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• Debate: Random sobriety tests for drivers - June 7th, 2011.

Serbian drunk driver failing alcohol test on YouTube

Featured pro and con arguments from this article:

• PRO: Random sobriety tests are a just public safety intervention Robert Solomon, a law professor at the University of Western Ontario and the director of legal policy for MADD Canada, argues that implementing random sobriety tests on roads would be a just impingement on Canadian's lives because of the death and injury toll drunk driving is inflicting there: “We have one of the worst records for impaired driving of any comparable democracies." In a paper he co-authored in 2010, he reported The totals for 2007 as being worse than seven years earlier: 210,000 impairment-related crashes, 1,239 deaths, 73,120 injuries. All of this, he argues, justifies the invasiveness of RBT; it protects people and saves lives.

• CON: Random sobriety tests amount to unreasonable searches "Random breath tests for DUI is a bad idea." Canadian Cincinnatus. October 7th, 2009: "In a free society it should be the case that a citizen can move about at will without ever being hindered by the police. The job of the police officer, who used to be called a peace officer, is to keep the public peace. If the public peace has not been broken he should leave well enough alone, not go around making criminals out of people minding their own business. It is for that reason that the traditional requirement of ‘reasonable grounds” was put into place."

• Home plate collision rule in baseball - June 1, 2011.
• Child beauty pageants - May 28th, 2011.
• Trans fat ban - May 19th, 2011.
• China "one child" policy - May 12th, 2011.
• Release of Osama bin Laden death photos - May 6th, 2011.
  
• Osama Bin Laden Sea Burial - May 3rd, 2011.
• Return of Israel to pre-1967 borders - April 30th, 2011.
• Term limits for legislators - April 19th, 2011.
• Seattle deep-bore tunnel - April 13th, 2011.
• Should the US arm Libyan rebels? - April 2nd, 2011.
• High-speed rail - March 30th, 2011.
• Mandatory military service - March 26th, 2011.
• No-fly zone over Libya - March 15th, 2011.
• Military recruiting in public schools - March 11th, 2011.
• Bullfighting - March 8th, 2011.
• Collective bargaining rights for public unions - March 4th, 2011.

See Past Debate Digest topics

• War on Drugs The executive summary of the Global Commission on Drug Policy report announced: “The global war on drugs has failed,” reigniting the debate on whether the "war" should be abandoned or dramatically changed.
• Abortion: The abortion debate has gained increasing attention in recent weeks as Republicans, empowered across the US after the 2010 election, push for stricter abortion laws: Meghan Malloy. "House-amended abortion bill passes without debate." The Iowa Independent. June 8th, 2011
• Infant male circumcision Jennifer Medina. "In Santa Monica, Circumcision Opponent Abandons Efforts." New York Times. June 7, 2011
• Return of Israel to pre-1967 borders US President Barack Obama said on May 19th that he was committed to the pre-1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations on the Palestinian-Israeli border, re-elevating the debate on the subject to center stage.NPR article on subject.
  
• Enhanced interrogation techniques: Following the killing of Osama bin Laden, with useful information obtained through interrogation techniques, some have argued that it was "enhanced interrogations" that lead to Osama bin Laden's death. This has lead to renewed debate over the practice.

More Debates in the News

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• June 6th. Ggowdy1972 created the following argument against two-party systems: "Two-party systems create false dichotomies. By framing debate in terms of only two-parties or points of view the two-party system gives the false impression that their are only two choices on any given issue. the reality is that issues facing any country are deeply complex with multiple view points. This is particularly harmful when political parties begin to enforce ideological purity and shout down party dissent. [1]
• June 3rd. A number of arguments were added to Debate: Safe injection sites for heroin addicts by Ikassamsha.

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