It turns out that the guy who used the lunaristical form of rhetoric has an anger management problem. They must be hard up for debate coaches at Fort Hays State.

They don't call it Kan's Ass for nothing.

I'll try to fix the video link.

Thanks, Facillitatrix, that answers my question.

I'm with you 100% on the competitiveness issue.  Sports, talent shows, spelling bees and so on are all symbolic activities, and I get uneasy when they take on the aura of reality and Little League Dads attack and injure each other.

I read once about warfare among the Chumash Indians of California.  The "challenged" village got to choose the battlefield, which was usually  a narrow canyon, and the warring parties could face off on each side.  One side would chant, work up to a frenzy, and shoot their arrows at the others - who would just dodge them.  Then the other side would do the same.  Both sides would then send their kids over to the other side to pick up the arrows, and they would have at it again and again until they got bored.

The video's no longer available, it seems.

What I can remember is that one of the coaches objected to how the other coach was giving visual cues to his debater with head bobs or something.  I guess this is not supposed to happen during a debate.  And she really went at him.  And he went back just as hard, saying that she, too, was coaching visually (something to do with her hair).  It got vulgar very quickly, with lots of effs and effings going back and forth.  It was pretty hard to understand, so don't blame your ears for all of it.

What I'm left with is that, for the umteenth time in my life, I am boggled by the emotional investment the coaches feel that could end up in such a horrible set-to.  I have never understood the competitive mindset.  Sure, I've competed in my life (though very seldom in anything to do with sports, unless you count pool and miniature golf), but I just wanted to do my best.  If I won, great.  But if not, it just meant that someone else managed to do better in the circumstances.  Heck, even though I'm a big Scrabble® player, it's all about the words and the board layout for me.  These days I mostly play with a friend who is hyper competitive, and he pushes me into playing with a ruthlessness that frankly makes me uncomfortable.  But everything's a competition for him, and I know that it's tied up with a mother for whom nothing he did was ever good enough (and this is a smart, achieving guy).

So I don't know what to make out of these coaches.  I just canna ken it.

My ears aren't what they used to be (they used to be my eyes [credit to the old "Goon Show']).  I couldn't hear what they were arguing about.  Can anyone give me a brief synopsis - I'm very curious. Tanks.

I'd never heard of this group so I looked them up.  Here's the first thing I saw:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 18, 2008

Statement by the Cross Examination Debate Association Regarding Recent Controversies

The Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) is deeply disappointed by the incident immediately after the quarterfinal debate between Fort Hays State University and Towson University at the 2008 CEDA national tournament. As an academic organization dedicated to promoting critical thinking, the behavior exhibited by members of our organization does not represent CEDA’s educational mission. ...

The statement goes on to note what bylaw those coaches violated and what CEDA has done about it.

Those two sure weren't thinking of the children.

see Funny political pictures
My addition to the site. (may get taken down for AUP violation)


moar funny pictures

From the quarterfinals of the Cross Examination Debate Association Nationals, and the opposing coaches go off of the deep-end.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/gXwy2VuA2V4&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/gXwy2VuA2V4&rel=1</a>

YouTube link fixed

[Irem Koker, "Turkey faces tough task in energy as political map of Caucasus redrawn", Hurriyet, August 17, 2008Hurriyet English, "The reopening of BTC pipeline remains unclear as repair continues", Hurriyet, August 17, 2008]

Russia's "psychology" differs little from USA's "psychology" - both libidos are well greased by hydrocarbons.  The current showdown in Georgia is aimed at the Baku-Ceyhan pipeling, which goes through Georgia, and projected pipeline projects which will pipe oil and gas from the Caspian region directly to Austria.  Obviously Russia wants to control these projects, and obviously The US & Britain want to call the shots.  At this point Russian military muscle is being deployed to scare off investors by creating high risk. 

Two along that line from the Turkish Hurriyet:

Irem Koker, "Turkey faces tough task in energy as political map of Caucasus redrawn", Hurriyet, August 17, 2008
Hurriyet English, "The reopening of BTC pipeline remains unclear as repair continues", Hurriyet, August 17, 2008

Russia's "psychology" differs little from USA's "psychology" - both libidos are well greased by hydrocarbons.  The current showdown in Georgia is aimed at the Baku-Ceyhan pipeling, which goes through Georgia, and projected pipeline projects which will pipe oil and gas from the Caspian region directly to Austria.  Obviously Russia wants to control these projects, and obviously The US & Britain want to call the shots.  At this point Russian military muscle is being deployed to scare off investors by creating high risk. 

You just can't build a pipeline anywhere.  Gravity is a fundamental issue.  A down-hill or even flat terrain is idea, but you have to pump uphill the costs rise astronomically.  One route then has advantages over others - but other factors intervene.  For example, piping hydrocarbons from the Caspian fields to the eastern coast of the Black sea works very well.  But at the other end of the sea there is an enormous choke-point, the Bosphorus.  The straight is so narrow that a large tanker's rudder can run in reverse - you have to turn to port for the vessel to turn to starboard.  There have already been several marine accidents in this strategic waterway, and Turkey fears the big one, oil-spill and sinking vessels blocking the channel etc.  So Turkey monitors and restricts tanker traffic strictly, which in turn governs production quotas in the Caspian basin.  So that leaves Iran with the best exit points for Caspian petrocarbons, and no Western company can negotiate pipelines there due to political and economic sanctions (James Baker, for example, has been lobbying for years to lift the Iranian sanctions.)

Anyway, it goes on and on.  There's no reason to expect that Russia's recent moves, or the US's, is about anything other that energy politics, in my opinion.  And it looks like Russia won this one in Georgia. 

National Enquirer - the Philadelphia Inquirer is not a tabloid.

Mea culpa.  I should have checked the spelling.  They've confused me ever since their ad campaign, "Inquiring minds want to know."