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Re:Max...SPEW

I heartily agree with Kristina's comments about spewing being a tool
completely useless outside of debating.  I really feel strongly that debate
should be helping us develop analytical and communicative skills.  Although
I can understand the 'spewer's motivation to get out as much information as
possible in the limited time, but it seems unnecessary to me. The tactic of
snowing your opponent with huge numbers of arguments, in the hopes that they
will miss one does not seem to me to be very 'sportsmanlike'.
   I was discussing this issue with the coach from Western Illinois, and he
was telling me about tournaments in the MidWest at which final rounds may be
held in courtrooms using actual judges.  These professional arbiters have
been known to interrupt and reprimand competitors using such spew tactics,
precisely because these are not acceptable methods in the real world.  I
agree with this attitude entirely, and would like to resolve this somehow in
our region as well.
   I also think that this 'discussion' won't go very far until some proponents
of 'the spew' start coming forth and defending the tactic.

--AlexJB
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