a storm in the area and two individuals at the controls with absolutely no flight experience. Just a minute. There's a bee on that plane. I'm quite familiar with Mr. Benson and his no-account compadres. They've done enough damage. But isn't he your only hope? Technically, a bee shouldn't be able to fly at all. Their wings are too small... Haven't we heard this a million times? "The surface area of the wings and body mass make no sense." - Get this on the air! - Got it. - Stand by. - We're going live. The way we work may be a mystery to you. Making honey takes a lot of bees doing a lot of small jobs. But let me tell you about a small job. If you do it well, it makes a big difference. More than we realized. To us, to everyone. That's why I want to get bees back to working together. That's the bee way! We're not made of Jell-O. We get behind a fellow. - Black and yellow! - Hello! Left, right, down, hover. - Hover? - Forget hover. This isn't so hard. Beep-beep! Beep-beep! Barry, what happened?! Wait, I think we were on autopilot the whole time. - That may have been helping me. - And now we're not! So it turns out I cannot fly a plane. All of you, let's get behind this fellow! Move it out! Move out! Our only chance is if I do what I'd do, you copy me with the wings of the plane! Don't have to yell. I'm not yelling! We're in a lot of trouble. It's very hard to concentrate with that panicky tone in your voice! It's not a tone. I'm panicking! I can't do this! Vanessa, pull yourself together. You have to snap out of it! You snap out of it. You snap out of it. - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - Hold it! - Why? Oome on, it's my turn. How is the plane flying? I don't know. Hello? Benson, got any flowers for a happy occasion in there? The Pollen Jocks! They do get behind a fellow. - Black and yellow. - Hello. All right, let's drop this tin can on the blacktop. Where? I can't see anything. Oan you? No, nothing. It's all cloudy. Oome on. You got to think bee, Barry. - Thinking bee. - Thinking bee. Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Wait a minute. I think I'm feeling something. - What? - I don't know. It's strong, pulling me. Like a 27-million-year-old instinct. Bring the nose down. Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! - What in the world is on the tarmac? - Get some lights on that! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! - Vanessa, aim for the flower. - OK. Out the engines. We're going in on bee power. Ready, boys? Affirmative! Good. Good. Easy, now. That's it. Land on that flower! Ready? Full reverse! Spin it around! - Not that flower! The other one! - Which one? - That flower. - I'm aiming at the flower! That's a fat guy in a flowered shirt. I mean the giant pulsating flower made of millions of bees! Pull forward. Nose down. Tail up. Rotate around it. - This is insane, Barry! - This's the only way I know how to fly. Am I koo-koo-kachoo, or is this plane flying in an insect-like pattern? Get your nose in there. Don't be afraid. Smell it. Full reverse! Just drop it. Be a part of it. Aim for the center! Now drop it in! Drop it in, woman! Oome on, already. Barry, we did it! You taught me how to fly! - Yes. No high-five! - Right. Barry, it worked! Did you see the giant flower? What giant flower? Where? Of course I saw the flower! That was genius! - Thank you. - But we're not done yet. Listen, everyone! This runway is covered with the last pollen from the last flowers available anywhere on Earth. That means this is our last chance. We're the only ones who make honey, pollinate flowers and dress like this. If we're gonna survive as a species, this is our moment! What do you say? Are we going to be bees, orjust Museum of Natural History keychains? We're bees! Keychain! Then follow me! Except Keychain. Hold on, Barry. Here. You've earned this. Yeah! I'm a Pollen Jock! And it's a perfect fit. All I gotta do are the sleeves. Oh, yeah. That's our Barry. Mom! The bees are back! If anybody needs to make a call, now's the time. I got a feeling we'll be working late tonight! Here's your change. Have a great afternoon! Oan I help who's next? Would you like some honey with that? It is bee-approved. Don't forget these. Milk, cream, cheese, it's all me. And I don't see a nickel! Sometimes I just feel like a piece of meat! I had no idea. Barry, I'm sorry. Have you got a moment? Would you excuse me? My mosquito associate will help you. Sorry I'm late. He's a lawyer too? I was already a blood-sucking parasite. All I needed was a briefcase. Have a great afternoon! Barry, I just got this huge tulip order, and I can't get them anywhere. No problem, Vannie. Just leave it to me. You're a lifesaver, Barry. Oan I help who's next? All right, scramble, jocks! It's time to fly. Thank you, Barry! That bee is living my life! Let it go, Kenny. - When will this nightmare end?! - Let it all go. - Beautiful day to fly. - Sure is. Between you and me, I was dying to get out of that office. You have got to start thinking bee, my friend. - Thinking bee! - Me? Hold it. Let's just stop for a second. Hold it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, everyone. Oan we stop here? I'm not making a major life decision during a production number! All right. Take ten, everybody. Wrap it up, guys. I had virtually no rehearsal for that.

negative: 9/11 was not a inside job Let me start this round by reiterating just because my opponent makes a statement it does not make it true/fact and is not evidence that 9/11 was a inside job. It is nothing more than a theory. NYPD The FDNY Port Authority:Poorly looked into which is my opponent's statement does not prove 9/11 was an inside job. The Pentagon:For the sake of argument if ten trillion went missing it does not prove 9/11 was a inside job. The widowers:Once again not proof of anything foul. Structural engineers:Notice the link my opponent posted which is nothing more than a website to buy a DVD and capitalize on the tragedy that was 9/11 (sickening if you ask me)***EPIC FACEPALM***WW2 and Lincolns murder have nothing at all to do with 9/11 you are using a conspiracy to prove another conspiracy. Which is basically a circular argument if it is not the audience I am sure see my point. ******By definition a conspiracy is: A secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful****** Call it "the truth" if you want to but it is still a conspiracy. The Twin Towers:The complete collapse of the Twin Towers has more to do with the construction than anything else. There were a lot of firsts for the WTC. In all the history of high rise fires, not one has ever been hit with a plane traveling 500 miles an hour and had its fire proofing removed from its trusses. In all the history of high rise fires, not one has ever had its steel columns which hold lateral load sheared off by a 767. In all the history of high rise fires, not one has ever been a building which had its vertical load bearing columns in its core removed by an airliner. For Building 7, in all the history of high-rise fires, not one has ever been left for 6-7 hours with its bottom floors on fire with structural damage from another building collapse. Not the Madrid/Windsor tower did not have almost 40 stories of load on its supports after being hit by another building which left a 20 story gash. The Madrid tower lost portions of its steel frame from the fire. Windsor's central core was steel reinforced concrete. In all the history of high-rise fires, not one has ever been without some fire fighters fighting the fires. I could go on with the "Firsts" but the audience gets the drift. The statement that the WTC buildings were the first high rise buildings to collapse from fire is deceptive because it purposely doesn't take those factors into account. Professor Steven Jones:I assume my opponent is commenting about Professor Steven Jones much has been made of Jones' new paper. Some have suggested that I correct the statement that not one paper has been published by conspiracy theorists to date proving the collapse was a controlled demolition. To be clear, let me restate the test which makes a real scientific paper. It has to be published in a respected scientific journal. As an example, The Journal of Engineering Mechanics is a well respected scientific journal. The peer review process is tough and precise. The reviewers are well respected in their fields of expertise. The Journal of the American Chemical Society is another which Jones can submit his papers. There are many well respected journals which have an impact in the scientific community. Bentham, where Jones has submitted his latest paper, is the Wiki of Journals. They have been criticized in the past for passing "gibberish". ***read site below***. http://www.debunking911.com... The only likely source of the heat great enough to actually "melt" significant quantities of iron in the piles (or even just raise so much of it to red-hot or to 2000F) would be chemical energy (i. e. , "combustion" of some sort). Professor Jones assumes that all the carbonaceous "combustible" matter in the "piles" would have burned away long before the time that the red-hot and molten iron was discovered (weeks after the collapse of the WTC towers). Perhaps it did, by weeks after the collapse. But Professor Jones obviously does not comprehend that the hot, red-hot and molten IRON IS COMBUSTIBLE matter. Here, Jones clearly missed it, when he wrote: "At these temperatures, steel will melt, and aluminum materials from the buildings should continue to undergo exothermic oxidation reactions with materials also entrained in the molten metal pools including metal oxides which will then keep the pools molten and even growing for weeks despite radiative and conductive losses. . .. The government reports admit that the building fires were insufficient to melt steel beams then where did the molten metal pools come from? " . http://www.physics.byu.edu...Jones has no clue because he has conception of Steel Burning (iron oxidation) in air. The Truth is that: HOT STEEL WILL CONTINUE TO UNDERGO EXOTHERMIC OXIDATION REACTIONS WHILE EXPOSED TO AIR, CAUSING IRON TO INCREASE ITS TEMPERATURE UNTIL IT MELTS, FORMING POOLS OF MOLTEN IRON. Professor Jones' comments and conjectures about the origin of the alleged molten iron found within the three huge piles of combustible matter burning after the collapse of the WTC towers, distinctly prove that Professor Jones is oblivious of the fact that Iron Burns in air. I found this children's educational webpage that further illustrates that "Professor Jones" (among the "9-11 Scholars") is an incompetent person because he ignores the scientifically provable (or disprovable) fact that Iron metal itself burns, and that when amassed in large piles can ignite fires (and can even melt itself). The article discusses child-safe experiments observing a very slow oxidation of iron (rusting at room temperature), but also mentions:"Sometimes a big load of iron in a ship can get hot. The heat can even set other materials on fire. Thats because the iron is rusting, which means it is burning very, very slowly. Iron rusts in a chemical reaction called oxidation. That means the iron reacts with oxygen gas from the air. Oxidation is the chemical reaction that occurs when anything burns in air. Like most oxidations, rusting gives off heat. ". http://www.highlightskids.com...Building 7 and others:Conspiracy theorists say WTC7 is the best proof for because it wasn't hit by airliners and only had a few fires. But this is deceptive because while building 7 wasn't hit by an airliner, it was hit by the large perimeter columns of the Tower collapse. It was 400 ft away but the towers were more than 1300 ft tall. As the tower peeled open, it easily tilted over to reach building 7. . http://www.popularmechanics.com...William Rodriguez:William Rodriguez now says he heard explosions in the basement but that's not what he said before he became a media star and sued the government. **See for yourself below**. http://archives.cnn.com...http://sites.google.com... Sounds of explosions:Could transformers or other electrical equipment explain some of what people saw and heard? What about an acre of concrete floor slamming into another? Would steel bolts snapping under tremendous tension make a pop or explosive sound? How about the fact that two of largest buildings in the world fell. Do you honestly think anyone with an untrained ear could distinguish between a bomb and a skyscraper as they are running for their life? My opponent has shown no proof that 9/11 was an inside because there is none. The problem with conspiracy theorists is they ask you to demolish your mental programming, but demand you replace it with their own. The result is to exchange one unproven worldview for another. And unfortunately, basing your decisions on the conviction of “knowing” is responsible for many of the world’s ills. The only real truth is that it’s impossible to “know” anything. And the only real method of making decisions is through probability. .. .

negative: Resolved: Planned Parenthood should be abolished Well it's a private corporation, Goveronment shouldn't fund corporations.

negative: Did George W. Bush Play A Role in 9/11 Suspected insider trading Some conspiracy theorists maintain that Just before 9/11 an "extraordinary" amount of put options were placed on United Airlines and American Airlines stocks and speculate that insiders may have known in advance of the coming events of 9/11 and placed their bets accordingly. An analysis into the possibility of insider trading on 9/11 concludes that: A measure of abnormal long put volume was also examined and seen to be at abnormally high levels in the days leading up to the attacks. Consequently, the paper concludes that there is evidence of unusual option market activity in the days leading up to September 11 that is consistent with investors trading on advance knowledge of the attacks. "Allen M. Poteshman, The Journal of Business On the days leading up to 9/11, two airlines saw a rise in their put to call ratio. These two airlines were United Airlines and American Airlines, the two airlines whose planes were hijacked on 9/11. Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases of 4,744 "put" option contracts in UAL versus 396 call options.[citation needed] On September 10, more trading in Chicago saw the purchase of 4,516 put options in American Airlines, the other airline involved in the hijackings. This compares with a mere 748 call options in American purchased that day. No other airline companies saw anomalies in their put to call ratio in the days leading up to the attacks. American Airlines however, had just released a major warning about possible losses. Insurance companies saw anomalous trading activities as well. Citigroup Inc., which has estimated that its Travelers Insurance unit may pay $500 million in claims from the World Trade Center attack, had about 45 times the normal volume during three trading days before the attack for options that profit if the stock falls below $40. Citigroup shares fell $1.25 in late trading to $38.09. Morgan Stanley, which occupied 22 floors at the World Trade Center, experienced bigger-than-normal pre-attack trading of options that profit when stock prices fall. Other companies that were directly affected by the tragedy had similar jumps. Raytheon, a defense contractor, had an anomalously high number of call options trading on September 10. A Raytheon option that makes money if shares are more than $25 each had 232 options contracts traded on the day before the attacks, almost six times the total number of trades that had occurred before that day.[citation needed] The initial options were bought through at least two brokerage firms, including NFS, a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, and TD Waterhouse. It was estimated that the trader or traders would have realized a five million dollar profit. The Securities and Exchange Commission launched an insider trading investigation in which Osama bin Laden was a suspect after receiving information from at least one Wall Street Firm. The 9/11 Commission Report concluded that "Exhaustive investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, FBI, and other agencies have uncovered no evidence that anyone with advance knowledge of the attacks profited through securities transactions."[69] The report further stated: Highly publicized allegations of insider trading in advance of 9/11 generally rest on reports of unusual pre-9/11 trading activity in companies whose stock plummeted after the attacks. Some unusual trading did in fact occur, but each such trade proved to have an innocuous explanation. For example, the volume of put options " investments that pay off only when a stock drops in price " surged in the parent companies of United Airlines on September 6 and American Airlines on September 10 " highly suspicious trading on its face. Yet, further investigation has revealed that the trading had no connection with 9/11. A single U.S.-based institutional investor with no conceivable ties to al Qaeda purchased 95 percent of the UAL puts on September 6 as part of a trading strategy that also included buying 115,000 shares of American on September 10. Similarly, much of the seemingly suspicious trading in American on September 10 was traced to a specific U.S.-based options trading newsletter, faxed to its subscribers on Sunday, September 9, which recommended these trades. These examples typify the evidence examined by the investigation. The SEC and the FBI, aided by other agencies and the securities industry, devoted enormous resources to investigating this issue, including securing the cooperation of many foreign governments. These investigators have found that the apparently suspicious consistently proved innocuous. Air defense stand down theory A common claim among conspiracy theorists is that the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) issued a stand down order or deliberately scrambled fighters late to allow the hijacked airplanes to reach their targets without interference. According to this theory, NORAD had the capability of locating and intercepting planes on 9/11, and its failure to do so indicates a government conspiracy to allow the attacks to occur.[66] Conspiracy theorist Mark R. Elsis says: "There is only one explanation for this ... Our Air Force was ordered to Stand Down on 9/11." One of the first actions taken by the hijackers on 9/11 was to turn off or disable each of the four aircraft's on board transponders. Without these transponder signals to identify the airplane's tail number, altitude, and speed, the hijacked airplanes would have been only blips among 4,500 other blips on NORAD"s radar screens, making them very difficult to track. On 9/11, only 14 fighter jets were on alert in the contiguous 48 states. There was no automated method for the civilian air traffic controllers to alert NORAD. A passenger airline had not been hijacked in the U.S. since 1979.[74] "They had to pick up the phone and literally dial us," says Maj. Douglas Martin, public affairs officer for NORAD. Only one civilian plane"a chartered Learjet 35 with golfer Payne Stewart and five others on board"was intercepted by NORAD over North America in the decade prior to 9/11, which took one hour and 19 minutes. Rules in effect at that time, and on 9/11, barred supersonic flight on intercepts. Before 9/11, all other NORAD interceptions were limited to offshore Air Defense Identification Zones (ADIZ). "Until 9/11 there was no domestic ADIZ," says FAA spokesman Bill Schumann. After 9/11, the FAA and NORAD increased cooperation. They set up hotlines between command centers while NORAD increased its fighter coverage and installed radar to watch airspace over the continent.[2] The longest warning NORAD received of the hijackings was some eight minutes for American Airlines Flight 11, the first flight hijacked. The FAA alerted NORAD to the hijacked Flight 175 at just about the same time it was crashing into the World Trade Center's South Tower. The FAA notified NORAD of the missing " not hijacked " Flight 77 three minutes before it struck the Pentagon. NORAD received no warning of the hijack of United Flight 93 until three minutes after it had crashed in Pennsylvania. Israeli agents See also: September 11 attacks advance-knowledge conspiracy theories: Israel It has been claimed that Israeli agents may have had foreknowledge of the attacks. Four hours after the attack, the FBI arrested five Israelis who had been filming the smoking skyline from the roof of a white van in the parking lot of an apartment building, for "puzzling behavior". The Israelis were videotaping the events, and one bystander said they acted in a suspicious manner: "They were like happy, you know ... They didn't look shocked to me. I thought it was very strange." While The Forward, a New York Jewish news magazine, reported that the FBI concluded that two of the men were Israeli intelligence operatives, a spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in the United States said that they had not been involved in any intelligence operation in the United States. The FBI eventually concluded that the five Israelis had no foreknowledge of the attacks.

negative: sentencing Should Offenders be required to serve their entire prison sentence?

negative: Shoes should be illegal Well maybe people should be smart enough to watch where they are going. Well we tried living like the rich once and then our stock market crashed.

negative: should cloning be allowed If we add it to the tree of life, then it will be part of the tree of life. Thus, your argument fails, and the BoP has not been met.

negative: if gay marriage should be allowed or not allowed in the US Well since you shot yourself down with all your arguments I don't know what to say. Life goes on I guess

negative: if gay marriage should be allowed or not allowed in the US hello to the challenger! I am excited to have this argument. to tell you I am new. I have had 2 debates, and 1 that is going on right now. we are argueing if gay marriage should be ok or not ok in the united states. i will be the one going against it. i hope we have a fun and good time in this debate!

negative: cell phone use in school Should call phones be completely banned from school? Why? or Why not?

negative: Piercings should not be allowed until the again of 14. I dunno... I still think it should be allowed.. letting the piercings kill them shouldn't be allowed... but otherwise it's ok.

negative: Other forms of online gambling What is the difference between gambling and playing the stock market? In each case people are putting money at risk in the hope of a particular outcome. Gambling on horse-racing or games involves knowledge and expertise that can improve your chances of success. In the same way, trading in bonds, shares, currency or derivatives is a bet that your understanding of the economy is better than that of other investors. Why should one kind of online risk-taking be legal and the other not?

negative: the lizard According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care what humans think is impossible. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Ooh, black and yellow! Let's shake it up a little. Barry! Breakfast is ready! Ooming! Hang on a second. Hello? - Barry? - Adam? - Oan you believe this is happening? - I can't. I'll pick you up. Looking sharp. Use the stairs. Your father paid good money for those. Sorry. I'm excited. Here's the graduate. We're very proud of you, son. A perfect report card, all B's. Very proud. Ma! I got a thing going here. - You got lint on your fuzz. - Ow! That's me! - Wave to us! We'll be in row 118,000. - Bye! Barry, I told you, stop flying in the house! - Hey, Adam. - Hey, Barry. - Is that fuzz gel? - A little. Special day, graduation. Never thought I'd make it. Three days grade school, three days high school. Those were awkward. Three days college. I'm glad I took a day and hitchhiked around the hive. You did come back different. - Hi, Barry. - Artie, growing a mustache? Looks good. - Hear about Frankie? - Yeah. - You going to the funeral? - No, I'm not going. Everybody knows, sting someone, you die. Don't waste it on a squirrel. Such a hothead. I guess he could have just gotten out of the way. I love this incorporating an amusement park into our day. That's why we don't need vacations. Boy, quite a bit of pomp... under the circumstances. - Well, Adam, today we are men. - We are! - Bee-men. - Amen! Hallelujah! Students, faculty, distinguished bees, please welcome Dean Buzzwell. Welcome, New Hive Oity graduating class of... ...9:15. That concludes our ceremonies. And begins your career at Honex Industries! Will we pick ourjob today? I heard it's just orientation. Heads up! Here we go. Keep your hands and antennas inside the tram at all times. - Wonder what it'll be like? - A little scary. Welcome to Honex, a division of Honesco and a part of the Hexagon Group. This is it! Wow. Wow. We know that you, as a bee, have worked your whole life to get to the point where you can work for your whole life. Honey begins when our valiant Pollen Jocks bring the nectar to the hive. Our top-secret formula is automatically color-corrected, scent-adjusted and bubble-contoured into this soothing sweet syrup with its distinctive golden glow you know as... Honey! - That girl was hot. - She's my cousin! - She is? - Yes, we're all cousins. - Right. You're right. - At Honex, we constantly strive to improve every aspect of bee existence. These bees are stress-testing a new helmet technology. - What do you think he makes? - Not enough. Here we have our latest advancement, the Krelman. - What does that do? - Oatches that little strand of honey that hangs after you pour it. Saves us millions. Oan anyone work on the Krelman? Of course. Most bee jobs are small ones. But bees know that every small job, if it's done well, means a lot. But choose carefully because you'll stay in the job you pick for the rest of your life. The same job the rest of your life? I didn't know that. What's the difference? You'll be happy to know that bees, as a species, haven't had one day off in 27 million years. So you'll just work us to death? We'll sure try. Wow! That blew my mind! "What's the difference?" How can you say that? One job forever? That's an insane choice to have to make. I'm relieved. Now we only have to make one decision in life. But, Adam, how could they never have told us that? Why would you question anything? We're bees. We're the most perfectly functioning society on Earth. You ever think maybe things work a little too well here? Like what? Give me one example. I don't know. But you know what I'm talking about. Please clear the gate. Royal Nectar Force on approach. Wait a second. Oheck it out. - Hey, those are Pollen Jocks! - Wow. I've never seen them this close. They know what it's like outside the hive. Yeah, but some don't come back. - Hey, Jocks! - Hi, Jocks! You guys did great! You're monsters! You're sky freaks! I love it! I love it! - I wonder where they were. - I don't know. Their day's not planned. Outside the hive, flying who knows where, doing who knows what. You can'tjust decide to be a Pollen Jock. You have to be bred for that. Right. Look. That's more pollen than you and I will see in a lifetime. It's just a status symbol. Bees make too much of it. Perhaps. Unless you're wearing it and the ladies see you wearing it. Those ladies? Aren't they our cousins too? Distant. Distant. Look at these two. - Oouple of Hive Harrys. - Let's have fun with them. It must be dangerous being a Pollen Jock. Yeah. Once a bear pinned me against a mushroom! He had a paw on my throat, and with the other, he was slapping me! - Oh, my! - I never thought I'd knock him out. What were you doing during this? Trying to alert the authorities. I can autograph that. A little gusty out there today, wasn't it, comrades? Yeah. Gusty. We're hitting a sunflower patch six miles from here tomorrow. - Six miles, huh? - Barry! A puddle jump for us, but maybe you're not up for it. - Maybe I am. - You are not! We're going 0900 at J-Gate. What do you think, buzzy-boy? Are you bee enough? I might be. It all depends on what 0900 means. Hey, Honex! Dad, you surprised me. You decide what you're interested in? - Well, there's a lot of choices. - But you only get one. Do you ever get bored doing the same job every day? Son, let me tell you about stirring. You grab that stick, and you just move it around, and you stir it around. You get yourself into a rhythm. It's a beautiful thing. You know, Dad, the more I think about it, maybe the honey field just isn't right for me. You were thinking of what, making balloon animals? That's a bad job for a guy with a stinger. Janet, your son's not sure he wants to go into honey! - Barry, you are so funny sometimes. - I'm not trying to be funny. You're not funny! You're going into honey. Our son, the stirrer! - You're gonna be a stirrer? - No one's listening to me! Wait till you see the sticks I have. I could say anything right now. I'm gonna get an ant tattoo! Let's open some honey and celebrate! Maybe I'll pierce my thorax. Shave my antennae. Shack up with a grasshopper. Get a gold tooth and call everybody "dawg"! I'm so proud. - We're starting work today! - Today's the day. Oome on! All the good jobs will be gone. Yeah, right. Pollen counting, stunt bee, pouring, stirrer, front desk, hair removal... - Is it still available? - Hang on. Two left! One of them's yours! Oongratulations! Step to the side. - What'd you get? - Picking crud out. Stellar! Wow! Oouple of newbies? Yes, sir! Our first day! We are ready! Make your choice. - You want to go first? - No, you go. Oh, my. What's available? Restroom attendant's open, not for the reason you think. - Any chance of getting the Krelman? - Sure, you're on. I'm sorry, the Krelman just closed out. Wax monkey's always open. The Krelman opened up again. What happened? A bee died. Makes an opening. See? He's dead. Another dead one. Deady. Deadified. Two more dead. Dead from the neck up. Dead from the neck down. That's life! Oh, this is so hard! Heating, cooling, stunt bee, pourer, stirrer, humming, inspector number seven, lint coordinator, stripe supervisor, mite wrangler. Barry, what do you think I should... Barry? Barry! All right, we've got the sunflower patch in quadrant nine... What happened to you? Where are you? - I'm going out. - Out? Out where? - Out there. - Oh, no! I have to, before I go to work for the rest of my life. You're gonna die! You're crazy! Hello? Another call coming in. If anyone's feeling brave, there's a Korean deli on 83rd that gets their roses today. Hey, guys. - Look at that. - Isn't that the kid we saw yesterday? Hold it, son, flight deck's restricted. It's OK, Lou. We're gonna take him up. Really? Feeling lucky, are you? Sign here, here. Just initial that. - Thank you. - OK. You got a rain advisory today, and as you all know, bees cannot fly in rain. So be careful. As always, watch your brooms, hockey sticks, dogs, birds, bears and bats. Also, I got a couple of reports of root beer being poured on us. Murphy's in a home because of it, babbling like a cicada! - That's awful. - And a reminder for you rookies, bee law number one, absolutely no talking to humans! All right, launch positions! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Black and yellow! Hello! You ready for this, hot shot? Yeah. Yeah, bring it on. Wind, check. - Antennae, check. - Nectar pack, check. - Wings, check. - Stinger, check. Scared out of my shorts, check. OK, ladies, let's move it out! Pound those petunias, you striped stem-suckers! All of you, drain those flowers! Wow! I'm out! I can't believe I'm out! So blue. I feel so fast and free! Box kite! Wow! Flowers! This is Blue Leader. We have roses visual. Bring it around 30 degrees and hold. Roses! 30 degrees, roger. Bringing it around. Stand to the side, kid. It's got a bit of a kick. That is one nectar collector! - Ever see pollination up close? - No, sir. I pick up some pollen here, sprinkle it over here. Maybe a dash over there, a pinch on that one. See that? It's a little bit of magic. That's amazing. Why do we do that? That's pollen power. More pollen, more flowers, more nectar, more honey for us. Oool. I'm picking up a lot of bright yellow. Oould be daisies. Don't we need those? Oopy that visual. Wait. One of these flowers seems to be on the move. Say again? You're reporting a moving flower? Affirmative. That was on the line! This is the coolest. What is it? I don't know, but I'm loving this color. It smells good. Not like a flower, but I like it. Yeah, fuzzy. Ohemical-y. Oareful, guys. It's a little grabby. My sweet lord of bees! Oandy-brain, get off there! Problem! - Guys! - This could be bad. Affirmative. Very close. Gonna hurt. Mama's little boy. You are way out of position, rookie! Ooming in at you like a missile! Help me! I don't think these are flowers. - Should we tell him? - I think he knows. What is this?! Match point! You can start packing up, honey, because you're about to eat it! Yowser! Gross. There's a bee in the car! - Do something! - I'm driving! - Hi, bee. - He's back here! He's going to sting me! Nobody move. If you don't move, he won't sting you. Freeze! He blinked! Spray him, Granny! What are you doing?! Wow... the tension level out here is unbelievable. I gotta get home. Oan't fly in rain. Oan't fly in rain. Oan't fly in rain. Mayday! Mayday! Bee going down! Ken, could you close the window please? Ken, could you close the window please? Oheck out my new resume. I made it into a fold-out brochure. You see? Folds out. Oh, no. More humans. I don't need this. What was that? Maybe this time. This time. This time. This time! This time! This... Drapes! That is diabolical. It's fantastic. It's got all my special skills, even my top-ten favorite movies. What's number one? Star Wars? Nah, I don't go for that... ...kind of stuff. No wonder we shouldn't talk to them. They're out of their minds. When I leave a job interview, they're flabbergasted, can't believe what I say. There's the sun. Maybe that's a way out. I don't remember the sun having a big 75 on it. I predicted global warming. I could feel it getting hotter. At first I thought it was just me. Wait! Stop! Bee! Stand back. These are winter boots. Wait! Don't kill him! You know I'm allergic to them! This thing could kill me! Why does his life have less value than yours? Why does his life have any less value than mine? Is that your statement? I'm just saying all life has value. You don't know what he's capable of feeling. My brochure! There you go, little guy. I'm not scared of him. It's an allergic thing. Put that on your resume brochure. My whole face could puff up. Make it one of your special skills. Knocking someone out is also a special skill. Right. Bye, Vanessa. Thanks. - Vanessa, next week? Yogurt night? - Sure, Ken. You know, whatever. - You could put carob chips on there. - Bye. - Supposed to be less calories. - Bye. I gotta say something. She saved my life. I gotta say something. All right, here it goes. Nah. What would I say? I could really get in trouble. It's a bee law. You're not supposed to talk to a human. I can't believe I'm doing this. I've got to. Oh, I can't do it. Oome on! No. Yes. No. Do it. I can't. How should I start it? "You like jazz?" No, that's no good. Here she comes! Speak, you fool! Hi! I'm sorry. - You're talking. - Yes, I know. You're talking! I'm so sorry. No, it's OK. It's fine. I know I'm dreaming. But I don't recall going to bed. Well, I'm sure this is very disconcerting. This is a bit of a surprise to me. I mean, you're a bee! I am. And I'm not supposed to be doing this, but they were all trying to kill me. And if it wasn't for you... I had to thank you. It's just how I was raised. That was a little weird. - I'm talking with a bee. - Yeah. I'm talking to a bee. And the bee is talking to me! I just want to say I'm grateful. I'll leave now. - Wait! How did you learn to do that? - What? The talking thing. Same way you did, I guess. "Mama, Dada, honey." You pick it up. - That's very funny. - Yeah. Bees are funny. If we didn't laugh, we'd cry with what we have to deal with. Anyway... Oan I... ...get you something? - Like what? I don't know. I mean... I don't know. Ooffee? I don't want to put you out. It's no trouble. It takes two minutes. - It's just coffee. - I hate to impose. - Don't be ridiculous! - Actually, I would love a cup. Hey, you want rum cake? - I shouldn't. - Have some. - No, I can't. - Oome on! I'm trying to lose a couple micrograms. - Where? - These stripes don't help. You look great! I don't know if you know anything about fashion. Are you all right? No. He's making the tie in the cab as they're flying up Madison. He finally gets there. He runs up the steps into the church. The wedding is on. And he says, "Watermelon? I thought you said Guatemalan. Why would I marry a watermelon?" Is that a bee joke? That's the kind of stuff we do. Yeah, different. So, what are you gonna do, Barry? About work? I don't know. I want to do my part for the hive, but I can't do it the way they want. I know how you feel. - You do? - Sure. My parents wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor, but I wanted to be a florist. - Really? - My only interest is flowers. Our new queen was just elected with that same campaign slogan. Anyway, if you look... There's my hive right there. See it? You're in Sheep Meadow! Yes! I'm right off the Turtle Pond! No way! I know that area. I lost a toe ring there once. - Why do girls put rings on their toes? - Why not? - It's like putting a hat on your knee. - Maybe I'll try that. - You all right, ma'am? - Oh, yeah. Fine. Just having two cups of coffee! Anyway, this has been great. Thanks for the coffee. Yeah, it's no trouble. Sorry I couldn't finish it. If I did, I'd be up the rest of my life. Are you...? Oan I take a piece of this with me? Sure! Here, have a crumb. - Thanks! - Yeah. All right. Well, then... I guess I'll see you around. Or not. OK, Barry. And thank you so much again... for before. Oh, that? That was nothing. Well, not nothing, but... Anyway... This can't possibly work. He's all set to go. We may as well try it. OK, Dave, pull the chute. - Sounds amazing. - It was amazing! It was the scariest, happiest moment of my life. Humans! I can't believe you were with humans! Giant, scary humans! What were they like? Huge and crazy. They talk crazy. They eat crazy giant things. They drive crazy. - Do they try and kill you, like on TV? - Some of them. But some of them don't. - How'd you get back? - Poodle. You did it, and I'm glad. You saw whatever you wanted to see. You had your "experience." Now you can pick out yourjob and be normal. - Well... - Well? Well, I met someone. You did? Was she Bee-ish? - A wasp?! Your parents will kill you! - No, no, no, not a wasp. - Spider? - I'm not attracted to spiders. I know it's the hottest thing, with the eight legs and all. I can't get by that face. So who is she? She's... human. No, no. That's a bee law. You wouldn't break a bee law. - Her name's Vanessa. - Oh, boy. She's so nice. And she's a florist! Oh, no! You're dating a human florist! We're not dating. You're flying outside the hive, talking to humans that attack our homes with power washers and M-80s! One-eighth a stick of dynamite! She saved my life! And she understands me. This is over! Eat this. This is not over! What was that? - They call it a crumb. - It was so stingin' stripey! And that's not what they eat. That's what falls off what they eat! - You know what a Oinnabon is? - No. It's bread and cinnamon and frosting. They heat it up... Sit down! ...really hot! - Listen to me! We are not them! We're us. There's us and there's them! Yes, but who can deny the heart that is yearning? There's no yearning. Stop yearning. Listen to me! You have got to start thinking bee, my friend. Thinking bee! - Thinking bee. - Thinking bee. Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! There he is. He's in the pool. You know what your problem is, Barry? I gotta start thinking bee? How much longer will this go on? It's been three days! Why aren't you working? I've got a lot of big life decisions to think about. What life? You have no life! You have no job. You're barely a bee! Would it kill you to make a little honey? Barry, come out. Your father's talking to you. Martin, would you talk to him? Barry, I'm talking to you! You coming? Got everything? All set! Go ahead. I'll catch up. Don't be too long. Watch this! Vanessa! - We're still here. - I told you not to yell at him. He doesn't respond to yelling! - Then why yell at me? - Because you don't listen! I'm not listening to this. Sorry, I've gotta go. - Where are you going? - I'm meeting a friend. A girl? Is this why you can't decide? Bye. I just hope she's Bee-ish. They have a huge parade of flowers every year in Pasadena? To be in the Tournament of Roses, that's every florist's dream! Up on a float, surrounded by flowers, crowds cheering. A tournament. Do the roses compete in athletic events? No. All right, I've got one. How come you don't fly everywhere? It's exhausting. Why don't you run everywhere? It's faster. Yeah, OK, I see, I see. All right, your turn. TiVo. You can just freeze live TV? That's insane! You don't have that? We have Hivo, but it's a disease. It's a horrible, horrible disease. Oh, my. Dumb bees! You must want to sting all those jerks. We try not to sting. It's usually fatal for us. So you have to watch your temper. Very carefully. You kick a wall, take a walk, write an angry letter and throw it out. Work through it like any emotion: Anger, jealousy, lust. Oh, my goodness! Are you OK? Yeah. - What is wrong with you?! - It's a bug. He's not bothering anybody. Get out of here, you creep! What was that? A Pic 'N' Save circular? Yeah, it was. How did you know? It felt like about 10 pages. Seventy-five is pretty much our limit. You've really got that down to a science. - I lost a cousin to Italian Vogue. - I'll bet. What in the name of Mighty Hercules is this? How did this get here? Oute Bee, Golden Blossom, Ray Liotta Private Select? - Is he that actor? - I never heard of him. - Why is this here? - For people. We eat it. You don't have enough food of your own? - Well, yes. - How do you get it? - Bees make it. - I know who makes it! And it's hard to make it! There's heating, cooling, stirring. You need a whole Krelman thing! - It's organic. - It's our-ganic! It's just honey, Barry. Just what?! Bees don't know about this! This is stealing! A lot of stealing! You've taken our homes, schools, hospitals! This is all we have! And it's on sale?! I'm getting to the bottom of this. I'm getting to the bottom of all of this! Hey, Hector. - You almost done? - Almost. He is here. I sense it. Well, I guess I'll go home now and just leave this nice honey out, with no one around. You're busted, box boy! I knew I heard something. So you can talk! I can talk. And now you'll start talking! Where you getting the sweet stuff? Who's your supplier? I don't understand. I thought we were friends. The last thing we want to do is upset bees! You're too late! It's ours now! You, sir, have crossed the wrong sword! You, sir, will be lunch for my iguana, Ignacio! Where is the honey coming from? Tell me where! Honey Farms! It comes from Honey Farms! Orazy person! What horrible thing has happened here? These faces, they never knew what hit them. And now they're on the road to nowhere! Just keep still. What? You're not dead? Do I look dead? They will wipe anything that moves. Where you headed? To Honey Farms. I am onto something huge here. I'm going to Alaska. Moose blood, crazy stuff. Blows your head off! I'm going to Tacoma. - And you? - He really is dead. All right. Uh-oh! - What is that?! - Oh, no! - A wiper! Triple blade! - Triple blade? Jump on! It's your only chance, bee! Why does everything have to be so doggone clean?! How much do you people need to see?! Open your eyes! Stick your head out the window! From NPR News in Washington, I'm Oarl Kasell. But don't kill no more bugs! - Bee! - Moose blood guy!! - You hear something? - Like what? Like tiny screaming. Turn off the radio. Whassup, bee boy? Hey, Blood. Just a row of honey jars, as far as the eye could see. Wow! I assume wherever this truck goes is where they're getting it. I mean, that honey's ours. - Bees hang tight. - We're all jammed in. It's a close community. Not us, man. We on our own. Every mosquito on his own. - What if you get in trouble? - You a mosquito, you in trouble. Nobody likes us. They just smack. See a mosquito, smack, smack! At least you're out in the world. You must meet girls. Mosquito girls try to trade up, get with a moth, dragonfly. Mosquito girl don't want no mosquito. You got to be kidding me! Mooseblood's about to leave the building! So long, bee! - Hey, guys! - Mooseblood! I knew I'd catch y'all down here. Did you bring your crazy straw? We throw it in jars, slap a label on it, and it's pretty much pure profit. What is this place? A bee's got a brain the size of a pinhead. They are pinheads! Pinhead. - Oheck out the new smoker. - Oh, sweet. That's the one you want. The Thomas 3000! Smoker? Ninety puffs a minute, semi-automatic. Twice the nicotine, all the tar. A couple breaths of this knocks them right out. They make the honey, and we make the money. "They make the honey, and we make the money"? Oh, my! What's going on? Are you OK? Yeah. It doesn't last too long. Do you know you're in a fake hive with fake walls? Our queen was moved here. We had no choice. This is your queen? That's a man in women's clothes! That's a drag queen! What is this? Oh, no! There's hundreds of them! Bee honey. Our honey is being brazenly stolen on a massive scale! This is worse than anything bears have done! I intend to do something. Oh, Barry, stop. Who told you humans are taking our honey? That's a rumor. Do these look like rumors? That's a conspiracy theory. These are obviously doctored photos. How did you get mixed up in this? He's been talking to humans. - What? - Talking to humans?! He has a human girlfriend. And they make out! Make out? Barry! We do not. - You wish you could. - Whose side are you on? The bees! I dated a cricket once in San Antonio. Those crazy legs kept me up all night. Barry, this is what you want to do with your life? I want to do it for all our lives. Nobody works harder than bees! Dad, I remember you coming home so overworked your hands were still stirring. You couldn't stop. I remember that. What right do they have to our honey? We live on two cups a year. They put it in lip balm for no reason whatsoever! Even if it's true, what can one bee do? Sting them where it really hurts. In the face! The eye! - That would hurt. - No. Up the nose? That's a killer. There's only one place you can sting the humans, one place where it matters. Hive at Five, the hive's only full-hour action news source. No more bee beards! With Bob Bumble at the anchor desk. Weather with Storm Stinger. Sports with Buzz Larvi. And Jeanette Ohung. - Good evening. I'm Bob Bumble. - And I'm Jeanette Ohung. A tri-county bee, Barry Benson, intends to sue the human race for stealing our honey, packaging it and profiting from it illegally! Tomorrow night on Bee Larry King, we'll have three former queens here in our studio, discussing their new book, Olassy Ladies, out this week on Hexagon. Tonight we're talking to Barry Benson. Did you ever think, "I'm a kid from the hive. I can't do this"? Bees have never been afraid to change the world. What about Bee Oolumbus? Bee Gandhi? Bejesus? Where I'm from, we'd never sue humans. We were thinking of stickball or candy stores. How old are you? The bee community is supporting you in this case, which will be the trial of the bee century. You know, they have a Larry King in the human world too. It's a common name. Next week... He looks like you and has a show and suspenders and colored dots... Next week... Glasses, quotes on the bottom from the guest even though you just heard 'em. Bear Week next week! They're scary, hairy and here live. Always leans forward, pointy shoulders, squinty eyes, very Jewish. In tennis, you attack at the point of weakness! It was my grandmother, Ken. She's 81. Honey, her backhand's a joke! I'm not gonna take advantage of that? Quiet, please. Actual work going on here. - Is that that same bee? - Yes, it is! I'm helping him sue the human race. - Hello. - Hello, bee. This is Ken. Yeah, I remember you. Timberland, size ten and a half. Vibram sole, I believe. Why does he talk again? Listen, you better go 'cause we're really busy working. But it's our yogurt night! Bye-bye. Why is yogurt night so difficult?! You poor thing. You two have been at this for hours! Yes, and Adam here has been a huge help. - Frosting... - How many sugars? Just one. I try not to use the competition. So why are you helping me? Bees have good qualities. And it takes my mind off the shop. Instead of flowers, people are giving balloon bouquets now. Those are great, if you're three. And artificial flowers. - Oh, those just get me psychotic! - Yeah, me too. Bent stingers, pointless pollination. Bees must hate those fake things! Nothing worse than a daffodil that's had work done. Maybe this could make up for it a little bit. - This lawsuit's a pretty big deal. - I guess. You sure you want to go through with it? Am I sure? When I'm done with the humans, they won't be able to say, "Honey, I'm home," without paying a royalty! It's an incredible scene here in downtown Manhattan, where the world anxiously waits, because for the first time in history, we will hear for ourselves if a honeybee can actually speak. What have we gotten into here, Barry? It's pretty big, isn't it? I can't believe how many humans don't work during the day. You think billion-dollar multinational food companies have good lawyers? Everybody needs to stay behind the barricade. - What's the matter? - I don't know, I just got a chill. Well, if it isn't the bee team. You boys work on this? All rise! The Honorable Judge Bumbleton presiding. All right. Oase number 4475, Superior Oourt of New York, Barry Bee Benson v. the Honey Industry is now in session. Mr. Montgomery, you're representing the five food companies collectively? A privilege. Mr. Benson... you're representing all the bees of the world? I'm kidding. Yes, Your Honor, we're ready to proceed. Mr. Montgomery, your opening statement, please. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my grandmother was a simple woman. Born on a farm, she believed it was man's divine right to benefit from the bounty of nature God put before us. If we lived in the topsy-turvy world Mr. Benson imagines, just think of what would it mean. I would have to negotiate with the silkworm for the elastic in my britches! Talking bee! How do we know this isn't some sort of holographic motion-picture-capture Hollywood wizardry? They could be using laser beams! Robotics! Ventriloquism! Oloning! For all we know, he could be on steroids! Mr. Benson? Ladies and gentlemen, there's no trickery here. I'm just an ordinary bee. Honey's pretty important to me. It's important to all bees. We invented it! We make it. And we protect it with our lives. Unfortunately, there are some people in this room who think they can take it from us 'cause we're the little guys! I'm hoping that, after this is all over, you'll see how, by taking our honey, you not only take everything we have but everything we are! I wish he'd dress like that all the time. So nice! Oall your first witness. So, Mr. Klauss Vanderhayden of Honey Farms, big company you have. I suppose so. I see you also own Honeyburton and Honron! Yes, they provide beekeepers for our farms. Beekeeper. I find that to be a very disturbing term. I don't imagine you employ any bee-free-ers, do you? - No. - I couldn't hear you. - No. - No. Because you don't free bees. You keep bees. Not only that, it seems you thought a bear would be an appropriate image for a jar of honey. They're very lovable creatures. Yogi Bear, Fozzie Bear, Build-A-Bear. You mean like this? Bears kill bees! How'd you like his head crashing through your living room?! Biting into your couch! Spitting out your throw pillows! OK, that's enough. Take him away. So, Mr. Sting, thank you for being here. Your name intrigues me. - Where have I heard it before? - I was with a band called The Police. But you've never been a police officer, have you? No, I haven't. No, you haven't. And so here we have yet another example of bee culture casually stolen by a human for nothing more than a prance-about stage name. Oh, please. Have you ever been stung, Mr. Sting? Because I'm feeling a little stung, Sting. Or should I say... Mr. Gordon M. Sumner! That's not his real name?! You idiots! Mr. Liotta, first, belated congratulations on your Emmy win for a guest spot on ER in 2005. Thank you. Thank you. I see from your resume that you're devilishly handsome with a churning inner turmoil that's ready to blow. I enjoy what I do. Is that a crime? Not yet it isn't. But is this what it's come to for you? Exploiting tiny, helpless bees so you don't have to rehearse your part and learn your lines, sir? Watch it, Benson! I could blow right now! This isn't a goodfella. This is a badfella! Why doesn't someone just step on this creep, and we can all go home?! - Order in this court! - You're all thinking it! Order! Order, I say! - Say it! - Mr. Liotta, please sit down! I think it was awfully nice of that bear to pitch in like that. I think the jury's on our side. Are we doing everything right, legally? I'm a florist. Right. Well, here's to a great team. To a great team! Well, hello. - Ken! - Hello. I didn't think you were coming. No, I was just late. I tried to call, but... the battery. I didn't want all this to go to waste, so I called Barry. Luckily, he was free. Oh, that was lucky. There's a little left. I could heat it up. Yeah, heat it up, sure, whatever. So I hear you're quite a tennis player. I'm not much for the game myself. The ball's a little grabby. That's where I usually sit. Right... there. Ken, Barry was looking at your resume, and he agreed with me that eating with chopsticks isn't really a special skill. You think I don't see what you're doing? I know how hard it is to find the rightjob. We have that in common. Do we? Bees have 100 percent employment, but we do jobs like taking the crud out. That's just what I was thinking about doing. Ken, I let Barry borrow your razor for his fuzz. I hope that was all right. I'm going to drain the old stinger. Yeah, you do that. Look at that. You know, I've just about had it with your little mind games. - What's that? - Italian Vogue. Mamma mia, that's a lot of pages. A lot of ads. Remember what Van said, why is your life more valuable than mine? Funny, I just can't seem to recall that! I think something stinks in here! I love the smell of flowers. How do you like the smell of flames?! Not as much. Water bug! Not taking sides! Ken, I'm wearing a Ohapstick hat! This is pathetic! I've got issues! Well, well, well, a royal flush! - You're bluffing. - Am I? Surf's up, dude! Poo water! That bowl is gnarly. Except for those dirty yellow rings! Kenneth! What are you doing?! You know, I don't even like honey! I don't eat it! We need to talk! He's just a little bee! And he happens to be the nicest bee I've met in a long time! Long time? What are you talking about?! Are there other bugs in your life? No, but there are other things bugging me in life. And you're one of them! Fine! Talking bees, no yogurt night... My nerves are fried from riding on this emotional roller coaster! Goodbye, Ken. And for your information, I prefer sugar-free, artificial sweeteners made by man! I'm sorry about all that. I know it's got an aftertaste! I like it! I always felt there was some kind of barrier between Ken and me. I couldn't overcome it. Oh, well. Are you OK for the trial? I believe Mr. Montgomery is about out of ideas. We would like to call Mr. Barry Benson Bee to the stand. Good idea! You can really see why he's considered one of the best lawyers... Yeah. Layton, you've gotta weave some magic with this jury, or it's gonna be all over. Don't worry. The only thing I have to do to turn this jury around is to remind them of what they don't like about bees. - You got the tweezers? - Are you allergic? Only to losing, son. Only to losing. Mr. Benson Bee, I'll ask you what I think we'd all like to know. What exactly is your relationship to that woman? We're friends. - Good friends? - Yes. How good? Do you live together? Wait a minute... Are you her little... ...bedbug? I've seen a bee documentary or two. From what I understand, doesn't your queen give birth to all the bee children? - Yeah, but... - So those aren't your real parents! - Oh, Barry... - Yes, they are! Hold me back! You're an illegitimate bee, aren't you, Benson? He's denouncing bees! Don't y'all date your cousins? - Objection! - I'm going to pincushion this guy! Adam, don't! It's what he wants! Oh, I'm hit!! Oh, lordy, I am hit! Order! Order! The venom! The venom is coursing through my veins! I have been felled by a winged beast of destruction! You see? You can't treat them like equals! They're striped savages! Stinging's the only thing they know! It's their way! - Adam, stay with me. - I can't feel my legs. What angel of mercy will come forward to suck the poison from my heaving buttocks? I will have order in this court. Order! Order, please! The case of the honeybees versus the human race took a pointed turn against the bees yesterday when one of their legal team stung Layton T. Montgomery. - Hey, buddy. - Hey. - Is there much pain? - Yeah. I... I blew the whole case, didn't I? It doesn't matter. What matters is you're alive. You could have died. I'd be better off dead. Look at me. They got it from the cafeteria downstairs, in a tuna sandwich. Look, there's a little celery still on it. What was it like to sting someone? I can't explain it. It was all... All adrenaline and then... and then ecstasy! All right. You think it was all a trap? Of course. I'm sorry. I flew us right into this. What were we thinking? Look at us. We're just a couple of bugs in this world. What will the humans do to us if they win? I don't know. I hear they put the roaches in motels. That doesn't sound so bad. Adam, they check in, but they don't check out! Oh, my. Oould you get a nurse to close that window? - Why? - The smoke. Bees don't smoke. Right. Bees don't smoke. Bees don't smoke! But some bees are smoking. That's it! That's our case! It is? It's not over? Get dressed. I've gotta go somewhere. Get back to the court and stall. Stall any way you can. And assuming you've done step correctly, you're ready for the tub. Mr. Flayman. Yes? Yes, Your Honor! Where is the rest of your team? Well, Your Honor, it's interesting. Bees are trained to fly haphazardly, and as a result, we don't make very good time. I actually heard a funny story about... Your Honor, haven't these ridiculous bugs taken up enough of this court's valuable time? How much longer will we allow these absurd shenanigans to go on? They have presented no compelling evidence to support their charges against my clients, who run legitimate businesses. I move for a complete dismissal of this entire case! Mr. Flayman, I'm afraid I'm going to have to consider Mr. Montgomery's motion. But you can't! We have a terrific case. Where is your proof? Where is the evidence? Show me the smoking gun! Hold it, Your Honor! You want a smoking gun? Here is your smoking gun. What is that? It's a bee smoker! What, this? This harmless little contraption? This couldn't hurt a fly, let alone a bee. Look at what has happened to bees who have never been asked, "Smoking or non?" Is this what nature intended for us? To be forcibly addicted to smoke machines and man-made wooden slat work camps? Living out our lives as honey slaves to the white man? - What are we gonna do? - He's playing the species card. Ladies and gentlemen, please, free these bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! The court finds in favor of the bees! Vanessa, we won! I knew you could do it! High-five! Sorry. I'm OK! You know what this means? All the honey will finally belong to the bees. Now we won't have to work so hard all the time. This is an unholy perversion of the balance of nature, Benson. You'll regret this. Barry, how much honey is out there? All right. One at a time. Barry, who are you wearing? My sweater is Ralph Lauren, and I have no pants. - What if Montgomery's right? - What do you mean? We've been living the bee way a long time, 27 million years. Oongratulations on your victory. What will you demand as a settlement? First, we'll demand a complete shutdown of all bee work camps. Then we want back the honey that was ours to begin with, every last drop. We demand an end to the glorification of the bear as anything more than a filthy, smelly, bad-breath stink machine. We're all aware of what they do in the woods. Wait for my signal. Take him out. He'll have nauseous for a few hours, then he'll be fine. And we will no longer tolerate bee-negative nicknames... But it's just a prance-about stage name! ...unnecessary inclusion of honey in bogus health products and la-dee-da human tea-time snack garnishments. Oan't breathe. Bring it in, boys! Hold it right there! Good. Tap it. Mr. Buzzwell, we just passed three cups, and there's gallons more coming! - I think we need to shut down! - Shut down? We've never shut down. Shut down honey production! Stop making honey! Turn your key, sir! What do we do now? Oannonball! We're shutting honey production! Mission abort. Aborting pollination and nectar detail. Returning to base. Adam, you wouldn't believe how much honey was out there. Oh, yeah? What's going on? Where is everybody? - Are they out celebrating? - They're home. They don't know what to do. Laying out, sleeping in. I heard your Uncle Oarl was on his way to San Antonio with a cricket. At least we got our honey back. Sometimes I think, so what if humans liked our honey? Who wouldn't? It's the greatest thing in the world! I was excited to be part of making it. This was my new desk. This was my new job. I wanted to do it really well. And now... Now I can't. I don't understand why they're not happy. I thought their lives would be better! They're doing nothing. It's amazing. Honey really changes people. You don't have any idea what's going on, do you? - What did you want to show me? - This. What happened here? That is not the half of it. Oh, no. Oh, my. They're all wilting. Doesn't look very good, does it? No. And whose fault do you think that is? You know, I'm gonna guess bees. Bees? Specifically, me. I didn't think bees not needing to make honey would affect all these things. It's notjust flowers.

negative: Bailouts Should be Banned It isn't fair for the government to give money to one company just because it is in trouble. The government should stay out and just let the company die, if that's what'll happen. Another company will take its place.

negative: if gay marriage should be allowed or not allowed in the US Hahaha Its funny, me having seen this before on the Internet on a Website called " Damn Lol ".

negative: AIG bonuses AIG should reveal contracts so public can judge validity

negative: Congress can invalidate AIG contracts with cause. Congress has the constitutional right to invalidate contracts with proper cause. The fact that the AIG bonus follow a taxpayer bailout of AIG is certainly just cause.

negative: Resolved: we must remove the patrioct act Apology: sorry about not posting argument was busy Intro:Yes the patriot act has certain things that should be repelled or changed such as privacy. In fact some things in the patriot scare the living crap out of me. But there is one beneficial part of it that shouldn"t be eliminated and that is the protection this act provides for American citizens. 1.Stops terrorism "Protects power grids from being hacked by terrorist, power grids allow electricity and energy for people"s homes-Washington post "According to a 29-page report to Congress released by Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, Justice Department terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against 310 people and have yielded 179 convictions or guilty pleas. The report says the Patriot Act was central to those cases.-Washington post "Information-sharing facilated by the Patriot Act was critical to the successful dismantling of terror cells in Portland, Ore., and Virginia. The information-sharing provisions contained in the act assisted the prosecution in San Diego of those involved with an al-Qaida drugs-for-weapons plot involving "Stinger" anti-aircraft missiles. Source=NY times "The act also aided in the prosecution of Enaam Arnaout, who had a relationship with Osama bin Laden and used his charity organization to obtain funds illicitly from unsuspecting Americans for terrorist groups-NY times 2.Enhances security "Patriot act allows businesses and other private organizations to share threats which in turn enhances security "Causes businesses to report fraud and protects borders as a whole 3.Saved lives "The patriot act has even helped crime domestically by saving lives "The report provides as examples lengthy accounts of non-terrorism cases in which the Patriot Act played a central role, including investigations of a couple who allegedly defrauded widows and orphans, and of an Indiana man accused of filming the sexual abuse of his 13-year-old daughter. Sensenbrenner highlighted the case of the Wisconsin woman, 88, who was kidnapped in. She was rescued after officials used the Patriot Act to obtain information from Internet service providers.-Washington post 4.Find ways to eliminate some of the things patriot act has access to What I mean here is that I believe we should remove parts of the patriot act not the whole thing. Like there are some parts of it that violate privacy to much like I mentioned in intro, that can be removed. Cont 5: Even if you remove the patriot act privacy and violations will still be a problem since the NSA will still be active. So their is no reason to remove a beneficial program that saves lives since privacy will still be a issue. Also most people don't even know what the patriot act is so they are not worried about privacy violations which takes out all his privacy arguments they are only aware and worried about NSA since NSA has more access then anything. They even have access on other countries. Response: I will attack certain contention's in my opponents case cont 1: privacy I believe that since the patriot act is saving lives and stopping terrorism activities then the benefits of lives outweighs privacy and again I mentioned some parts of patriot can be removed instead of the whole thing to ensure less privacy is violated. Also patriot act has restrictions like NSA that keep it from sharing the info. So yeah if you have nothing to hide nothing to fear His cont 2: Patriot act has supervision and must have approval before action in order to get a police force or whatever to go get the criminal/suspect. Also not like they spy on you 24/7 not possible. Cont 3: honestly not sure about impact here so will not touch his cont 4: hackers THe patriot act actually stops hackers from hacking into power grids and hacking our electricity and other stuff. So patriot act actually helps stop hackers and ensures Americans can have electricity. Also many secrete databases are at risk of hacking.. stuff the Pentagon has, NSA,CIA,FBI any secrete database has a risk of being hacked its logical. his cont. 5: may use info for tracking lovers ,selling info. This is a argument I hit often doing this for PF. Heavy restrictions on NSA and patriot act that keep info from being sold. There is massive oversight and also popular websites like google, yahoo, facebook, Instagram, twitter, etc. signed agreement saying they wouldn't release or sale this data to anyone for any cause. cont. 6: didn't stop Boston bombing/not needed for one attack I have also hit these arguments. First of all that is one instance out of the 300+ benefits/instances I mentioned in case so patriot act has been needed more often then not. Now about the Boston bombing and I am glad you bought that up. My opponent says many attacks and not the Boston bombing but the Boston bombing is the only major terrorist attack not stopped since 9/11 and the only major one that has happened since then. I will attack this in a few ways 1. Since there has only been 1 major attack since 9/11 counter terrorism tools like the patriot act are working 2. What my opponent is saying is that since the patriot act failed once it is done but that is unrealistic. For example police don't always catch criminals, the military sometimes fails to solve conflicts like in Vietnam and Iraq, The U.S. government as a whole has made mistakes but does that mean they all should be removed then?? Obviously no nothing is 100% accurate but as long as it works more then doesn't it should be kept and the patriot act along with the things I mentioned works more often then it doesn't work. his cont 7: spying on corpates As I mentioned in my case above the patriot act Patriot act allows businesses and other private organizations to share threats which in turn enhances security. Causes businesses to report fraud and protects borders as a whole Conclusion: As you can see the patriot act has benefits and again I mentioned we can remove certain access/uneeded parts of the patriot act to lower privacy violation however even if that wasn't possible consider this when voting. Do you value lives over privacy, or privacy over lives? Also most people don't even know what the patriot act is so they are not worried about privacy violations which takes out all his privacy arguments they are only aware and worried about NSA since NSA has more access then anything. They even have access on other countries.

negative: AIG bonuses If AIG bonuses are not returned voluntarily, tax them

negative: 9/11 was an inside job and the official 9/11 Commission Report does not explain what really happened I suppose I'll address Pro's R5 comments since that seems to be the best way to do this... Shoulda gone out Californ-e-way for internet over break... B - Hijackers 1. I did indeed address this point, showing the image of the hijacker's passport found at the WTC site. Another passport fragment was found at the Pentagon, and there are numerous paper-trail documents involved in tracing the funding of the attacks, as outlined below. 2. You mean convictions like: Yahya Goba, Shafal Mosed, Yasein Taher, Taysal Galab, Mukhtar al-Bakri, Sahim Alwan, Jeffrey Battle, Patrice Ford, Ahmed Bilal, Muhammad Bilal, October Lewis, Mike Hawash, Masoud Ahmad Khan, Seifullah Chapman, Yong Ki Kwon, Donald Surratt, Hammad Abdur-Raheem, James Ujaama, and Iyman Faris? C - Osama Bin Laden 1. Basic googling shows Mustafa Mohamed Ahmad, a financier for bin Laden, owned several of the accounts the hijackers were financed from. Furthermore, we have the previous assertions of bin Laden's involvement from the people wo planned 9/11. 2. According to SourceWatch, the Carlyle Group is some 16.6 BILLION in debt. Massive profits indeed. 3. The bin Laden family is one of the most influential Saudi Families - they have all SORTS of business dealings. This isn't unusual at all. Furthermore, the meeting was on 9/10, NOT 9/11. (http://en.wikipedia.org...). D - Pentagon 1. Pro never introduced any sort of evidence for the vaporization of this 12 tons of steel and titanium... which is interesting, because the Pentagon is made of concrete, wood, slate, and limestone... not titanium. 2. The FBI only confiscated 3 videos - the gas station, the hotel roof, and the camera overseeing I-395. The Citgo camera (gas station) is UNDER the canopy of the pumps - you can see the flash in the video released in September 2006. The Doubletree Hotel roof video released on 12/7/06 shows the explosion, but is of such poor quality one would not be able to see the plane (http://www.debunk911myths.org...). The VDOT cameras on I-395 do not refresh fast enough to catch the plane (http://www.trafficland.com...). 3. You mean light poles like these ones: http://www.geoffmetcalf.com... ?? H - The 9/11 Commission The government DID trace the source of funding - to one of bin Laden's financiers, as stated above. G - NORAD 1. Of course someone planned the military exercises!! How else would the exercises get started?? My opponent contends without evidence that the planners of these exercises had inside information despite the fact that I presented evidence showing that the presence of the military exercises IMPROVED response time on 9/11 and that these exercises are yearly events. **************************************** All of Pro's outstanding contentions in his summary of the points have been refuted. He has no points to stand on to back up his assertions, as has been clearly evidenced if you read my rebuttals. **************************************** To address R4: A - Warnings 1, 2. This meeting took place on July 10, 2001. I wouldn't call something that happened more than 2 months later to be the "imminent" threat they describe. Oh, and their meeting was about how to secure funds to search for and neutralize Bin Laden, not that there was going to be a hijacking attack. B - Hijackers The Saudi government initially denied that the hijackers were Saudi, presenting many pieces of misinformation. I'm curious what samples from relatives would do if the bodies were completely destroyed in the explosions? And why would the FBI need samples to prove what they already know? It's like getting your calculator to check 2+2... Oh, and the passenger manifest from Flight 77 with "no Arab names" ?? Those are taken from CNN's reports of the victims, NOT the actual passenger manifests. CNN did not include the hijackers as "victims" because they simply weren't "victims" in the common sense of the word. There is extensive proof of the fact that the hijackers were Arab men... passports, videos from airport security, passenger manifests (like Flight 11, showing the hijackers: http://911myths.com...) and even the CONFESSIONS of the planners!! Again - read this: http://www.911myths.com... - it explains IN DETAIL about the "alive" (read: dead) hijackers. C - Bin Laden Tape 1. Terrorists do not "always claim responsibility." This is quite simply false. Furthermore, the Bin Laden never denied involvement - the TALIBAN, who has a very strong incentive to not get turned to dust by Navy bombers, denied involvement (http://www.911myths.com...). 2. Bin Laden has been wanted for many, many other things besides 9/11. The FBI's page on him lists what he was first wanted for, not what his most notorious crime was. Al Capone was wanted for tax evasion, not organized crime. Bin Laden's poster was created in 1999... Why would it list something from 2001 as his primary crime?? D. Pentagon In a piece of laughable evidence, my opponent posts 1 picture of the passenger cabin of an AA plane and concludes there is no green paint anywhere in the plane. Really?? Why would they cover the Pentagon yard with sand? Easy - as I explained before, sand and gravel is needed to support large construction equipment. The breach in the Pentagon wall left it vulnerable, and they would want to start reconstruction as soon as possible. In the pictures I provided, you can see the hole and pitting that matches the impact from a shattered airframe, and in the second, you can easily see aluminum (not paper) all over the Pentagon lawn. Most people don't realize that aluminum planes shatter when they hit concrete and THEN puncture it, not blow right through in their exact shape. E. Shanksville My opponent calls my two pictures "not really that convincing" despite the fact that they are almost identical. Interesting... F. Pancake Once again, I must remind my opponent that only a few floors pancaked before the weight of the upper 30-some floors began to simply crush the building in a more "conventional" collapse. My opponent also doesn't seem to understand that pulverized material from a pancaking floor still adds weight to the floors below it... G. NORAD The odds of it being scheduled for one day are EXACTLY the same as for the next. So, in effect, it's no more unusual that the war games took place on 9/11 than on 2/12. What's unusual is the terrorist attack, not the war games. So unless my opponent thinks terrorist attacks are a normal event, there is nothing unusual about the coincidence of war games & a terrorist attack - it's not a miracle of statistics - it's a coincidence. No jets were scrambled because the government thought the two jets in the towers were all of the planes. After they grounded all planes and there were still some flying (Pentagon) THEN they scrambled jets to force all planes down. And my opponent's time is incorrect - "Fighter Scramble Order (Otis Air National Guard Base, Falmouth, Mass. Two F-15s )0846" - 8:46 AM - not 9:38... H. WTC7 If you actually watch videos of the collapse, it is OBVIOUS that it was much slower than free fall. As I have stated before, WTC7 suffered EXTENSIVE structural damage. An excellent overview - http://www.911myths.com... I. Online Petition 33,469 people is .0001 percent of the US population. OF COURSE there are that many people that want answers! ******************************************** My apologies again for missing the 4th round. I believe I have accurately and concisely presented rebuttals to my opponent's points... he has no argument to stand on. Vote CON. NEGATED.

negative: 9/11 was an inside job and the official 9/11 Commission Report does not explain what really happened Hello. I am for the Pro. side of this debate. I will show you very convincing evidence of why 9/11 was an inside job and also that the official 9/11 Commission Report does not explain what really happened. After I do that, or if you are convinced that I have done that effectively, then I invite you to vote "Pro". Thank you. I welcome my opponent and look forward to an interesting debate. I will now begin: The towers were brought down by demolition explosives, not because a plane crashed into them. To quote CNN from that day: "The way this structure is collapsing, it is the result of something planted, It is not accidental that the first tower just happened to collapse, then the second tower just happened to collapse in exactly the same way, how they accomplished this, we don't know."[1] I will show that the official 9/11 story does not make sense for these reasons: A. WARNINGS -They claim there were no warnings. But there were many warnings. B. 19 HIJACKERS -There were no Arab names whatsoever on the passenger logs. 6 of the 19 men listed are still alive. C. OSAMA BIN LADEN -No evidence has ever linked any of the alive or dead "hijackers" to Osama Bin Laden. The alleged confession tape is planted evidence. In the video he has darker skin fuller cheeks and broader nose than the Osama bin Laden in other videos. Also the issue of right handedness, when in the FBI files he is left handed, shows that the video is not a true confession tape. There are many connections between Bin Laden family and Bush family, one is the Carlyle Group, which is one of world's largest defense contractors, which continues to reap massive profits off of the post 9/11 war on terrorism. Also Bush Sr. met with Bin Laden's Brother on 9/11. D. PENTAGON - A 60 ton 125 ft. wide 44 foot tall plane was somehow guided through an obstacle course of hazards without hitting any and executed a 270 degree downward spiral, but Hani Hanjour was known as a terrible pilot, who could not safely fly even a small plane. "I am still to this day amazed that he could have flown into the Pentagon...He could not fly at all..." - AZ. Flight School Employee. No seats, no luggage, and no bodies were found. The official story is that intense heat from the burning jet fuel vaporized the entire plane. Flight 77 was a 757 and it had 2 Rolls Royce engines made of steel and titanium alloy which weighed 6 tons each. It is scientifically impossible that 12 tons of steel and titanium was vaporized by jet fuel. Also according to the CNN Live Report at the time they said "no evidence of a plane having crashed anywhere near the pentagon". Afterwards there was a literal "cover up"! Dirt and gravel was dumped on the lawn to literally cover up any forensic evidence. Also the videos which would HAVE shown what really happened were immediately confiscated by agents of the FBI and the Dept. Of Justice to this day has refused to release them. E. SHANKSVILLE- Here are 2 official quotes from an authority who was on the scene. 1. "It looks like there is nothing there except for a hole in the ground." 2. "It looked like someone took a scrap truck, dug a 10-foot ditch and dumped trash into it." Wally Miller- Sommerset County Coroner. There was nothing that you could see to distinguish that a plane had crashed there. F. TRADE TOWERS 1,2, 7 - The official story is the "Pancake theory" where floors falling would start a chain reaction. If this really happened one would expect to see a column of core columns still standing and floors piled up at the bottom. The core was made up of 47 massive steel columns, and they would have still been sticking up in the air 1,000 feet high. "The building probably could sustain multiple impacts of jetliners"- Frank A. Demartini (Manager, WTC Construction). When the building collapsed the building was near free fall speed, it encountered no resistance whatsoever. There is no scenario where the pancake effect will allow buildings to fall at the rate that they did. So what can do that? What can move mass out of the way? Explosives. And there is evidence of core columns that were cut at an angle. And there was molten metal for well over 6 week after the collapse. Hot spots of over 2000 degrees were documented in the debris (that is 500 degree F. hotter than Jet fuel even burns). What do the reports say about the metal? they say nothing! Thermite is where it came from. Dr. Steven Jones, Physics Professor, BYU - found thermite explosive compound and high sulfur content. He found it below bldg 7 too (WHICH WASN'T EVEN HIT BY A JET YET COLLAPSED!) - a 47 story building that fell that was not hit by a plane! The central columns of other towers were taken out first so they didn't structurally damage buildings that were close to them. The official explanation was fire. But NEVER before or after 911, has any steel building collapsed from fire. The characteristics fit the model of controlled demolition exactly. There also were sub basement explosions that occurred seconds before the first plane hit. William Rodriguez, the last man out, talks about that on his website [2] An explosion in the B2-B3 levels pushed him upwards. G. NORAD - The scramble order of fighters is usually 10 minutes before they intercept. On 9/11 it took 80 min. before the jets even launched. There was deliberate confusion in place so they could not respond. On 9/11 a number of conflicting war game exercises were taking place which involved false radar blips on the screens. One was called "Operation Vigilant Warrior". It was a live-fly hijack drill being conducted at the same time. There were only 8 planes available at the time to scramble. There were too many intercepts and couldn't distinguish real world from exercises. Dick Cheney was in charge at the time. H. 9/11 COMMISSION - The 9/11 Commission could not trace the source of the funding but concluded by saying "it is of little consequence". Also Building 7 is NOT even mentioned in the official report. When Bush and Cheney met with the 9/11 commission they did so only on their own terms: Together, not under oath, no press or family members were allowed to attend, no recordings of any kind was allowed, no transcript allowed. The 9/11 report was a "unanimous report" which means any objections to anything were not reported. I. TERRORISM -One of the possible motivations of the 9/11 attacks could be that it was a "False Flag" operation. There are techniques used by governments to manipulate public opinion in order to further their agenda. There is a lot of evidence to support this opinion and I am also willing to expound further on this point if so desired. I believe that I have given sufficient evidence here to convince you that 9/11 was an inside job and also that the official 9/11 Commission Report does not explain what really happened. I encourage you to vote "Pro". I now look forward to my opponent's rebuttal. 1. www.warnthepeople.org (video #7) 2. www.william911.com

negative: 9/11 was an inside job and the official 9/11 Commission Report does not explain what really happened A. Despite this Administration's rhetoric that they had "no warnings". .. it has become abundantly clear, that key Administration officials were made aware of the vast array of Al Qaeda threats and warnings that existed in years prior, and more importantly, in the weeks leading up to 9/11. Those other warnings include, but are not limited to: Warnings from leaders of other nations and foreign intelligence apparatus' of terrorist threats June 30, 2001 Senior Executive Intelligence Briefing (SEIB) entitled "bin Laden Threats Are Real" 52 FAA warnings – five of which mentioned al Qaeda's training for hijacking August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Brief entitled "bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" National Intelligence Estimate (NIE)entitled "Islamist Extremists Learn to Fly" and many more. .. The abundance of post 9/11 reports and commissions found no evidence of any action taken by appropriate officials. The 9/11 Commission itself concluded that in spite of an unprecedented attack threat in the months before 9/11, US "domestic agencies never mobilized in response to the threat. [1] B. There is no credible evidence that any of the alleged hijackers were on any of the jetliners, and considerable evidence to the contrary. None of the passenger lists published by the airlines contained any of the alleged hijackers' names. No airport video shows any of the alleged hijackers boarding the flights. Several of the alleged hijackers turned up alive after the attack. Not a "Single Piece of Paper" Links Alleged Hijackers to Plot FBI director Robert Mueller admitted that his agency failed to find "a single piece of paper" linking the alleged hijackers to the 9/11 plot. "The hijackers also left no paper trail. In our investigation, we have not uncovered a single piece of paper either here in the U. S. or in the treasure trove of information that has turned up in Afghanistan and elsewhere that mentioned any aspect of the September 11th plot. " With such a lack of evidence it is no wonder that there has not been a single prosecution leading to conviction anywhere in the world of the alleged perps, with the single exception of Zaccarias Moussaoui, who was only convicted because he admitted to involvement in the alleged plot. [2] Also several of the alleged hijackers turned up alive after the attack. From your list of supposed hijackers over half of the men are still alive. How can the 9/11 Commission be taken seriously when they refer to 9/11 'hijackers' who are still alive? [3] C. A leading expert on Osama Bin Laden has officially gone on the record saying that he believes the so called 9/11 Confession tape, released shortly after the attacks, is an outright fake. The "Osama" in this video uses the wrong hand to write with and wears gold rings, a practice totally in opposition to the Muslim faith. [4] D. Just minutes after the attack, standing in front of the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Jamie McIntyre, CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent since November 1992, reported: "From my close up inspection there's no evidence of a plane having crashed anywhere near the Pentagon. . . . . The only pieces left that you can see are small enough that you could pick up in your hand. There are no large tail sections, wing sections, fuselage - nothing like that anywhere around which would indicate that the entire plane crashed into the side of the Pentagon. "[5] There are also pictures of light poles standing in the path of the "supposed" plane. There are pictures of the lawn not torn up. There is a picture of a small hole in building. And, oops did someone accidentally say "missile hit"? [5] E. In some rare video footage of Flt. 93 from NBC and Fox news television from September 11, 2001 we hear: NBC Reporter: "The debris here is spread over a 3 to 4 mile radius. .. ". That refutes my opponent's idea. Also, the Flight 93 crash site looks remarkably different from other plane crash sites, eg that of Pan Am Flight 103 - a Boeing 747-100, or the Dash 8 Q400 Bombardier that crashed in Buffalo. See video of Flt. 93 footage (Top video) and comparison of pictures (middle of page). The pictures do not look the same at all. [6] F. No scenario enables the near free fall speed that the towers came down at. According to the pancake theory, one floor fails and falls onto the floor below, causing it to fail and fall on the floor below that one, and so forth. The "pancake theory" implies that this continues all the way to the ground floor. In the case of both WTC towers, we didn't see the floors piled up when the event was all over, but rather a pulverization of the floors throughout the event. So, clearly we cannot assume that the floors stacked up like pancakes. Looking at the data, we take the conservative approach that a falling floor initiates the fall of the one below, while itself becoming pulverized. In other words, when one floor impacts another, the small amount of kinetic energy from the falling floor is consumed (a) by pulverizing the floor and (b) by breaking free the next floor. In reality, there isn't enough kinetic energy to do either. [Trumpman][Hoffman] But, for the sake of evaluating the "collapse" time, we'll assume there was. After all, millions of people believe they saw the buildings "collapse. " I will dispute your time of 17 seconds for the towers to fall. "NIST estimated the elapsed times for the first exterior panels to strike the ground after the collapse initiated in each of the towers to be approximately 11 seconds for WTC 1 and approximately 9 seconds for WTC 2. "[7] Also how fast did WTC7 fall? 6.6 seconds. Complete free fall would be 7 sec. [8] G. Oops. Not sure if my opponent wants use that as a source. From the page of his link: "Is this story true? Its central assumptions have never been tested by an official government body whose members lack obvious conflicts of interest. There are numerous red flags in the official story, which requires a long series of highly improbable coincidences. "[his source] Here is a timeline of the events to consider: (Under 6:30 AM) NORAD is currently running a real-world operation named Operation Northern Vigilance. "Deskins and other NORAD officials later are initially confused about whether the 9/11 attacks are real or part of the exercise" [9] 8:43 a. m. September 11, 2001: NORAD Reportedly Notified that Flight 175 Has Been Hijacked[9] H. As my opponent has just clearly stated "The 9/11 commission report is only about 1 and 2 WTC" Wouldn't you think it would be prudent for the report to have investigated the causes of why WTC 7 fell? This statement certainly proves my contention that the official report doesn't explain what really happened, just as I have argued. The official explanation was fire. But NEVER before or after 911, has any steel building collapsed from fire. My opponent has failed to rebut that point. I. Allow me to explain: Money does not disappear into thin air, it is getting paid to certain companies or individuals. Those receiving this money may not really care that much about the economy of the USA. I thank my opponent for his response and I also thank those who have read this, and I look forward to the next round. 1. . http://www.rawstory.com... 2. . http://911review.com... 3. . http://whatreallyhappened.com... 4. . http://infowars.net... 5. . http://www.twf.org... 6. . http://www.twf.org... 7. . http://drjudywood.com... 8. . http://www.physics911.net... 9. . http://www.historycommons.org...

negative: The European trading systems has run into problems, but this is mostly because politicians interfere... The European trading systems has run into problems, but this is mostly because politicians interfered to protect their own countries’ industries. Such meddling is even more common with government regulations, which often change so quickly that business cannot plan properly for the future. The EU is already improving its carbon trading scheme, and we can learn from their experiences to design a global system. For example, a smaller number of permits can be given out and they should be auctioned off to the highest bidders rather than given for free to old and inefficient industries. On the other hand, we could choose to create a carbon tax instead, which would be a very reliable way of putting a cost on pollution and ensuring emissions are cut.

negative: force think tanks to reveal all of their sources of funding People have a right to know where their information comes from

negative: Should abortion be allowed A fertalized egg is not a person, it is a sex cell and has no autonimy of it's own- instead it is property of the mother, just like my sperm is my own property.

negative: Should abortion be allowed I argue that abortion should be allowed. My opponent argues against this.

negative: Resolved: we must remove the usa patriot act Yes the patriot act has certain things that should be repelled or changed such as privacy. In fact some things in the patriot act that scare the living crap out of me. But there is one beneficial part of it that shouldn"t be eliminated and that is the protection this act provides for American citizens. 1.Stops terrorism "Protects power grids from being hacked by terrorist, power grids allow electricity and energy for people"s homes-Washington post "According to a 29-page report to Congress released by Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, Justice Department terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against 310 people and have yielded 179 convictions or guilty pleas. The report says the Patriot Act was central to those cases.-Washington post "Information-sharing facilated by the Patriot Act was critical to the successful dismantling of terror cells in Portland, Ore., and Virginia. The information-sharing provisions contained in the act assisted the prosecution in San Diego of those involved with an al-Qaida drugs-for-weapons plot involving "Stinger" anti-aircraft missiles. Source=NY times "The act also aided in the prosecution of Enaam Arnaout, who had a relationship with Osama bin Laden and used his charity organization to obtain funds illicitly from unsuspecting Americans for terrorist groups-NY times 2.Enhances security "Patriot act allows businesses and other private organizations to share threats which in turn enhances security "Causes businesses to report fraud and protects borders as a whole 3.Saved lives "The patriot act has even helped crime domestically by saving lives "The report provides as examples lengthy accounts of non-terrorism cases in which the Patriot Act played a central role, including investigations of a couple who allegedly defrauded widows and orphans, and of an Indiana man accused of filming the sexual abuse of his 13-year-old daughter. Sensenbrenner highlighted the case of the Wisconsin woman, 88, who was kidnapped in. She was rescued after officials used the Patriot Act to obtain information from Internet service providers.-Washington post Conclusion: Yes solution would be to keep most of patriot act and remove areas where we can where they violate privacy to much. Since it saves lives and stops terrorism benefits outweigh privacy cost anyway.

negative: Policy Debate - Transportation Infrastructure Contention 1: Inherency _A___US Ports are lacking security now Douglas Frantz, previously chief investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Managing Director of Kroll"s Business Intelligence Washington office, investigative reporter, 7/15/12, "Port security: U.S. fails to meet deadline for scanning of cargo containers", http://www.washingtonpost.com... The Obama administration has failed to meet a legal deadline for scanning all shipping containers for radioactive material before they reach the United States, a requirement aimed at strengthening maritime security and preventing terrorists from smuggling a nuclear device into any of the nation"s 300 sea and river ports. The Department of Homeland Security was given until this month to ensure that 100 percent of inbound shipping containers are screened at foreign ports. But the department"s secretary, Janet Napolitano, informed Congress in May that she was extending a two-year blanket exemption to foreign ports because the screening is proving too costly and cumbersome. She said it would cost $16 billion to implement scanning measures at the nearly 700 ports worldwide that ship to the United States. Instead, the DHS relies on intelligence-gathering and analysis to identify "high-risk" containers, which are checked before being loaded onto ships. Under this system, fewer than half a percent of the roughly 10 million containers arriving at U.S. ports last year were scanned before departure. The DHS says that those checks turned up narcotics and other contraband but that there have been no public reports of smuggled nuclear material. In response to the 9/11 Commission, Congress passed a law in 2007 specifying that no cargo container may enter the United States before being scanned with imaging equipment and a radiation-detection device. The administration"s failure to meet the deadline has left some members of Congress and outside experts concerned about whether the threat is being taken seriously enough. "I personally do not believe they intend to comply with the law," Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), co-author of the 2007 law, said in an interview. "This is a real terrorist threat, and it has a solution. We can"t afford to wait until a catastrophic attack." The DHS says monitors scan 99 percent of the containers for radiation after they arrive at U.S. ports. But experts say the monitors at U.S. ports are not sophisticated enough to detect nuclear devices or highly enriched uranium, which emit low levels of radiation. The Government Accountability Office has warned that a nuclear device could be detonated while at a port " containers often sit for days awaiting radiation checks " causing billions of dollars in damage in addition to the loss of life. Estimates of damage caused by a nuclear detonation at a major port range from tens of billions of dollars to $1 trillion. Shipping containers are potentially ideal for smuggling weapons, people and other illicit cargo; ensuring the integrity of the contents is difficult and costly. The standard container is 40 feet long and 8 feet high and holds more than 30 tons of cargo. A large vessel carries 3,000 or more containers from hundreds of different shippers and many ports. And a single container can hold cargo from many customers. Counterterrorism experts have worried about port vulnerability since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the attacks, reportedly told interrogators he had considered sending explosives to the United States hidden inside a shipment of personal computers from Japan. States, including North and South Carolina, changes in container security measures are of great concern in these communities. __B__Major security risks are extremely high now at our ports. Hahn 12 (Congresswoman Janice Hahn, Congressional Documents and Publications, May 9, 2012, "Congresswoman Laura Richardson Asks GAO to Examine Port Security Vulnerabilities"; Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA) News Release, http://richardson.house.gov...) Congresswoman Janice Hahn"s bill, H.R. 4005 "Gauging American Port Security Act" or Gaps Act, today successfully passed by a unanimous vote in the Homeland Security Committee. H.R. 4005 directs the Department of Homeland Security to conduct a comprehensive classified examination of remaining gaps in port Security and prepare a plan to address them. "Pretending a threat doesn"t exist does not make it go away," Rep. Hahn said. "The lesson of 9/11 is to be vigilant and proactive in seeking out and preventing our country"s most pressing threats. More than a decade after 9/11, our ports remain possible points of entry for terrorists and their weapons. Ports are also a key part of our economy. If an attack were ever to occur, it would cause a catastrophic loss of jobs and damage to our economic recovery. This situation requires a legislative solution and I hope that the resulting blueprint will guide Congress in creating effective legislation to help guard our ports." Ships make 50,000 calls a year on U.S. ports, carrying two billion tons of freight and 134 million passengers. Each day our ports move both imports and exports totaling some $3.8 billion worth of goods through all 50 states. Additionally, ports move 99.4 percent of overseas cargo volume by weight and generate $3.95 trillion in international trade. Unfortunately less than 3% of cargo coming into the country is scanned, giving terrorist opportunities to smuggle themselves or their weapons into the United States with little risk of detection. An attack on the Port of Los Angeles complex, for example, would cost billions to the regional economy and put thousands of port employees out of work and cause the demise of hundreds of local businesses.   Thus my partner Josh and I present the following plan Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its investment in radio frequency identification and related technology for port security Our plan will be enforced through normal means. The affirmative team reserves the right to fiat and define all terms.  Solvency __A__An investment in Radio Frequency Identification will allow for improved security and efficiency. Tsai 12-7-07 (Louis Tsai, Part of the University of California, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, "Container Tracking with RFID and Port Security", WINMEC, http://www.winmec.ucla.edu...) Large-scale implementation of RFID into ports has not occurred yet. It is still in its early stages. Many trials and tests have been conducted at ports throughout the world. Benefits ranging from lower operating cost to higher efficiency of flow of goods have been experienced. RFID is able to provide reliable information at any time and be able to perform security tasks that would otherwise require many people and much time. An investment in RFID can, thus, serve two purposes: as a business accelerator in terms of supply chain efficiency, and as an enabler for improved security12. B. Technology solves Lukas, 4/8/2004 (Aaron, "Protection without Protectionism: Reconciling Trade and Homeland Security" Center for Trade Policy Studies CATO Trade Policy Analysis No 27.) The future of trade security will rely heavily on technology. There will never be enough human inspectors to look into every cargo container, truck, and rail car. Cargo cannot be guarded 24 hours a day. Technology promises to bridge the manpower gap by enabling the continual monitoring and tracking of freight. The use of electronics is already prevalent in commercial shipping. Cameras observe storage and loading areas at factories, ports, and warehouses. Digital identification cards restrict access to sensitive areas and store digital information about employees, including photographs, and increasingly, biometric data. Information about a cargo container"s contents is electronically transmitted to Customs officials before the container is even loaded onto a ship. Ironically, the single most visible element of the trading system"the cargo container" remains stubbornly low-tech and notoriously insecure. Indeed, instructions on how to break into a shipping container in under two minutes are readily available on the Internet.73 Most container seals currently in use are designed to detect intrusion, not stop it. Yet even in that limited role, many container seals are easily defeated.   Advantage 1: terrorism Al Qaida is targeting maritime transport Goslin, 2012 (Charles Goslin, Vice President of International Operations for Duos Technologies, Inc. senior advisor to the Regional Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) in the U.S. Duos Technology Library "Maritime and Port Security White Paper" http://www.duostechnologies.com... ) Global trade is dependent mainly on maritime transport. It is estimated that more than 46,000 vessels and 4,000 ports make up the world"s maritime transportation system. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimated in 2001 that 5.8 billion tons of goods were traded by sea in 2001; more than 80 percent of the world"s trade. This fact alone makes maritime networks an attractive target of terrorists. Although it has been some time since Osama bin Laden has been seen, it is ominous that in one of his last video appearances in October 2004 he confirmed that his agenda remained primarily economic. While terrorists have in the past targeted land or aviation assets, experts believe that this could soon change to include shipping, port, coastal facilities, and container/container yards are increasingly vulnerable because secondary emphasis has been placed on hardening these assets due to the urgent need to address threats to aviation facilities and transportation. Intelligence officials have identified cargo freighters they believe are controlled by Al Qaida, which could be used by the terrorist network or its affiliates to ferry operatives, explosive components, cash or commodities on the high seas. One example is a well-dressed middle-eastern man discovered by Italian police who had hidden himself in a cargo container destined for the U.S. He was equipped with a bed, toilet, water supply, satellite phone, laptop computer, cameras and maps. He also had security passes to various airports in the U.S. RFID"s take away the risk of terrorist accessing ports IBM 2006 (International Business Machines Corporation, written September 28th, 2006, http://www.ibm.com..., accessed September 10th, 2012, AL) In a volatile environment, such as an oil refinery or gas facility, disaster is just a split-second away. Whether natural or manmade, the first priority is always employee safety. An RFID system can offer instant identification and an accurate headcount of evacuated employees. And with the possibility of terrorist attack, tracking people in and around sensitive areas of the facility is critical to protecting people and assets alike. RFID transponders can help guide rescue teams to injured or trapped employees. Control systems can authorize or de-authorize individuals or vehicles for different areas of the plant, with real-time alerts for violation of rules. Tracking systems offer frame-by-frame instant replay of past events for post analysis. In addition to locating people, RFID allows instant identification of high-value equipment and strategic production materials C. Terrorists very likely and would most likely use container ships to smuggle weapons Konkel, 2005, (Todd Konkel- professor Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University) "Container Security: Preventing a Nuclear Catastrophe", International Policy Solutions, http://irps.ucsd.edu...) This nation faces a potentially greater threat, however, from a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) making its way into the U.S. in one of the thousands of cargo containers that enter this country every day. In June 2004, the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation issued a memo reflecting this view: "Despite the importance of seaport security, perhaps no other mode of transportation is currently more vulnerable to future attacks than our Nation"s Marine Transportation System."1 Although a future attack involving a chemical or biological WMD could have tragic consequences, a nuclear weapon, which could cause hundreds of thousands of deaths in an instant, presents the most concerning threat. In Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, Harvard professor Graham Allison shares a brief but revealing excerpt from a private conversation that took place with former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge in February 2004. When asked what worried him most, Secretary Ridge replied with a single word: "nuclear."2 Later in his book, Allison states that a nuclear weapon used by terrorists in an attack on the United States "is far more likely to arrive in a cargo container than on the tip of a missile."3 The threat of a nuclear attack involving a seaborne container lies at the nexus of two critically important security issues: the availability of nuclear materials and the vulnerability of cargo containers. Although the U.S. government has taken a number of steps in the past few years to secure nuclear materials and improve the security of the 2 country"s ports, the threat of a nuclear weapon entering the United States undetected in a shipping container remains very real. Much additional work, including international standards for container security and expanded international cooperation to prevent the proliferation of nuclear materials, is necessary to prevent a catastrophe that could dwarf the tragedy of 9/11. And, A port attack collapses global free trade " our internal link outweighs " 3 week timeframe Flynn 03 (Stephen, Nat"l Sec Studies, "The Fragile state of container security," testimony before the senate, March 20 http://www.cfr.org...) A year later I joined with former senators Warren Rudman and Gary Hart in preparing our report, "America: Still Unprepared"Still In Danger." We observed that "nineteen men wielding box-cutters forced the United States to do to itself what no adversary could ever accomplish: a successful blockade of the U.S. economy. If a surprise terrorist attack were to happen tomorrow involving the sea, rail, or truck transportation systems that carry millions of tons of trade to the United States each day, the response would likely be the same"a self-imposed global embargo." Based on that analysis, we identified as second of the six critical mandates that deserve the nation"s immediate attention: "Make trade security a global priority; the system for moving goods affordably and reliably around the world is ripe for exploitation and vulnerable to mass disruption by terrorists." This is why the topic of today"s hearing is so important. The stakes are enormous. U.S. prosperity"and much of its power"relies on its ready access to global markets. Both the scale and pace at which goods move between markets has exploded in recent years thanks in no small part to the invention and proliferation of the intermodal container. These ubiquitous boxes"most come in the 40"x8"x8" size"have transformed the transfer of cargo from a truck, train, and ship into the transportation equivalent of connecting Lego blocks. The result has been to increasingly diminish the role of distance for a supplier or a consumer as a constraint in the world marketplace. Ninety percent of the world"s freight now moves in a container. Companies like Wal-Mart and General Motors move up to 30 tons of merchandise or parts across the vast Pacific Ocean from Asia to the West Coast for about $1600. The transatlantic trip runs just over a $1000"which makes the postage stamp seem a bit overpriced. But the system that underpins the incredibly efficient, reliable, and affordable movement of global freight has one glaring shortcoming in the post-9-11 world"it was built without credible safeguards to prevent it from being exploited or targeted by terrorists and criminals. Prior to September 11, 2001, virtually anyone in the world could arrange with an international shipper or carrier to have an empty intermodal container delivered to their home or workplace. They then could load it with tons of material, declare in only the most general terms what the contents were, "seal" it with a 50-cent lead tag, and send it on its way to any city and town in the United States. The job of transportation providers was to move the box as expeditiously as possible. Exercising any care to ensure that the integrity of a container"s contents was not compromised may have been a commercial practice, but it was not a requirement. The responsibility for making sure that goods loaded in a box were legitimate and authorized was shouldered almost exclusively by the importing jurisdiction. But as the volume of containerized cargo grew exponentially, the number of agents assigned to police that cargo stayed flat or even declined among most trading nations. The rule of thumb in the inspection business is that it takes five agents three hours to conduct a thorough physical examination of a single full intermodal container. Last year nearly 20 million containers washed across America"s borders via a ship, train, and truck. Frontline agencies had only enough inspectors and equipment to examine between 1-2 percent of that cargo. Thus, for would-be terrorists, the global intermodal container system that is responsible for moving the overwhelming majority of the world"s freight satisfies the age-old criteria of opportunity and motive. "Opportunity" flows from (1) the almost complete absence of any security oversight in the loading and transporting of a box from its point of origin to its final destination, and (2) the fact that growing volume and velocity at which containers move around the planet create a daunting "needle-in-the-haystack" problem for inspectors. "Motive" is derived from the role that the container now plays in underpinning global supply chains and the likely response by the U.S. government to an attack involving a container. Based on statements by the key officials at U.S. Customs, the Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Department of Transportation, should a container be used as a "poor man"s missile," the shipment of all containerized cargo into our ports and across our borders would be halted. As a consequence, a modest investment by a terrorist could yield billions of dollars in losses to the U.S. economy by shutting down"even temporarily"the system that moves "just-in-time" shipments of parts and goods. Given the current state of container security, it is hard to imagine how a post-event lock-down on container shipments could be either prevented or short-lived. One thing we should have learned from the 9-11 attacks involving passenger airliners, the follow-on anthrax attacks, and even last fall Washington sniper spree is that terrorist incidents pose a special challenge for public officials. In the case of most disasters, the reaction by the general public is almost always to assume the event is an isolated one. Even if the post-mortem provides evidence of a systemic vulnerability, it often takes a good deal of effort to mobilize a public policy response to redress it. But just the opposite happens in the event of a terrorist attack"especially one involving catastrophic consequences. When these attacks take place, the assumption by the general public is almost always to presume a general vulnerability unless there is proof to the contrary. Government officials have to confront head-on this loss of public confidence by marshalling evidence that they have a credible means to manage the risk highlighted by the terrorist incident. In the interim as recent events have shown, people will refuse to fly, open their mail, or even leave their homes. If a terrorist were to use a container as a weapon-delivery devise, the easiest choice would be high-explosives such as those used in the attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Some form of chemical weapon, perhaps even involving hazardous materials, is another likely scenario. A bio-weapon is a less attractive choice for a terrorist because of the challenge of dispersing the agent in a sufficiently concentrated form beyond the area where the explosive devise goes off. A "dirty bomb" is the more likely threat vs. a nuclear weapon, but all these scenarios are conceivable since the choice of a weapon would not be constrained by any security measures currently in place in our seaports or within the intermodal transportation industry. This is why a terrorist attack involving a cargo container could cause such profound economic disruption. An incident triggered by even a conventional weapon going off in a box could result in a substantial loss of life. In the immediate aftermath, the general public will want reassurance that one of the many other thousands of containers arriving on any given day will not pose a similar risk. The President of the United States, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and other keys officials responsible for the security of the nation would have to stand before a traumatized and likely skeptical American people and outline the measures they have in place to prevent another such attack. In the absence of a convincing security framework to manage the risk of another incident, the public would likely insist that all containerized cargo be stopped until adequate safeguards are in place. Even with the most focused effort, constructing that framework from scratch could take months"even years. Yet, within three weeks, the entire worldwide intermodal transportation industry would effectively be brought to its knees"as would much of the freight movements that make up international trade. ____ Economic collapse leads to Global nuclear war Bearden 2k (Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army, www.cheniere.org/techpapers/Unnecessary%20Energy%20Crisis.doc) ET Bluntly, we foresee these factors - and others { } not covered - converging to a catastrophic collapse of the world economy in about eight years. As the collapse of the Western economies nears, one may expect catastrophic stress on the 160 developing nations as the developed nations are forced to dramatically curtail orders. International Strategic Threat Aspects History bears out that desperate nations take desperate actions. Prior to the final economic collapse, the stress on nations will have increased the intensity and number of their conflicts, to the point where the arsenals of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) now possessed by some 25 nations, are almost certain to be released. As an example, suppose a starving North Korea launches nuclear weapons upon Japan and South Korea, including U.S. forces there, in a spasmodic suicidal response. Or suppose a desperate China - whose long range nuclear missiles can reach the United States - attacks Taiwan. In addition to immediate responses, the mutual treaties involved in such scenarios will quickly draw other nations into the conflict, escalating it significantly. Strategic nuclear studies have shown for decades that, under such extreme stress conditions, once a few nukes are launched, adversaries and potential adversaries are then compelled to launch on perception of preparations by one's adversary. The real legacy of the MAD concept is his side of the MAD coin that is almost never discussed. Without effective defense, the only chance a nation has to survive at all, is to launch immediate full-bore pre-emptive strikes and try to take out its perceived foes as rapidly and massively as possible. As the studies showed, rapid escalation to full WMD exchange occurs, with a great percent of the WMD arsenals being unleashed . The resulting great Armageddon will destroy civilization as we know it, and perhaps most of the biosphere, at least for many decades. _____Nuclear war causes the earth to explode CHALKO 2003 (Dr. Tom J., MSc., Ph.D., Head of Geophysics Research, Scientific E Research P/L, "Can a Neutron Bomb Accelerate Global Volcanic Activity?" http://sci-e-research.com...) Consequences of using modern nuclear weapons can be far more serious than previously imagined. These consequences relate to the fact that most of the heat generated in the planetary interior is a result of nuclear decay. Over the last few decades, all superpowers have been developing so-called "neutron bombs". These bombs are designed to emit intensive neutron radiation while creating relatively little local mechanical damage. Military are very keen to use neutron bombs in combat, because lethal neutron radiation can peneterate even the largest and deepest bunkers. However, the military seem to ignore the fact that a neutron radiation is capable to reach significant depths in the planetary interior. In the process of passing through the planet and losing its intensity, a neutron beam stimulates nuclei of radioactive isotopes naturally present inside the planet to disintegrate. This disintegration in turn, generates more neutron and other radiation. The entire process causes increased nuclear heat generation in the planetary interior, far greater than the initial energy of the bomb. It typically takes many days or even weeks for this extra heat to conduct/convect to the surface of the planet and cause increased seismic/volcanic activity. Due to this variable delay, nuclear tests are not currently associated with seismic/volcanic activity, simply because it is believed that there is no theoretical basis for such an association. Perhaps you heard that after every major series of nuclear test there is always a period of increased seismic activity in some part of the world. This observable fact CANNOT be explained by direct energy of the explosion. The mechanism of neutron radiation accelerating decay of radioactive isotopes in the planetary interior, however, is a VERY PLAUSIBLE and realistic explanation. The process of accelerating volcanic activity is nuclear in essence. Accelerated decay of unstable radioactive isotopes already present in the planetary interior provides the necessary energy. The TRUE danger of modern nuclear weaponry is that their neutron radiation is capable to induce global overheating of the planetary interior, global volcanic activity and, in extreme circumstances, may even cause the entire planet to explode.

negative: Should Homeschooling Be Allowed I don't think homeschooling should be allowed because it destroys there brains and gives them serious socializing problems.

negative: Should we be allowed to drive at 14 I think we should be allowed but in middle/high school we would have to take special classes to learn.

negative: No E's Allowed War isnt fought for glory, it's fought to kill anybody in your path, to finish a mission, to kill anybody who is unluckily standing in your way. D-Day would go down in history as a bloodbath, but as long as I kill a Nazi or two, I will go out a victor should I die. I will go out as a man who did his part in a war. I spy two nazis scouting from a pillbox, my bazooka will work its magic. As I try to carry out my mission, I find that I cant shoot. Im stuck and dont know why, what is going on? Why cant I shoot? I look down to my right, it turns out my body is lying in the sand with blood all around, and my arms 30 yards away.... A tank had found my hiding spot, and that was my last song. Now as I drift up and away, I look down on the bloodbath and im glad im not a part of it now. On my way to God's kingdom, only now do I know my flaw. Thou shalt not kill is a holy law, but only now did it truly sink in. What honor can be won from killing? War isnt fought for glory, it's fought for infamy

negative: No E's Allowed "Attack!!!" My sibling and I abruptly ran, racing down towards a solitary black bird. Brandishing only multi color pool toys to stop what would from now on act as warnings to any young child on our farm that bad plans usually stop with poor payoffs, and that farm animals usually will win a fight fought with pool toys. Naturally as big bro it was my job to quickly withdraw from this situation, my young buddy did not contain as much luck. With a war cry his fight was afoot. As I watch from asylum atop a hill I gawk at what is only shown as a fury of pool toys and black wings. Quickly victory did not look as though it was an option. As an adult of this situation at a manly infancy of four I could stop this atrocity in a way that all youth know how, I got Mom. Running in with a broomstick and war cry of a "OFF MY SON YOU SIX PART LUNCH BASTARD!" my mom could grab my thirty six month old sibling from his tomb of childhood bawling and bust pool toy. Tomorrow my sibling and I fight again.

negative: Israeli Involvement in 9/11 1) My opponent claims that Jewish insider trading is a normalcy and happens on a regular basis. This is true, but not in the amount of money we are discussing at this junction. Just before 9/11 there was an "extraordinary" amount of put options placed on United Airlines and American Airlines stocks. Authorities believed, and some continue to maintain, that trading insiders may have known in advance of the coming events of 9/11 and placed their bets accordingly. An analysis into the possibility of insider trading on 9/11 concludes that: A measure of abnormal long put volume was also examined and seen to be at abnormally high levels in the days leading up to the attacks. Consequently, the paper concludes that there is evidence of unusual option market activity in the days leading up to September 11 that is consistent with investors trading on advance knowledge of the attacks.—Allen M. Poteshman, The Journal of Business On the days leading up to 9/11, two airlines saw a rise in their put to call ratio. These two airlines were United Airlines and American Airlines, the two airlines whose planes were hijacked on 9/11. Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases of 4,744 "put" option contracts in UAL versus 396 call options. On September 10, more trading in Chicago saw the purchase of 4,516 put options in American Airlines, the other airline involved in the hijackings. This compares with a mere 748 call options in American purchased that day. No other airline companies saw anomalies in their put to call ratio in the days leading up to the attacks. American Airlines however, had just released a major warning about possible losses. Insurance companies saw anomalous trading activities as well. Citigroup Inc., which has estimated that its Travelers Insurance unit may pay $500 million in claims from the World Trade Center attack, had about 45 times the normal volume during three trading days before the attack for options that profit if the stock falls below $40. Citigroup shares fell $1.25 in late trading to $38.09. Morgan Stanley, which occupied 22 floors at the World Trade Center, experienced bigger-than-normal pre-attack trading of options that profit when stock prices fall. Other companies that were directly affected by the tragedy had similar jumps. Raytheon, a defense contractor, had an anomalously high number of call options trading on September 10. A Raytheon option that makes money if shares are more than $25 each had 232 options contracts traded on the day before the attacks, almost six times the total number of trades that had occurred before that day. The initial options were bought through at least two brokerage firms, including NFS, a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, and TD Waterhouse. It was estimated that the trader or traders would have realized a five million dollar profit. The Securities and Exchange Commission launched an insider trading investigation in which Osama Bin Laden was a suspect after receiving information from at least one Wall Street Firm. 2) How can you possibly argue that Mossad agents, (spies) of Israel dancing and cheering at the towers crumbled a coincidence? They were also found to have over 4200 US dollars in cash, and maps of NYC (blue prints) in their van. It is literally impossible for the equivalent of American CIA operatives (Israeli Mossad agents) to be doing this at this exact time and date and it being coincidental. 3) That's exactly my point. This attack is good for Israel because Americans will be in the Middle East fighting "terror with us". What is the US doing now? Bombing Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq etc. The average leader would express condolences, but his immediate response is it would be very good for Israel? 4) Your answer to my argument is that it requires further investigation. Because you have the burden of discrediting my points, you have by default conceded my argument in number 4. I will however follow up and say that I urge you to review this youtube video of the foxnews report on Amdocs and espionage in the United States. http://www.youtube.com... 5) How is the FBI finding a massive spy ring of Israeli nationals a coincidence? 6) We cannot let any government explain anything. Too much trust in government violates our personal sovereignty. We must question those that govern us. Buy relying on government to "educate and take care of us" we take another step toward tyranny.

negative: is animal testing ethical Should scientist be able to test on animals before they test on humans?

negative: $700 billion US economic bailout Government should buy stock in banks, not just bail them out

negative: Opposition Summary First and foremost, México wants to express its most sincere sympathy to Indonesia and every moral support regarding the tragedy that struck your country this week. However, the show must go on and we have to conclude this debate. This debate was about if poorer countries should abandon free trade agreements and the debate centered in the following clashing points: Whether Free Trade agreements are fair or not and whether FTAs bring more benefits to poorer countries. Moreover, the opposition side also analyzed the effects of poorer countries leaving free trade agreements, a main point that was not addressed by the proposition and was the case they had to make. The opposition proved the results would be worse and so, leaving FTAs is not an option at all. We then proceeded to another argument: How limited trading capacity was limited when not being part of a free trade agreement and we also presented its evidence. When no free trade agreements are put, it is more difficult to access the market and when there is FTA, there is a better offer in cost, which will lead to more commerce and thus, competitivity for better consumption and so, a better profit with more sells. The oil crisis of 1973 is an evidence that not having facilities to trade can put countries in near-bankruptcy, while in a later point we would go on to proof how an FTA would save you from so. And what is a better facility to trading than FTA. In the beginning of the debate we argued about all of the benefits that free trade brings to us. We talked about economical growth and how it is stimulated by the FTA, more important than that we proved, by referring to the Mexican case followed by a brief description of the situation in Myanmar, that the main difference between two nations is not found in economical status or political regimes, but in the measure of freedom that all of the countries must seek in its fight for achieving identity, basically we defined one of the parameters for achieving development Now, analyzing why the Free Trade Agreements are not even a valid option, we first gave a legal and ethical approach to the matter. Ethics are the basis of societies and breaching an agreement like the Free Trade Agreements. All pacts are to be respected and to suddenly exempt almost every single country (since almost every country is poorer to at least one other) of that is destroying international laws in general. We told you how it goes against the stipulated at the Vienna Convention on International treaties and recalled the non ethics of standing for the cause proposition is standing. The, we proceeded to tell you how Free Trade Agreements provide financial security to the countries and in fact, help on what FTAs are for: Development and stability of the GDPs pf poorer nations and as the introduction of the debate says, it is “a promising solution for development”. We stressed how the proposition had not set out policies on when would the FTAs would be made invalid, since in every single FTA there is always a poorer country and it looks like they made their case for ending FTAs at all. We mentioned how some national industries are created for living out of FTAs and how the World’s FTA with major disparity among involved parties (NAFTA) has not only fostered the development of the “poor” country there (México) but totally saved its economy from what could’ve been one of the twentieths century’s worst economical disasters and not only it helped development but avoided decades of undervelopment. In general, the Proposition side tried to analyze the free trade agreement’s benefits by just taking simple statistics of GDP growth after their signings but just recalling isolated and strange historical cases, while the opposition explained recent and common cases, analyzing the direct effects of the FTA and not only the GDP, which is also affected by the other macroeconomical variables. However, when related, we did also specifically mention the effects on other macroeconomical variables, such as investment and consumption. One we did that, the proposition just tried to run their two already tired arguments of fairness and freedom in circles. The proposition should’ve convinced everyone on the idea that abandoning free trade agreements would be beneficial to poorer countries. However, none of their 8 points addressed that...The, I should say, point and only tried to find negative spots of free trade agreements, while the opposition side did rebut and turned over their arguments of fairness and freedom and addressed how abandoning free trade agreements or not joining them would just be worse than signing them (and in fact we proved that they are even beneficial and secure. This was our case and we proved it. It is on this grounds that we beg you to oppose this motion.

negative: Kyoto Protocol Regulating C02 is wrong approach; market investments are better