Parker,+Paul

I debated 4 years (policy) in High School in the late 80s in Oklahoma, winning state and qualifying for Nationals and TOC during my Junior and Senior years. In addition, I coached LD debate for 4 years in the 90s and have a MA in Philosophy (Classical and Medieval).

I am a tabula rasa judge - I can handle speed, theory and am a flow judge and operate from a policy paradigm unless the paradigm itself becomes a issue in the round. Do keep in mind that I have not kept up on the lingo, so although I will accept and follow any argument you present, you need to actually make the argument and not just refer to a piece of theory and expect me to fill in the gaps.

I guess my judging philosophy begins and ends with the idea that I am there to judge the winner of the debate, not make you guess or conform to my expectations. Nonetheless, it is policy debate - the affirmative needs to support the resolution and win a policy initiative to win and the negative needs to negate that - unless of course, there are counter plans or alternative theories, etc. on the table. If I look confused, you've probably lost me - I can only judge based on what I can understand (linguistically and logically) so keep that in mind.