Look, I'm as tired as the next guy about hearing about the healthcare debate. As a general practice, I try to confine my political talk to passive aggressive comments on Facebook, but I thought I'd take a little time to flesh out some thoughts I had on the subject here. I'm going to do my best to keep this from devloving into a rant, so bear with me.

Honestly, I don't know if the current incarnation of the healthcare bill is good or not. I don't know what's in there, and I don't think I'm alone. I'm not going to debate the merits or faults of a specific bill, I'm just going to speak to the subject of "socialized healthcare" and the rhetoric that I can't seem to escape.

The big question that many opponents of healthcare reform seem to be asking is, "Is healthcare a right?" But the funny thing is that, after asking that question, they really never return to answer it. The question itself is actually pretty straight forward -- of course healthcare isn't a right. That's what the democrats are trying to do: make it a right. So what is it that these critics really want to talk about? Their rights, and how healthcare reform is going to stomp all over them. And frankly, I'm finding it pretty disgusting and selfish.

What the "is healthcare a right" askers really want to rant about is how unfair it is that government wants to take our hard earned money and pay a doctor to keep someone else healthy. They rant and rave about how it's socialism, and they throw careless words like "slavery" around in an indignant fashion to try to show how much reforming healthcare will infringe on their right to their money.

Instead of talking about if healthcare is a right, we should be talking about our priorities. The fact is, government already takes taxes from money-earning individuals to use on public programs. My question is, why isn't healthcare one of these higher-priority programs? Let's tak a look at the programs that are already being financed by these collective funds:

• Public Schools
• Police
• Fire Department
• Street cleaning
• Garbage collection
• Social security
• Medicare
• Medicaid

Yes, these programs are all important, but are any of them really more important than the basic health of individuals? It's crazy to be ok with the idea of forcably taxing people for garbage collection, but be all up in arms about using tax money to ensure that people are able to keep on living." I'm not trying to trivialize education at all, but are we really going to say that it's ok to use money from everyone -- even people who don't have children -- to finance a public school system? It's the exact same argument.

What I find really repugnant is many self-proclaimed Christian's response to the healthcare debate.  If I have to hear one more self-righteous person clammor on about how it's the church's responsibility to take care of the poor, and that charity should be providing healthcare rather than the government, I may just lose my mind. At least the right-wing, "is healthcare a right"-ers are, on some level, being intellectually honest with themselves by owning up to their selfishness. These church-goers spend their lives passing right on by the homeless on the street, muttering to themselves that the "bums" would just waste their charity on booze, and then rail against people who actually want to try to make the situation better? It's absurd. The church had their chance, and people are still dying and going bankrupt over things that cost most of us a $20 copay and two days of bed rest to recover from.

My suggestion to both of these groups is simple: Get off your high horse, recognize that the system is inansely broken, and rather than making outlandish threats about not re-electing people who vote for the healthcare bill, give your representatives constructive feedback on how we can fix things. Because yes, you do have a right to your money. But the bottom line is that people are dying, and people are going bankrupt when they don't need to. And if you think your rights to your money or your job as chief charity-giver are more important than that simple fact, you've seriously lost perspective.

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If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, does it make a sound? If I go for a run and don't track it with RunKeeper, did it actually happen? If I go to a restaurant and don't check-in on Foursquare, did I actually enjoy the meal?  It seems like there is some sort of social media app for everything these days; When I'm out with friends I'm always thinking, to a degree, about what I can say about it on Twitter or Facebook. After every run, one of the first things I do is log on to my RunKeeper account to see how this latest workout has affected my overall stats... especially in relation to my running nemesis Jay.

I'm sure a lot of people view this as extremely unhealthy behavior -- that we find it necessary to maintain a digital log of all our activities -- and I'm finding myself more and more of two minds on the subject. I can understand the argument that this is a negative behavior. I know it causes January no small degree of frustration that the first thing I do on entering a restaurant is bury my nose in my iPhone to check in on Foursquare, and I have to agree with her. While I do try to find an appropriate time to do it -- maybe while she's looking over the menu, or we're waiting in line to order -- invariably I get at least a dirty look in the process. And I get it. It's just a silly game, and there's no real-world benefit to checking in unless the resaurant you're at happens to offer discounts for doing so.

On the other hand, though, the social aspect these services do motivate me to do things I would be otherwise too ambivilent -- or just plain lazy -- to do otherwise. Since I began using Foursquare, I've been much more agreeable about trying out new restaurants than I used to, partially because I can see whether my friends have been there, and partially because you get more "points" for checking in to places you have never been before. While this might sound like a silly reason to go to a new restaurant, you can't really argue with the end result: I'm getting out of the house, I'm checking out new places, and I'm supporting local businesses more than I used to.

While you might not agree with my logic as far as Foursquare goes, it's hard to disagree with how the logic translates to my experience with running. Prior to August of last year, I hadn't run more than 30 seconds at a time since high school. When my friend Jay introduced me to the RunKeeper iPhone app and accompanying web site, I started to get excited about running. I worked my way through the Couch to 5k program and eventually ran my first ever 5k, 8k, and then 10k. To be honest, 80% of the time when I went running for that first two months, my only motivation was the fact that I knew that I had to keep my RunKeeper profile up to date. If RunKeeper didn't exist, I can guarantee you that I wouldn't be running today with plans to run my first half marathon in the fall.

Similarly, we recent purchased a fancy new internet connected digital scale from Withings. Like most higher end scales, this one can recognize who you are and measure your weight, body fat, and BMI, but it also transmits this information to their servers where you can keep track of this information over time. The data even integrates with the RunKeeper site so you can keep track of your weight as compared to your running progress. If making this information public will help motivate me to eat a little healthier, skip that second cupcake, or further help me maintain a regular running schedule, I don't think that's an unhealthy use of technology of social media. So, for the record, here's my live report for tracking my weight, direct from the scale in my bedroom.

So is all this real world / virtual world social media integration a bad thing? I don't think it has to be. If it motivates you to try new things, socialize with new people, and get healthier I think it can be a great thing. As always, the key is moderation.

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Growing up, I didn't really listen to very good music. In my younger years is was mostly contemporary Christian music mixed in with whatever they were playing on Sunny 95. As I made my way into high school, I mixed in a little Pearl Jam and They Might Be Giants, but my listening habits still largely consisted of crap. Even throughout college, where my favorites consisted of Live and Red Hot Chili Peppers, my taste in music wasn't really where it is today.

It really wasn't until I got my first job out of college that I started listening to indie rock. So while I call this compilation my "best of the decade" mix, it's really the best of indie rock that has been the soundtrack of my past ten years. I'm not claiming these are the best songs written in the past ten years, only that they carry the strongest memories for me in my post-college life. And in true "High Fidelity" style, I present them to you in autobiographical order.

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After 2,258 miles of varying degrees of weather, all of which worse than where the journey began, we find ourselves back in our cozy home in Clintonville. While we do miss the warm California climate, it's definitely nice to be back. As a quick recap, here are a few things we learned along the way.

• In California, it's quite common to actually see the sun. Every day.
• Bad driving habits in California actually transcend the automobile. Even when walking nobody pays attention to anyone else, and if you aren't an aggressive walker you'll never get out of Whole Foods in less than 2 hours.
• Some of the best tasting food can be bought from a truck.
• Running is so much more fun when there's pretty stuff to look at.
• Churros aren't nearly as good as you remember them.
• The 405 really is as bad as you've heard.
• Satellite TV is the worst idea ever. Ever. I'm looking at you, DirecTV. Horrible.

While we learned a lot about California, we also forgot a lot about Ohio.  It's all come rushing back to us in the past 12 hours:

• In February, socks are never optional. Even for those "quick trips" out to the car.
• Ohio drivers are actually quite impressive.
• In Ohio, it's actually possible for two people to eat out for less than $40.
• We have so many awesome friends in Columbus.

Thanks to everyone for all the concern over our travels through this last blizzard. We can't wait to see you all again once this snow melts and we're able to get out of our house.

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