BeIR/webis-touche2020 huggingface dataset:
If the story of Noah's Ark is true then God is either totally incompetent or a celestial psychopath

All the cute little kittens, frisky little puppies, adorable little bunny rabbits and gurgling little babies who drowned in God's great flood would have made tasty snacks for crocodiles, alligators and sharks that, of course, were spared God's wrath. Why would God punish innocent people and land animals and, in so doing, provide killer whales and other aquatic predators with a bounty of food unless He either didn't properly consider the consequences of His plan to flood the Earth or He is actually some sort of divine homicidal maniac? Back in the real world, there is evidence for several very large floods in the Mediterranean region in ancient times which we now know were associated volcanic eruptions. It is probable that the collective memory of these catastrophic events was passed down through the generations in forms of folk tales and that these legends were the basis of the Noah's Ark story. [1,2,3] However, if devout Christians are right in their belief that the story of Noah's Ark is not mere fiction then, clearly, God either didn't think his flood idea through properly or He is an immortal mass murderer (that's if He exists at all, of course). Thank you. [1] http://www.pbs.org... [2] http://www.lewisdt.com... [3] http://www.etap.org...
Private Sectored Investment Is Preferable to Public Sectored Investment In Space Exploration

Resolved: Private Sectored Investment Is Preferable to Public Sectored Investment In Space Exploration Contention I: Private Sector's Ability to Provide More Funding To the Program The private sector's have much higher potential to provide funding into the space program then public would ever be able to as much of our government revenue is being rationed out into other projects. Also, if one of these projects of NASA were to fail it would be our people who would suffer from the billions of dollars required to recompense them. In an overall survey by BEAURAU OF LABOR STATISTICS in 2009, employees in Private sanctioned businesses have an average higher annual salary of $3,000 more than government (public) controlled jobs. From these stats you can imply the opportunities private companies can offer, whereas for government sanctioned investment, there capability is completely out of the same reach as private sanctions. Contention 2: Industries That Have Led From Space Exploration Space Tourism, now a very under-rated industry has long been a product of space exploration. There is great potential for this industry to become a great activity, provided by Virgin Galactic, Boeing, and the Russian Space Agency. Even though at a very costly price, as more people take advantage of their space tourism opportunities, the price of space tourism will become more affordable for the everyday people as competition in these private sectors increase. Contention 3: Private Company's Higher Efficiency Rate If Space Exploration is centrally controlled by the government, they will spend our money at an excessive rate, basically because they don't have to take responsibility for where it goes. Usually there is little or no regard for such vast expenditures. Our first expeditions to the moon were at a cost of billions of dollars and what do we have to show for it? A few pounds of rock? Does that sound like efficient trade of value? In Fact, NASA has even endorsed the partial privatization of the space program on May 11, 2009, NASA Administrator Chris Scolesce told a congressional subcommittee that the agency plans to give a 150 million dollar stimulus package to private companies that plan to design, build, and service their own rockets. As this would create dramatic savings in both time and money for NASA. Private concerns are also likely to be operated more efficiently as private enterprise is always interested in investment and receiving value for the money spent,- If such enterprises into space were conducted by private companies you may be sure that valuable rewards would be forthcoming.
Was Lee Harvey Oswald a lone gunman

Let me explain to you what really happened. KFC was an idea that would be hatched soon, as they put it themselves out of a compliment to their work with chicken. But their name was too close to JFK, so they felt threatened by it. They went to their food basement, and spent a few years designing a way to combine bullets with fried chicken. Finally, one of them thought of an idea (what if we could figure out how to design a bullet that would pass through a person's body system as food would, allowing it to enter places it normally could not have, then when the food covering the bullet dissolves the human body rejects the foreign object. By achieving this novel experiment, the bullet will enter JFK's back (to symbolize that chicken's got back, not just breasts), so the breaded bullet is then trapped in the esophagus, after the bread dissolved the stomach saw it had a foreign object so it rejected the bullet back up, but because the person that created the bullet was a mad scientist they made sure that upon dissolving there would be a chain reaction that would launch the bullet back to its regular speed, if not more, to pierce his throat like they cut the chicken's throat, then causing collateral damage to unintended victims. The only reason why they never could find the second bullet is because it was KFC on the same exact day wanting to assassinate JFK all because of the competition between them.
Was Lee Harvey Oswald a lone gunman

The Warren Commission concluded that "three shots were fired [from the Texas School Book Depository] in a time period ranging from approximately 4.8 to in excess of 7 seconds." Oswald could have never fired 3 accurate shots with a bolt action Mannlicher-Carcano, because while in the Marine Corps, Oswald was classified as a marksman; the lowest rating at the time. Also, according to witnesses,the grassy knoll was the area from where shots were fired, not the Depositary. Many witnesses whose statements pointed to a conspiracy were either ignored or intimidated by the Warren Commission, and many witnesses suffered convenient deaths following the assassination. The Warren Commission's hypothesis was that: one bullet hit a bystander; one bullet caused President Kennedy"s fatal head wound; and one bullet caused all of Kennedy"s and Connally"s non"fatal wounds by entering Kennedy"s back, exiting through his throat, entering Connally"s back, exiting his chest, passing through his right wrist, and lodging itself in his left thigh: developing the single"bullet theory; which defied all known bullet mechanics. Thus, only multiple gunmen could have created the wounds.
In a democratic society, felons ought to retain the right to vote.

Do the names Carrie Lenz or Cindy Brown ring a bell? Probably not. They were 26 years old when Tim McVeigh stopped them from ever voting again by bombing the Oklahoma City Federal building. Carrie and Cindy were in good company. There were 166 others in that one felony crime. The Bureau of Justice lists over 847,000 homicides since 1960. If all those people had lived out their normal lives, that would affect over 9 million presidential votes and over 18 million municipal votes. My value is justice. Justice, according to the Encarta Dictionary, is fairness or reasonableness, especially in the way people are treated or decisions are made. There is nothing fair that felons like these are allowed to vote while many victims cannot. My criterion is upholding the equal treatment of citizens. Equality in a democratic society is never reached when you subtract victim voices while adding felon voices. The ONLY way to achieve equal treatment of citizens is to negate the resolution that in a democratic society, felons ought to retain their right to vote. A felon, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is someone who has been convicted of a serious crime. They may be currently incarcerated or released. ---------- Contention 1 Felons have chosen not to vote. Committing a felony requires premeditation and intent. The consequences of felony convictions are widely known to include no firearms, no elected offices, no jury duty and no voting. My opponent agreed in cross examination that a vote could not be changed once cast - so, in order to treat a felon like other members of society - the felon's decision not to vote should be honored by society.
increasing the public health to sub sharan Africa by helping to decrees the number of Malaria cases.

Well, under the rules of policy debate (the format that softball06 made this debate in) Pro just lost. She just, technically, dropped all arguments... and in policy: "Silence Is Compliance". However, this isn't the exact same as Policy debate, and so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. But in my experience on this site, when someone drops one argument... they generally don't come back. I'd like to think this is because of my superb arguing skills, however the case is probably much more unglamorous (i.e. the account closing, or the person forgetting about the account). Anyway, My arguments stand: Topicality Justification Inherency Alt/Causes Solvency Solvency Turn Lack of Advantages I also would appreciate an answer to the following: 1. Provide sources for your Inherency/Harms Evidence. Sources are important specifically on statistics, because they make your claims credible. As of now, your claims have no weight in this round because they are not backed up. 2. Clarify your plan. What exactly are you changing about Bush's Malaria Plan? You say something about DDT, drugs, and bed nets, however the current plan does this already. If the Pro team doesn't change anything, then the Affirmative team is un-topical (violation: increase) because nothing is increasing. Aid is staying the same. 3. Give something that says that your plan can solve. I'll attack the plan on the assumption that it can solve, but I would like to bring into question whether or not it can. 4. Provide Advantages. What this does, is provide reasons the plan is better than the Status Quo. Also, just saying your plan solves for Malaria isn't any advantage. You must prove that there are advantages outside of solving in order to garner any votes in today's debate. So yeah, thanks for your time, and I await the (hopeful) responses.
increasing the public health to sub sharan Africa by helping to decrees the number of Malaria cases.

We should increase out giving because malaria is a treatable and preventable diseas and action must be taken. Every min. five children will die from malria. With a smiple package of commodites we would be able to stop these needles deaths. Plan 1. Require that the funding of the Bush Mlaria plan require DDT spraying and the switching of the funds 2. Provide health care workers to deliver the nets, drugs, and other assistanc 3. right to define terms 4. right to fiat
Affirmitive Action Debate

How is a hiring manager supposed to know what an applicant's class? The only way to find out what an applicants social class is. So, the only way that managers could higher based on applicant's financial standing would be to directly ask how much money the applicant is making a year as well as if the applicant receives any government benefits. That gets unfair because many employers may chose to higher someone who needs the money over someone who is wealthy but well classified to the job. Knowing the applicant's social class leads to playing with the emotions of the one highering. I agree with my opponents point where often lower class members of society are minorities but I am unsure how an employer would know this. Affirmative Action is necessary in the work place for equal opportunity in the workplace for both color and race.
Affirmitive Action Debate

In all actuality, I find myself acknowledging my opponents point that Affirmative Action may have its uses in the hiring process. However, it is still a discriminatory process, and should be ratified. An alternative, Class-Based Affirmative Action, has not been touched upon in this debate, but is nonetheless an important topic for argument. Continuing the debate using Class-Based Affirmative Action as the topic will certainly provide better commentary and conversation than a half-hearted and, thus, bland argument to my opponent's first submission. : : : America is no longer a discriminatory nation. There is no slavery, no Jim Crow laws, no "separate but equal" standard to hold establishments by. Affirmative Action is the final artifact of a forgotten chapter in our nation's history. While it is true that the scars left by slavery, redlining, and exclusion continue to have an impact on the accumulated wealth of American blacks, the problem lies not with continued discrimination, but with a neglected lower class. Giving preference based on race is overt discrimination, but preference based upon the economic status of a job/college applicant addresses past discrimination without perpetuating the idea that "two wrongs make a right". Because impoverished people are more likely to be racial minorities, class-based affirmative action promotes equality of opportunity to those who most need it while avoiding the targeting of specific groups for policies. Class is a better indicator of true disadvantage, and has become socially more important than race. (4) If all racism were to end, there would still be major socioeconomic inequalities which separate classes and groups. Thus, these inequalities and the issue which must be addressed when determining the bias towards a potential job/college applicant. (5) (4)http://researchnetwork.pearson.com... (5)http://nymag.com...
Affirmitive Action Debate

My opponent has managed to reach very valid and understandable points and I am unsure how to further argue upon this topic for my opponent has shown me statistics that do not go against my believes and I have come to agree that Affirmitive Action is not required in a school setting. I would like to however go back to my first argument and state that however unneeded in school settings, Affirmitive Action continues to be a need in the work place. I request that my opponent make his last arguments on my first statement made in this debate.
Affirmitive Action Debate

Minority students who benefit from affirmative action are often times placed in schools which they cannot handle. Most students will preform in a way which their academic credentials predict. All too often, minority students are sent to colleges well above their ability, and as a result are forced to drop out prematurely. In an extensive study published by Richard H. Sander, professor of Law at Northwestern University, out of approximately 3,700 black students admitted to law schools, about 670 failed or dropped out, and only about 1,980 passed the bar exam. Sander's claims that the reason for this was that as white students in less prestigious schools learn the material and prepare for the exam, minority students in more elite schools struggle to keep up, become demoralized, and fail the bar(2) With more colorblind policies, Sanders predicts, fewer black students would be admitted to law schools. However, the rate of dropout would decrease by over a third and the rate of black students who would pass the bar exam would increase by over a tenth (2) My opponent states that "Each city in America contains a different amount of minorities, causing schools (to have) to focus on diversity of applicants." But shouldn't the diversity in schools' student populations be similar to the diversity in the population of the surrounding area? Colleges feel the need to choose an excess of minority applicants and ignore their scores and grades in order to create a diverse population, but this creates an inaccurate image of America. My opponent also states that despite the fact that Medical Schools are receiving more minority applicants than white applicants, the applicants -still- need affirmative action to have a chance of getting into the school. This is a flawed stance. If more minorities are applying, and those minorities have comparable academic prowess to the white applicants, then even without affirmative action policies logic dictates that the majority of those accepted would be minorities. This statement is ludicrous and unfounded. Current policies do very little to provide a benefit to minorities, and should be revised so that students are admitted to colleges which match their academic ability. Only then will students receive the proper education and become prepared for their future careers. America should be color-blind, not color-biased. (2) http://www2.law.ucla.edu...
Affirmitive Action Debate

While my opponents argument is well written and contains several recent statistics, I am arguing Affirmative Action in the work place, not in schools. Therefore my opponent"s argument is irrelevant in this debate. However, Affirmative Action is relevant in schools due to various location and population diversity. Regardless who is for or against considering race as a factor when getting into schools, it is the diversity factor that schools take into account, not the general population"s opinion. Each city in America contains a different amount of minorities, causing schools having to focus on diversity of applicants. (3) Most people have no issues with Caucasian Americans being accepted into a predominantly African American school to increase diversity, but if it is the other way around it is considered "reverse discrimination". Surprisingly, the percentage of African Americans and minorities applying for Medical School is much greater than the number of Caucasian applicants, which shows a wide range of diversity which, in that case, Affirmative Action is not necessary. (3) Although, those statistics display those who applied, not those who were accepted. The majority of Medical Schools in the United States have a low range of diversity; therefore, Affirmative Action is necessary so that those more predominant applicants get a chance. (3) https://members.aamc.org...
Affirmitive Action Debate

Affirmative Action may once have been necessary to allow minorities to get jobs and enroll in universities, but it is no longer needed for minorities in the United States. Discrimination of minorities is on the decline in America. In a 1995 survey conducted by the Pew Research center, 37% of people believed that racial discrimination was the chief impediment to black progress. In 2012, that percentage was down to 23%. (1) Affirmative Action was created to solve the problem of race-based discrimination, but the method is outdated and flawed. Low-performing minority students are chosen by college admissions officers based on their skin-color instead of their academic abilities, and many find themselves in over their heads and drop out. The majority of people in fact do not support Affirmative Action as part of the college enrollment process. Just 22% of Americans support the practice of allowing universities to consider applicants' race as a factor, and 76% are overtly against the idea, based on an ABC News/Washington Post poll released on June 12, 2013. (1) While my opponent's points are valid, studies conducted 15, 13, and 11 years ago are simply not relevant in a debate which is ongoing and ever-changing. It is the up-to-date information which properly demonstrates the true social climate surrounding Affirmative Action. (1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com...
Affirmitive Action Debate

In America, minority races struggle to build up financial security because of lower pay and job discrimination causing Affirmative Action to be necessary. According to 1998 United States Department of Labor statistics; African Americans are almost twice as likely as Caucasian Americans to be unemployed. In 2000, the median weekly earning for minorities (African Americans and Latinos) was over one hundred dollars less than Caucasian Americans. (1) In addition to higher unemployment rates and lower weekly income, those with more Americanized names such as Emily and Robert are fifty percent more likely to get hired than Jamal or Laquisha according to a recent study in 2002. (2) Because America"s racial minorities suffer from discrimination, Affirmative action is necessary to have a racially balanced workplace environment in a wide range of jobs. All Americans deserve to live the American Dream no matter their race or ethnicity, and sometimes this requires "reverse discrimination". https://www.aclu.org... (1) http://www.chicagobooth.edu... (2)
Music Battle

Ska is just one the genres I listen to... This round I'll focus on five indie bands. The Cliks, a Toronto based Indie alt - rock band. http://www.youtube.com... Motion City Soundtrack - a Minnesota indie rock, pop rock band. http://www.youtube.com... MGMT which a duo of two guys from Brooklyn, New York who are more of synthpop, indiesynth band. http://www.youtube.com... The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a trio of musicians from New York City who specialize in indie rock and art punk. http://www.youtube.com... Finally, the last band I chose is Ludo, a indie rock band from St. Louis. http://www.youtube.com...
Music Battle

I'm going to break down each round and submit videos by genre. For this round, I will submit videos of the Ska genre, this is not one of my favorite genres, but it is still pretty fun. I don't really like live videos because I can't really hear the music over applause, so, I will try and post videos with the music tracks, or the music videos. The first video I chose is "Look What Happened" by Less Than Jake. This song was in the band's fourth album, "Borders and Boundaries". . http://www.youtube.com... The second is "Good Thing" by Reel Big Fish. . http://www.youtube.com... Third, "Here We Go Again" by Operation Ivy . http://www.youtube.com... Fourth, "Cheat To Win" by Slapstick . http://www.youtube.com... Finally, "Someday I Suppose" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones . http://www.youtube.com...
Music Battle

Hello, this is based off of untitled entity's creative idea, so thanks to her. Rules: Post 5 videos per round of songs. (Music videos and live performances) I'll start out. (I like Muse a lot, if you can't tell...) http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com...
Music Battle

Yes I am listening to the songs you post, I particularly liked some of the indie and ska ones... I haven't been posting in genres I have just been going through my library and taking good songs, some recently added some not so recently added... As well, sorry about the embedding disabled by request in some of the videos, just click on them to view them in youtube... http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com...
Music Battle

I've decided to abandon the genre rounds and just post videos. 1st video features two overly bleached haired males rocking out to one of the best commercial songs ever. http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com... Hendrix. Duh. http://www.youtube.com... 3121 by Prince (one of my more favorite artists) http://www.youtube.com... "Refugee" - Melissa Etheridge (I'm gay, it was bound to happen) http://www.youtube.com... My personal, favorite song...ever. Are you actually listening to the videos I post?