Check it out here:

http://formspring.me/schlizzag

This should be fun..

That's how my stance on health care reform has been for the past couple of years.  I've always had coverage through employers, and have never had to worry about anything drastic happening, because I have had group health care plans to take care of my medical needs.

If it works for me, why should we change it?  If I'm paying for my own coverage, why should other people get free coverage in some sort of crazy reform?  That's the easy way to think about it.

All it takes is for one strong case to compell you to change your mind.  One blog post to come across your twitter feed and give you that visceral reaction and make you realize that there are a lot of people out there in distress.  This happened to me, and I was nauseated with the way the insurance company handled things.  And the worst part is that this happens every day to many people in a variety of circumstances, as the rest of us sit idly by wanting to keep things the way they are "because it works for me".

Read the following blog posts, and tell me you aren't moved.  Tell me it's not time for some sort of change:

• http://www.geekinheels.com/blog/2009/9/26/my-reasons-for-withdrawl.html
• http://www.geekinheels.com/blog/2009/9/28/keeping-my-chin-up.html
• http://www.geekinheels.com/blog/2009/10/8/having-the-worst-day.html
• http://www.geekinheels.com/blog/2009/10/9/no-heartbeat.html

There are other models that work.  I hope our leaders in Washington get things figured out, and we can truly be a compassionate society. 

This isn't about socialism - it's about being humane.  I realize that many who read my blog have already come to realize this.

To the über conservatives who are fighting against changing the health care system (and to the rest of you - sorry for simply falling back on a cliché):

What Would Jesus Do?

From this morning's Mailbag on ESPN.com:

Q: I am 19 years old. I have been a fan of Favre and the Packers since the third grade. I grew up thinking Favre could do no wrong. As a mature 17-year-old, I cried the day he retired from the Packers. I was tolerant of the Jets experiment -- even have the jersey to prove it. But what am I supposed to do now? Tonight I watched my childhood hero stomp all over the team and the fans he represented for 16 years. I found myself cursing him for the very same reasons I used to love him. The phony TD celebrations, the smug smiles, the way he hams it up with his new teammates and his new fans. I don't know how to handle it. I started this e-mail thinking I had something to say about all of this, but I just feel lost. I don't know what to think anymore ... I'm just lost.
--Drew, Bloomington, Ind.

SG: And that's the part of Monday's game that got lost. Every Packers fan felt like how a dutiful wife would feel if she stuck with her husband through thick and thin, watched him become a success, then got dumped for a younger trophy wife who also happened to be her archnemesis. Favre failed in the same way Roger Clemens failed when he signed with the Blue Jays in 1997 -- his problems with management affected his feelings toward his old franchise, and he did a piss-poor job of letting his old fan base know that he still cared about it. I have written about this before, but I turned on Clemens during his Toronto news conference when he simply refused to acknowledge Boston fans beyond a few generic words. It hurt. I took it personally and decided he was an opportunistic, disloyal, dishonest scumbag from that moment on. And as it turned out, he was.

In Favre's case, his lack of empathy for Packers fans has been really alarming. I know he plays with his heart on his sleeve. I know he's a "kid out there" and "having a ball out there" and all the crap. And maybe he's not a brain surgeon, but he's smart enough to understand what he meant to Packers fans and the state of Wisconsin, which means he had to understand how it went over after he (A) signed with an NFC North team two months ago; (B) dialed up the finger-pointing and fist-pumping during Monday's Pack-Vikes game so egregiously that even his biggest fan fron Green Bay couldn't defend him; and (C) gave that self-satisfied postgame interview in which he never said anything like, "I just wanted to say hi to everyone back in Wisconsin and tell them that this was as strange for me as it probably was for you, but I want you to know that it was just one game -- a game that I wanted to win because I'm a competitor and I love my teammates, but still, none of this changes the fact that I love you guys and I always will." That's it. That's all he had to say to Michele Tafoya after the game.

He didn't say it.

And believe me, I've been there as a fan. It's unforgivable. Especially when you're under 30 and don't realize that many of your "heroes" are people who don't deserve that level of worship, or any worship, for that matter. They just play sports well. They don't care about you. They care about themselves and that's it. If this realization hits you at the wrong time in your life, it can be hard. (I know it was hard for me. I took the Clemens thing personally, as witnessed by the fact that I once wrote a column wondering if he was the Antichrist.) So if the Packers fans want to play along, so to speak, then they can't cheer Favre on Nov. 1. He set the stakes. He made it clear that he's moved on with his new team and cut all ties to the old one. That means you need to go to Lambeau and boo the living hell out of him. Make him miserable. Rattle him. Flummox him. Do everything you can to get the better of him for three hours. This man does not belong to you anymore, and maybe, he never did.

I still don't know how I'll feel about Favre in five, even ten years from now.  All I know is that right now I despise that man.  He's snubbed us, and it hurts.  We are not all named Ted Thompson.

Why does the NFL keep Ed Hochuli's legs covered in pants?  We've seen his magnificent guns.  You just know he's got to have some tree trunks to match.

In the spirit of this issue, I have started a movement:

Shorts For Hochuli!

Dreamed up in the haze of 3/4 of a botttle of Steel Reserve, http://www.shortsforhochuli.com is the base camp of operations.

Join us... won't you?

GO PACK GO!!!

We look like the damn Bad News Bears out there, and it's frustrating as hell.

It's to the point where stuff's got to change. You can give all the rah-rah speeches you want and have all the team meetings you want and yell at guys, but guys have got to give a damn.

I don't really see it. I know I care. I'm out there busting my tail every night trying to win. Physical errors are fine, but guys loafing, guys not being where they're supposed to be or guys giving up on (at-bats), it's not acceptable at any level.

I don't want to say guys are packing it in, but it sure seems like it, and it pisses me off.

(Hinch) is trying to do everything he can to get us to snap out of this," Reynolds said. "We're not responding. . . . It's a piss-poor effort, and it feels like night in and night out it's the same old song. It's just not fun to be in this clubhouse right now. I don't know what it's going to take to change it.

(Source: azcentral.com)

All in all, he spoke the truth. And sometimes the truth stings. Rather than get upset, his teammates seemed to share his frustrations. Though they may be a longshot for the playoffs, they began to play with a desire to win once again this weekend. Reynolds led that charge, with a three run blast in yesterday's victory over the Rockies to tie the game in the sixth inning.

He's a young kid, with a lot of potential. If he can develop a better eye for good pitches, and if he can stay healthy, he's got future hall of famer written all over him. Let's get him started early, and send him to St. Louis!

Follow Up:  Voting has ended, and Reynolds placed third in voting.  Oh well.  He'll get some attention once the Dbacks get their act together and become playoff contenders...

I'm at it again.  It is once again time to give schlagging.com an overhaul.

Thanks to the guys over at This Week in Tech, I've been turned on to a hosting service called Squarespace.  Squarespace provides a very user friendly interface for maintaining websites, and I'm absolutely loving it.

No longer do I have to edit html / php / js / css files on my computer, upload via ftp, and click refresh to view changes.  I can now literally click, drag, and drop to get things done on my site.  There's a learning curve, but it really is quite intuitive.

With the new technology in place, I'm ready to evolve my web presence just as the web evolves itself.

Gone are the U of A butt shorts (don't worry - they live on in the favicon, and you can click here to get your fix).  I think the new background says a lot about who I am.

Gone are the old blog archives.  I've got a copy of the database backed up, but I see no reason to keep them online.  There wasn't much substance on a consistent basis, and other sites like facebook and twitter have given me an outlet for linking to things and microblogging.

So what will I end up doing here?  I'm still not sure.  I'll figure it out as I go.