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[Albert Rossi]

Jim, let me recount a little a story. My first year in high school I thought I'd join the debate team because I thought it meant really taking controversial topics apart and defending a point of view on the basis of facts and perhaps competing interpretations of them. I was educated very quickly that this was not scientific or philosophical debate, but it was rather preparing kids to think like lawyers. Which means, leaving out what doesn't help the case, in the best scenario, and distorting and even making up evidence in the worst. And the judges were not concerned with any form of verification. You could stand up and quote from some non-existent study or article, and that would not matter as much as whether you could score points by flustering your opponent. Needless to say, I lasted only a short time on the team, and never returned. It also pretty much colored how I viewed "debates" on the mass media.

I despair of ever winning against these guys. They don't care about facts. And I seriously don't know what it would take to alter the rules of the game. But I do admire those with the persistence to keep going back in the ring.