Embracing Nothingness

As in embrassing the fact that there is not a 1, 2, or 3 in the Illini loss column.

Rick Morrisey has a great article about the Illini faithful who think a loss would do us good. I have to admit that I was one of those fans until recently. I had prepared myself for an Illini loss. I had rationalized that this team could stand to have a tough test not go there way so that they could know how to reach down and strive for victory when it really mattered.

My awekening came half way through the second half of the Illini game vs. Wisconsin...shortly after Jack Ingram hit his second three pointer. This team has essentially been playing together for three years. During that time they have tasted some bitter losses, especially in the NCAA tournament. The early loss to Notre Dame in 2003 stings like a jellyfish. Losing to Duke last year was not as painful, more of a precursor for this year. The Iowa game this year was a struggle for the Illini and they still managed to pull it out.

Maybe it is a sign of our culture to say that Illinois should lose. No one can be perfect, and the mentality says that people should prepare themselves so that they are never perfect. Well, why can't we strive for the ideal? Why shouldn't we hope/wish/strive for perfection? Why can't the Illini run the entire freaking table? I think part of the hesitancy of fans to look for the unbeaten season is years of broken expectations and let downs. Seeing the program crumble after the Deon Thomas recruiting mess and watching the limitless potential of the Peoria gang falter. Austin Peay anyone??? The excitement of the Illini fan is an excitement bottled in a small container...we always seem to be waiting for the other shoe to drop.

This team is different. They are wearing #1 with pride and meeting all challengers with enthusiasm and courage. I can tell these guys are playing for each other, they must really like each other. The extra pass, the dive to the floor, and the support for each other make this team different. They may lose before the tourney season, but I am through waiting for it to happen. I am rooting for loss column to remain a vacant space. What good is failure anyway? Why not continue to improve while you are already excelling at a high level? I hope the Illini keep this focus that they have. I truly believe that if they can get past Michigan State that they have an exceptional chance to be undefeated headed into the Big Ten tourney.

Baby Steps Toward Progress

Retail giant shifts policy to account for domestic partnerships. Way to go Wal-Mart!

Remembering The Past

Today is the 60th Anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland. A place where millions of innocents were slaughtered for an ideology of hate. Jews, gypsies, prisoners of war, political opponents, and homosexuals were killed, over one million in this place. The Soviets were the first ones to reach the camp and discover the horror of what was left.

Sixty years sounds like a long time to me, but it really is not that long ago. I was watching a film on MLK Day this year about Dr. King and the Montgomery, AL transit strike. I couldn't believe that these sorts of things had actually happened in the lifetime of some of my family members. The same thought goes through my head when I consider Nazi Germany. It just blows me away that such evil and such hate was forced upon the world.

To be sure, Nazi Germany was a direct threat to the freedom and safety of the world. Not only did Hitler have grand designs on his power, but he feared no one in his conquest of the power. Millions of innocents lost their lives due to his evil, some in battle, some locked away for a difference of perspective, or a difference of faith. Sixty years ago. Fifty years ago since the Civil Rights struggle.

Are we really that different today? Have we embraced the lessons of the past to ensure a better future? To be sure, lives are not being lost in the quantities that they were in the past, but have we erected social "ghettos" for those that have ideological differences from us? Have we let our government stigmatize and outkast a whole religious culture from the mainstream?

Never forget, and never again are the mantras associated with Holocaust rememberance. So on this day of reflection, ask yourself, how do you make a difference in the lives of the downtrodden? Do you stand up for injustice when you see it? How do you help amplify those that do not have a voice?

Busting Knee Caps

Two games into the tough stretch for the Illini and the team has met the challenge so far.

Last night's game at Wisconsin was amazing. This team keeps achieving the incredible and makes it look so easy. Any other team probably would have folded last night under the Wisconsin pressure. Illini took the punch to the mouth and then took out their own brass knuckles.

Wisconsin really did what they needed to. Alondo Tucker posting up. Wilkinson playing tough. Illiniois just showed that they have a superior fight this year. Jack Ingram is blowing me away....I wish someone would blow Nick Smith away, the kid is just a train wreck for being seven feet tall. Do I really want to watch him take 10-ft jumpers?? Hell no! Take the ball to the hoop rat-faced man!

Anyway, cheers to the Badgers and their 38 game home win streak. I did toast a shot to them out of my Bucky Badger shot glass last night. Anyway, the record was good...but not as good as Illinois being 70-3 in the past five years in Champaign.

No one will beat Illinois at home this year. I feel sorry for Minnesota on Saturday, when 300 alumni will come to Assembly Hall to celebrate 100 years of Illini basketball. Three big tests remain: at Michigan State on Feb. 1st, at Michigan Feb. 8th, and at Iowa Feb. 19th.

There can be only One!

I am getting excited for the Illini game tonight because it is the first chance they will have to lock up with a decent opponent since they laid the wood to the Bearcats in Las Vegas. Illinois is off to a 4-0 start in the Big Ten as it gets ready to hit it's difficult stretch of Big Ten games. Tonight they play Iowa at home, then Wisconsin on the road (where the Badgers have won 38 in a row), home against Minnesota for the 100 years of Illini B-ball celebration (guaranteed win!), on the road at Michigan State, at home against a rising Indiana, on the road at Michigan, and then hosting Wisconsin at Assembly Hall. This is a seven game test of wills...if this team is going to lose in the Big Ten, it will happen somewhere in this seven game stretch. If, on the other hand, they can pull through this seven game stretch undefeated, I see a clear run with no losses to the Big Ten tourney...although a tough test in Iowa City is on the schedule. I am hesitant to predict that because it will be very hard to win at the Kohl Center or at the Breslin Center. I do think that this team has the talent to win all of these games, and they should make for great viewing!

Tonights game is special, because I hate the Hawkeyes. I loathed them for the longest time before I moved to Iowa, but ever since I have been here I hate them even more. Steve Alford and his crew of crooks has no respect for anyone. I watched Iowa get pummeled by Northern Iowa in the UNI Dome last year after Alford had the nerve to suggest UNI was an inferior opponent keeping Iowa from playing higher quality teams. So, let's all root for a royal rout of the evil that is the Hawkeyes!!!

...And One Other Thing!

Happy Inauguration Day for those of you that are into it!

Last time Bushy had a parade, he was pelted with eggs and protestors were hauled away in droves. I expect with his newly proclaimed capitol and declaration that the election was a vote of confidence on his ignorant handling of the Iraq war, we will see some more interesting crowd behavior.

Here's hoping Bush forgets the words that are carefully repeated to him by the Chief Justice.

End of The Search

People forget it was the reason we sank ourselves into this awful quagmire, even though Bushy tried to spin it otherwise.

U.S. ends search for WMD in Iraq

Give Em Hope Howard!!!

Today's news is worth a pause and a look back into the political forum that I have tried to turn a shoulder on for the time being.

Today Howard Dean announced his candidacy for the Chair of the Democratic National Committee. This is the post held by Terry McAullife for the past four years. By declaring his candidacy, Dean is abandoning a run for President in 2008...even though that may have been improbable considering his exit from the 2004 race.

I am for Howard Dean. I like Howard Dean, and I respect Howard Dean. I stood up on stage and endorsed Howard Dean for President. I flipped pancakes with Howard Dean. I will support Howard in his quest to take the DNC chair.

Why? Because I am a reform Democrat. The party has strayed dangerously close to violating a number of the principles that we hold dear. The Democratic Leadership Council is driving the party further toward corporate backing and losing our sense of change. Democrats have too long focused on regional victories based on perceptions and frames that have been generate by the other side. As Howard Dean put it in his email today:

"Offering a new choice means making Democrats the party of reform -- reforming America's financial situation, reforming our electoral process, reforming health care, reforming education and putting morality back in our foreign policy. The Democratic Party will not win elections or build a lasting majority solely by changing its rhetoric, nor will we win by adopting the other side's positions. We must say what we mean -- and mean real change when we say it."

"But most of all, together, we have to rebuild the American community. We will never succeed by treating our nation as a collection of separate regions or separate groups. There are no red states or blues states, only American states. And we must talk to the people in all of these states as members of one community.
That word -- 'values' -- has lately become a codeword for appeasement of the right-wing fringe. But when political calculations make us soften our opposition to bigotry, or sign on to policies that add to the burden of ordinary Americans, we have abandoned our true values."

I believe that Dean offers hope to the Democratic Party. Dean is not a left-wing liberal...he is a staunch fiscal conservative, socially progressive, rurally grounded, and able to use technology to outreach to core bases. Do not be fooled by the right wing and the picture they will paint of Dean...he scared the jeepers out of them (not with the scream) by motivating the unmotivated and speaking a powerful and compelling message when it was unpopular. Dean's opposition to the war does not make him a super liberal, it makes him intelligent.

Other candidates have promise. Simon Rosenberg is a powerful centrist who is also adept at using technology for outreach. Donnie Fowler is a Clintonista and will be the choice if Hilary is serious about a run. However, candidates such as Tim Roemer (anti-choice, pro-Bush tax cuts, conservative board member) and Martin Frost are just quick answers to what some perceive as an easy problem. Throwing a conservative or Southern Dem at the head of the party is not going to unite us, it is going to fracture us.

Let's give Dean a chance to help us take our country back.

Oskee Wow Wow Illinois!

Illinois ran through their non-conference schedule at a stunning 14-0. I say stunning for several reasons. First of all, Illinois played some quality opponents, and did play most of them outside of the Assembly Hall. Beating Oregon, Arkansas, Missouri, Gonzaga, and Cincinatti on the road helped this team keep it's gaudy expectations and rankings. Beating Wake Forest at home is the crown jewel of a non-conference resume that should land the Illini a #1 seed in the tourney with games in Indianapolis and Chicago...if they can do well in the Big Ten. The start is stunning as well as Illinois won 13 of the 14 games by more than 12 points, and has yet to trail in the second half of any game. On top of that, Illinois has only trailed teams for less than 30 minutes...phenomenal.

We have managed to avoid the injury bug and we won our first conference game by 19 points. As excited as I get, I know tough games still remain. Specifically I worry about road contests at Iowa, Michigan St., and Wisconsin. I also worry about the team being off and getting ambushed by a lesser team like Indiana or Northwestern.

All that aside, I think Illinois is playing great. Most experts agree...except for Dick Vitale, who still ranks Illinois behind Kansas. I think Kansas is a good team, but they are without their superstar, have not played a road game, and have nearly lost 3 close games at home. Look for the Chicken-hawks to lose at Kentucky this weekend to get knocked back to earth.

Iowawineguy is back! Bigger, Longer, and Uncut!!

It feels good to be back in the blogosphere. I did enjoy some free time during the holiday season, but I feel like I have so much I want to get on the blog...be patient as I update through the next few weeks!

I had a great break. One of the reasons that I love working on campus is that you get to have the breaks that the students have, as long as you are willing to give up some vacation time. Mrs. IWG and I went home to Central Illinois for about 10 days over this break. To say the time spent was special would be an understatement. Ususally when we are at home, my two brothers and I are busy visiting many friends and zipping about all over the place. This year was different. We literally spent nearly every day together, playing Mario Kart, going to see movies, just talking, and hanging out. My mom was also around as well. The time spent was so special because it does not happen very often, and I think we all realized that this would be the last time we would all have together before Baby T got here and changed some of the dynamics of our family. It truly was an amazingly blessed time.

We also got to go to Indy to see my dad, went to visit my grandparents and family, went to see Mrs. IWG's grandparents, and made it to Champaign to see some friends and soak in all of the Illini goodness of that city!

I enjoyed several bottles of great wine over the break, and managed to bring a couple home as well. If you ever get the chance to visit Friar Tuck's in Champaign, I highly recommend you do...just make sure you have a large stack of dollar bills with you!

We managed to avoid the bad weather that hit Indiana, and we got back to Iowa right before we were covered in a sheet of ice. Now the forecast is calling for 4-8 inches of snow on top of the ice! Good old Iowa weather...at least the wind is not howling out of the North lands!!!

It is good to be back and now I am trying to get prepared for training my RA staff and getting the building reopened. More posts to follow, including my take on all of the movies I saw over break, happiness over the Illini, and the mysterious drama over the annual Iowawineguy Xmas letter.