About Me

My name is John and I am originally from Cleveland, Ohio.

Currently, I live in the southern United States with my wife Amber Gaughan and my son Jack Gaughan. You can see our wedding photos here.

I think our personal freedoms are very important. For this reason I am a Libertarian. Although I do not agree with them completely, they do capture the essence of my political beliefs. Freedom of speech is an important freedom that I hold dear. This web site is a great example. If certain people had their ways, I would not be allowed to say certain things on this web site. I pay for this web site (no paid advertisements) and my domain name (johngaughan.net). Who has the right to tell me what I can and cannot say or do? It sure as Hell is not the government's right. It is their job to ensure my rights and freedoms are protected from others who wish to take them away. I do not use libelous attacks to infringe on others' rights, I do not post illegal material such as copyrighted or patented works, so if you don't like it, piss off.

Censorship sucks. We do not need the government, led by a political party that will remain nameless, to tell us what is and what is not appropriate. I am an adult. If you try to tell me what I am and am not allowed to see, I will ignore you. I can make decisions about my own life. I do not need you to hold my hand and protect me from the bad things in this world. I support the efforts of the Eletronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit group that protects our freedoms and rights on-line.

Another group I support is the Free Software Foundation. I support open source and free software, as is shown by the fact that I write such software and distribute it on this web site. Some people believe all software should be free and the source code publicly available; I do not. Not all software should be free, but I do support those people who make the choice to write this type of software. This is one of the ways I learned not only how to program, but how to develop software and organize a large project to make it better organized and managable. If this concept is new to you, I recommend you check out their web site.