Debatepedia is essentially the Wikipedia of debates. It is an encyclopedia of pro and con arguments and quotes. A project of the 501c3 non-profit International Debate Education Association (IDEA), Debatepedia utilizes the same wiki technology powering Wikipedia to engage you and other editors in centralizing arguments and quotes found in editorials, op-eds, books, and around the web into comprehensive pro/con articles. This helps citizens and decision-makers better deliberate on the world's most important questions. Debatepedia is endorsed by the National Forensic League.
The Debate Digest
A steady supply of our latest and most refined pro/con articles to help you deliberate, take a stand, take action, vote, and back yourself up.
PRO: Despite outliers, the average beauty pageant is tame. Melbourne mother of four Kristin Kyle, who is organising Australia's first beauty pageant in 2011: "We are asking people to educate themselves. Toddlers & Tiaras is a reality TV show. They have to make it dramatic so people will watch it. Our pageant is not going to be like that."[1]
CON: Moms enter kids into beauty pageants for own insecuritiesLeslie Cannold. "The ugly face of child beauty pageants." Sydney Morning Herald. May 21, 2011: "Some pageant mums are living out their own dreams of 'go[ing] somewhere in life', as one mother put it, rather than being 'stuck at home' due to early childbearing. While self-focused female ambition continues to be stigmatised in Western societies – with the ambitious working woman always contrasted unfavourably with the mum who sacrifices her career to stay at home – pageant mums justify their application of false eyelashes or even Botox to their children as evidence of a competitive desire for their daughter to win."
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.
Nuclear energy rose into the limelight once again as a debate, following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, which damaged over four nuclear power plants and threatened to cause a national and global nuclear fallout.[2]
This section features strong work done by Debatepedia editors. Consider joining their efforts. User Guide. See Recent changes for all recent community edits.
May 17th. Jasonschantz wrote the following in favor of releasing Osama bin Laden's death photos: "Al-Qaeda will see withholding photos as sign of their impact. Why they released the death picture of Saddam but don't dare to release that of Osama's? The only reason is that Iraq is down but Al-Qaeda is still there, so their path of terrorism is effective. It is an encouragement to them."[3]
Browse through Debatepedia's main categories to explore its contents and areas of interest to you. Go to Debatepedia's Main categories to see all of its categories, portals, and other contents.