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Russia should reinstate the cold war with the US

Only in the semi-finals of the National Championship for Paliamentary Debate will you find a team proposing the merits of reinstating the cold war. This is exactly what occured though as arguably the top two teams in the nation, Southern Illinois and Texas Tech, met for a epic debate. After the pairings were released, a massive wave of coaches and debaters began to make there way to the semi-final round eager to get a good seat. The pairings pitted Southern Illinois University's Kevin Calderwood and Kyle Dennis on the government against Texas Tech University's Anthony Putnicki and Kristen Owen on the oppositon. Southern Illinois University presented a case for Russia occupying part of the Arctic ridge to fix it's looming oil crisis and prevent a hot war in the future. Texas Tech ran a critique of the capitalist system and advocated a rejection of all forms of capitalism as the alternative. The round was basically first-class entertainment for any political science major, which most debaters seem to be, and a reflection of the depth of knowledge that competitive debate requires its paricpants to hold. The debate came down to whether individuals lives have "meaning" in a capitalist state and, whether the permutation to reject all instances of capitalism except the plan was legitimate. In the end, the decision was a close 4-3 decision for Texas Tech University , who would later win the NPDA championship over the University of Oregon, over Southern Illinois University. While the debate community may have rejected capitalism in this instance, I can only hope that other academic institutions are willing to put up the buck to fund their debate programs to continue this great activity.