Raymond Johnson @ downclimb.com

The major story of the past day has been the apparent control of Baghdad taken by U.S. and coalition forces. The major question that has lingered since and even before the war started was "When will it end?" I'm not sure that question can be answered - it's not like a cease-fire or treaty is going to be signed and all the troops will go home. Even Baghdad is still "an ugly place" according to Major General Renuart at Central Command. So while the "end" of the war is a bit fuzzy, I think what we saw yesterday was an important shift from attacking Baghdad to defending Baghdad. That's certainly the feeling I get when I see the reports from the Iraqi capitol, and that seems to be the shift evident in the rhetoric from the administration. Now I think people need to be patient - I have a hard time imagining a day as significant as yesterday until Iraq holds its first democratic election, and that will be a relatively long way off. There will...

Like a lot of people the past few weeks, I really enjoyed watching David Bloom and his reports from the front lines of Iraq. Sadly, he died today of non-combat causes. While a death of a soldier is always terrible and unfortunate, somehow it hits a little closer when you lose one of your favorite storytellers. I've been listening to people talk today about the kind of person David Bloom was, and like so many other similar cases, you don't realize how great somebody is until they're gone. From MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/news/896267.asp?0cv=CA01 From CBS' Bob Schieffer: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/06/opinion/schieffer/main547988.shtml

I never have any good pranks to play, but here are some of the best: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/top100.html

Just hours after getting the axe by NBC and National Geographic, you can now find Peter Arnett working for the British tabloid "The Mirror", found online at http://mirror.co.uk . I'm not too sure about the reputation of The Mirror, but I get the feeling that Arnett will be free to report as he wishes. His newest article can be found at http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12795678&method=full&siteid=50143 . If you like the mirror, you may want to check out the UK-based "Independent" at http://www.independent.co.uk . I particularly enjoy Robert Fisk's articles (even if I don't always agree with him). I wrote about Robert Fisk about a year ago at http://downclimb.com/johnson/2002_04_01_archive.shtml#75211620 . If after reading his articles you feel disgusted by the contents, turn on an AM radio station in the afternoon and listen to Rush Limbaugh for a few minutes, then turn him off and search your mind for a "perso...

I haven't been commenting on it, but yes, I've been taking in enormous amounts of war coverage. That's really not surprising, given that I watch a lot of news in the first place. While stories of people getting killed are upsetting enough, I was quite bothered by the firing of Peter Arnett by NBC and National Geographic. I heard some of Arnett's comments to Iraqi TV and thought they were inappropriate, but not worth him being fired. It's funny how our right to freedom of speech protects us from wrongful termination, yet as a journalist Arnett lost his job because his bosses felt he lost his objectivity, which is usually thought to be essential for good journalism. Then again, who benefits more from free speech than journalists? As for my viewing patterns thus far, I still rely on MSNBC for most of my news (I swear Lester Holt works 20 hours a day) but I've come to really enjoy Aaron Brown and General (Ret.) Wesley Clark on CNN's NewsNight. For analy...

I don't know what Dusty Baker told his team before the game today, but he can keep this up. A 15-2 win over the Mets in New York with the temperature hovering just above 40 degrees? Kerry Wood was on his game, Corey Patterson is making an early season run at the triple crown (.667 AVG, 2 HR, 7 RBI), and the bullpen was outstanding. Oh yeah, that triple crown reference is just a joke - I know nobody can keep that up. Likewise, I don't expect the Cubs to always score 15 runs per game, but it was a great way to start a season. All that and Stoney too!

Got your NCAA basketball tournament brackets all filled out? I do. I filled it out as fast as I could cut and paste, but that's fine with me. Like most people, it just makes following the tournament a little more fun. Now if I could only predict the brackets for the 330 Division I wrestlers competing this weekend in their NCAA tournament...

I just looked it up, and yes, I have talked about Colin Quinn before (see post below for reference). I knew I had seen him in some kind of show recently, and I had forgotten all about it. Apparently Colin Quinn had his own, prime-time, live TV show on NBC only a year ago, but it had totally faded from my memory. You can read for yourself here . The Colin Quinn Theory continues...

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but since Colin Quinn has a new show coming on in 2 minutes ("Tough Crowd" on Comedy Central), now's a good time to let the world know. I think Colin Quinn is great, and he does some really funny stuff, but none of it lasts. His stint on Saturday Night Live? Good, but gone. His movie career? In and out. I think his longest stint anywhere was his sidekick gig on MTV's "Remote Control" in the late 80s. "Tough Crowd" has now started and it borrows heavily from the format established by Bill Maher on his now-defunct "Politically Incorrect", except all four guests are comics, and the show is as much about being fast and funny as actually discussing the issues. (I think I'm cheating...I swear I saw this show on a few months ago...either that was a trial period or my ESP is getting much better.) It's pretty good, especially if you're like me and like comics and stand up com...

I turned on the TV today and what did I hear? The sweet, sweet sounds of Steve Stone doing Cubs color commentary. It's as if my worries melted away for a moment and all was right with the world again. Even though I played some baseball as a young lad, I think I've learned more about how the game of baseball should be played from Steve Stone than any coach I've ever had. I grew up listening to Harry Caray and Steve Stone, and with Harry's enthusiasm and Stoney's knowledge of the game, I became a baseball fan. Well, not just a baseball fan - I became a Cubs fan . While there are many good color commentators out there, there's something about the way Steve Stone describes the game and interacts with his play-by-play man that I really like. I managed to get by the past couple of years without Stoney, but I sure am glad to have him back. Oh yeah - the Cubs won, too. :)

I watch news on and off pretty much anytime I'm watching TV, but I thought I'd lay out the highlights of a typical day. I'm not saying I watch all of this, but these are generally the shows I turn to when I want to know what's going on. All times central. 5:00 AM - 8:00 AM - Imus In The Morning (MSNBC) You don't have to agree with Don Imus to enjoy his show, which is good, because Imus generally chooses to shake things up by being disagreeable. Three things make this show work - Imus' provocativity (this may or may not be a word, but you get the point), great guests, and it's a radio show that happens to be on TV. If you want to see sharp-dressed people all made up for a national TV audience, turn to any one of the major networks. If you want to see somebody who looks more like you do when you roll out of bed, watch Don Imus. 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM - Various MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, and The History Channel Even with everything going on in the world, if you ...

Yesterday was the big day at the United Nations, big enough to fill most of the news coverage for the rest of the day. Some called the report of Chief U.N. Weapons Inspector Hans Blix to be "shocking", but you honestly can't be all that surprised by a guy who doesn't want to be held accountable for starting a war, whether he might personally be for it or not. I thought he gave a pretty honest and straightforward report, and maybe the only real surprises of the day were the rounds of applause following the statements made by the representatives from France and Russia. Anti-war seems to be a popular stance right now, and if it weren't for things like guns and missiles and armies, especially in the hands of people who might use them, I think that even the strongest hawks would agree that not having wars is a good thing. Too bad the world doesn't necessarily work that way, and some will always turn to violence as a means of solving their problems. It seems th...

In my post a few days ago about the State of the Union, I concentrated mostly on not the speech, but the coverage of it. The news is the window through which I see the larger world, and without that window I would have no knowledge of important events beyond my personal reach. News can come in many different forms, everything to Tom Brokaw on my TV to a friend passing along a story they heard from someone else. Regardless of its source, I'm always thirsty for new knowledge, and I like feeling like I know what's going on around me. When I was writing last week about this fascination I've had with the news, I tried to remember the major news stories that stick out in my earliest memories. I vaguely remember the 1984 Summer Olympics and that year's presidential election, but too vaguely to remember anything specific. Last Saturday I received a grave reminder of the first news story that made a significant impact on my life. My interests as an 8-year-old were prett...

Why is a baker's dozen 13 of something? I think it should be 11. I realized this today as I was making cookies...for every 12 I put into the oven, only 11 made it into the cookie jar. Warm and gooey cookies are just too good to resist, and I wouldn't blame any baker for eating a few of them soon after they come out of the oven. Finishing with groups of 11 is easy - put 12 on the cookie sheet (which fits really well, 3 rows by 4 columns), bake them, take them out, eat one, and put the other 11 in the cookie jar. How could you end up with 13? Put 14 on each cookie sheet? What's that, 2 rows by 7 columns? That wouldn't fit most cookie sheets very well. A checkerboard pattern of 3-2-3-2-3 might fit pretty well, but that is exactly 13, so then you can't eat any of them. As the baker in this case, I find this unacceptable. I suppose you could just make as many cookies as the batch allows, then eat however many it takes to leave youself with a total that is a mu...

When you read, watch, and listen to as much daily news as I do, things like last night's State of the Union address take on an increased importance. Not so important that I missed any of "The Shield", but important enough that I recorded the last few minutes of the speech, the Democrat's response, and the ensuing debates on MSNBC's Hardball. So after watching Vic Mackey rough up the bad guys, I got caught up on all the stuff I missed. I'm not really into sharing my own personal political opinions, but I do enjoy the rhetoric of politics and the news. I've always been a fan of NBC. I don't know if it makes much sense to have an allegiance to one network over another, but I'm sure there are a lot of advertising and marketing executives counting on just that. Maybe it was because I was a child of the original "Must-See-TV" (Cosby, Family Ties/Different World, Cheers, Night Court, LA Law), or because Tom Brokaw is my favorite of the n...

Anybody see the Texas-Kansas game last night? By far the best basketball game I've seen this season, especially after watching that 37-point turnaround that Arizona had on Kansas just last Saturday. Yes, I'm a Kansas fan. I remember rooting for Danny Manning back in 1988, and although my dedication has wondered, they're still my favorite college basketball team. I'm from the same hometown as Nick Collison, so I pay more attention now than ever, and last night he played the game of his career - 24 points and 23 rebounds against a very good Texas frontcourt. Kansas isn't nearly as consistent this year as they were last year, but come tournament time I don't think any team will want them in their bracket. (The same can be said for about 15 other teams...isn't college basketball great?) Big win last Sunday for the UNI wrestling team as they beat Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum. ISU isn't exactly having their best year, but it's a high-quality win...

Happy Holidays! Yes, I'm still alive...I sorta forgot about this whole web log thing, and as you can see, I haven't updated it in months. Oh well - it's not like there was any earth shattering news to reveal. But I'm still kicking, trust me. I'm still not in the permanent employment business, but I've been getting along by doing substitute teaching. Other than not working on a regular basis, I rather like subbing - I get to work with kids, occasionally I get to actually teach something, and I never have to stay after school to correct papers or plan lessons. That has to be the best part, even though it is something I would gladly do if I taught full time. It (and lots of other things) just comes with the job, but for now I'm relieved of those responsibilities. So how goes the search for a "real" job? That seems to be what everybody always asks me about, so I'll tell you. I've been as unsuccessful as I have been patient, which I ...

With the combination of my lack of quality of internet access and my general desire to not draw much attention to myself, I've managed to stay pretty quiet since the semester ended. I really don't mind - it's given me time to apply for jobs, do some reading, spend some time with family, and relax. Two news stories this week, however, have caught my interest... Title IX : This week marks the 30th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark legislation that said that any institution receiving federal funds cannot discriminate on the basis of gender. While college athletics may not have been the intended target of the new law, athletics is certainly where Title IX's impact has been most public. With the help of Title IX, opportunities for women to participate in collegiate sports has grown immensely. While that is undoubtebly good, many schools try to comply with Title IX through what is known as proportionality - a standard that says the percentages of a school's m...

After keeping myself busy the past couple of weeks working on end-of-semester projects, presentations, and other miscellaneous tasks, I am now facing my last week of school. Not just the last week of this semester, but the last week for the foreseeable future. This is the conclusion of my 21st year of school, and for the first time I know I won't be going back in the fall. It's a pretty strange feeling, but I'm excited about the other possibilities I have available to me. I'm not totally walking away from academia - I still have my master's thesis to finish and I have a feeling I'll be going for a Ph.D. someday - but for now it looks like I'm at the end of the road. Fortunately, when you go to school for 21 years, that road ends where a lot of other roads begin. Which will I choose? Stay tuned...

George Clinton and P-Funk wasn't the only concert I attended last weekend. Friday night I went to see Jazz Band One, widely regarded as one of the top college jazz bands in the country. I've been going to their concerts since I came to school here, and this might have been my final one. I didn't realize it until I got there, but what was billed as a "normal" Jazz Band One concert was turned into an event called "Celebrate Washut", named for the bands director, Bob Washut. Washut came here in 1980 and by 1982 Jazz Band One had been named the top college jazz band in the nation. He is recognized as a top educator, clinician, composer, arranger...everything you would want in a person in your music program. But after 22 years he's decided to step down as director of Jazz Band One. He'll continue at the university, working with students, writing and arranging music, and directing Jazz Band Two, but now the torch has been passed to a new directo...