  These notes contain some of the material I presented at TASI 96 on the
comparison of the standard model with precision electroweak data. After a
physical accounting of the dominant electroweak radiative corrections,
including the effects of initial state bremsstrahlung, I examine how data from
LEP and the SLC provides a clear test of the standard model. Apparent
discrepancies in the $R_b$ and $R_c$ ratios, and their physical resolution, are
also examined in some detail.
