Tired of big government? Constant regulation? Taxes and irresponsible spending? War? It’s time to go beyond the current two-party system. By their actions, not necessarily words, both parties support war, government surveillance and reckless spending.

The Republicans argue that a vote for Bob Barr is “stealing” votes from John McCain and are quite concerned that disgruntled conservatives who do not vote for McCain will be giving Obama the election. The Democrats worry that a vote for Ralph Nader is “stealing” votes from Barack Obama. Since when is voting for the platform that you believe in “stealing”? Neither candidate in the two-party system is automatically “entitled” to your vote just because you may have liberal tendencies or conservative tendencies.

The only way we will actually see change is by voting our conscience and by participating in the political process. Politicians on state and federal levels need to be held accountable for their votes and actions. No politician is “entitled” to a vote unless he or she earns it.

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One of my favorite Internet “gurus” is a guy named James Brausch. Critics say he’s brash and rude. Maybe so, but he does share some great tips on building an Internet business and marketing products online. I’ve purchased some of his software — some of it works; some of it hasn’t been all that great for me. But I do find what he has to say quite inspirational and thought provoking, particularly with respect to personal freedom.

With Independence Day just around the corner, freedom is something well worth thinking about. Are we enslaved to our “J.O.B.” (Just Over Broke, as Brausch describes it)? Enslaved to the television? Enslaved to politics? Enslaved to drugs, or perhaps limited beliefs?

Brausch’s book, “The Voice Said ‘Obey,’” is a great read for people interested in personal freedom.

It’s a fascinating account of his journey from methamphetamine addiction to freedom. Recovering from a drug induced blackout, Brausch heard a “voice” that inspired him to ultimately create an online fortune and discover freedom from his addiction-induced street life. The book offers an insider’s view on life in shelters, on what it’s actually like to be a meth addict, on using free Internet access in libraries to create income, on all forms of addiction — from drugs to codependence. While some readers may have a problem with the concept of a spiritual “voice” or with Brausch’s eventual conversion to Mormonism, the book is packed full of gems.

The casual reader may not catch the tips that Brausch subtly offers in his book about Internet marketing or product development. But they are there. Just read it a second time and you’ll find practical advice that anyone can follow. The narrative also shows that anything is possible by ‘thinking outside of the box.’ Many of us who are struggling to create an online income do so from the comfort of our homes, with a full refrigerator just around the corner, a comfortable bed that we know we can retire to, doors that we can lock so we can protect our space, and a personal computer that we can use whenever we want. James did not have these perks when he developed his online business and was forced to be creative in creating his enterprise that yielded financial gains within days.

Agree or disagree with Brausch’s spiritual points of view, “The Voice Said ‘Obey’” is still an inspiration and a practical guide to attaining freedom.

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For years now, I’ve helped small business and family computer users with simple things to make their computers work better. This column shares some of the common issues asked by non-techie people, particularly in terms of sluggish computers.

Do Your Programs Take Forever to Load?

Maybe it’ll date me, but I can remember helping folks who had DOS operating systems. When Windows came out, that was huge for many of us.

There’s something that can speed up your computer — and it’s been effective all the way back to those old Windows 3.0 operating systems. It’s called “defragging.” Don’t get scared by the technical terms … read on! I’ll explain in non-technical terms.

What is Disk Defragmentation?

Your computer stores information and programs on something called the hard disk. It usually looks like drive “C” on your personal computer. Let’s say that you’ve installed a software program. Your computer automatically stores the data that is used to make your software program work in the first available space, the next available space and so forth.

To keep it simple, imagine for a moment that you’re planning a dinner that you’ll be hosting on Sunday. It’s Friday and you’ve just finished grocery shopping for the event. When you’re putting the groceries away, you discover that the kitchen pantry is pretty full and it will take some effort to reorganize the pantry to get everything to fit.

You don’t have the spare time to reorganize the pantry, so you put the cans of green beans in the master bedroom upstairs. The bread is placed in a second bedroom. The roaster you bought for the turkey goes into your exercise room. The spices you’ll be using go in the garage. And you put the stuffing in the kids’ playroom.

On Sunday, when it’s time to cook, you find yourself running all over the place to find your groceries. You have to run upstairs, then into the exercise room, race to the garage, dig around through the playroom.

Although all your ingredients are available, it is not efficient to have to run all over the house to find them. Basically, this is what happens when your hard drive gets “defragmented.” Data is broken up into fragments and stored in various “available spaces” on your computer. Your programs work, but they may be slow.

How to “Defrag” Your Hard Drive

To put all the pieces — or ingredients, so to speak — in one place so that your programs run more efficiently, a simple thing to do is to defrag your computer. On a Microsoft operating system, Microsoft has a “system tool” that will help you do that.

Some “Defrag” Tips

If you have a lot of data stored on your computer, the “defrag” process may take several hours. You might want to start the “defrag” process described above at night, before you go to bed and when no one will be using the computer. Keep your computer on all night and let the defrag magic do its thing.

Although many of today’s hard drives are more efficient than older models, it’s still a good idea to “defrag” at least once a month in order to keep your computer operating efficiently. For heavier computer users, defrag once a week.

The “defrag” process is free. You don’t need to buy any software. However, if the above steps seem too challenging, there is software that can help you out. A free software download for defragging your computer is called “Auslogics Disk Defrag.” It’s highly recommended by industry professionals and it’s free. You can read about it and download it from CNET.

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With the popularity of talk radio and television opinion shows, politics are polarized. The opinion makers would have us believe that you’re either a tax and spend liberal (Democrat) or control freak, right wing conservative (Republican). If you’re somewhere in the middle, some talk show hosts would have you believe that there’s something weak about you; that you are unable to make decisions and are a fence sitter. This all started happening long before the war and is getting worse.

I used to be a Republican. My very first political experience was working in Dallas on Ronald Reagan’s reelection campaign. These times were exciting and empowering for me. We believed in a more responsible form of government where we were going to cut taxes, reduce the size of government, support business … but I was quickly disillusioned when the party embraced big religion for its own purposes.

The “right wing” devolved over the years with the popularity of venomous opinions espoused by people like Ann Coulter. With a weird “Christian” perspective, the right wing uses its version of morality to justify its positions. The day I stopped listening to talk radio was when I heard Michael Reagan screech that we should just “nuke ‘em” when talking about Iraq. Any reasonable person knows how horrible nuclear warfare will be. Millions of innocents would die; the environment would become toxic; millions would suffer the after effects. This is a man who frequently talks about dropping down to his knees and praying. How can killing untold hundreds of thousands of people and other lifeforms and creating severe environmental illness be “Christian?”

On the flip side, the “liberals” would have these very talk shows regulated under the “Fairness Doctrine” whereby radio stations would be forced to balance their programs with both right wing and liberal talk show hosts. This hardly seems like freedom of speech. Radio stations should be allowed to choose their own programming, based on the advertising revenues they generate. The “tax and spend” liberals advocate increasing taxes on the rich in some sort of Robin Hood style of distributing wealth in ways that they feel are morally justified. My take on liberalism is that everything should be “fair” for everyone. Government has a responsibility to make everything “fair.”

Both extremes apparently think it’s perfectly all right for the government to spy on American citizens in the name of security. See the FISA voting record.

I think most of us are somewhere in the middle. There are aspects of both parties that have some appeal and some things that are repulsive. Because of this, we’re left with the choice to ‘vote for the lesser of two evils.’

When it comes down to this year’s vote, are you going to be a tax and spend liberal? A crazy right winger? Probably neither. The good news is that you don’t have to vote for the “lesser of two evils” once you know where you’re politically aligned.

The World’s Smallest Political Test is a great way to see where you stand. Chances are, you maybe shocked by the results! Check it out — it only takes a minute or two. The quiz may be small, but it’s regarded as highly accurate:

The World’s Smallest Political Test

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It’s ten in the morning. You’ve returned all telephone calls, balanced your accounts, handled the yeomanly things that need to be done for your business, and look forward to working undisturbed on a huge research project. After all, that’s part of your time management strategy.

By 11, your desk is full of files, working drafts, research books, printouts from the Internet and you feel like you’re well on your way to completing a big project due next week …

… and then at 11:15, you get a frantic text message. Your #1 client lost some paperwork you sent a month or two ago and desperately needs it now. So, you pull out his file, dig around through it and spread papers all over the top of what you were working on before until you find the missing document, fax it out …

… and an email comes in. The deadline for client #3’s project just got moved up, so instead of two weeks to prepare, you only have four days. You yank out another file, pull out some preliminary spreadsheets and …

… on and on and on. By 7 at night, your desk is a hodgepodge of papers, files, books, spilled coffee and a few Post-Its filled with hastily written notes because you couldn’t find your notepad. Exhausted and frustrated, you go home to work on something else and get away from the mess.

Does this sound familiar? The specifics of what you do may be different, but for many of us small business owners — especially those of us who deal with large amounts of paperwork — time management turns into crisis management and our desks look like war zones.

Returning to a messy desk the next day scatters any semblance of focus. Actually, the unorganized mess tends to pile up even worse because of priorities that need to be handled throughout the day. Time is wasted putting files back in order. Papers get misplaced. Chances are, more gets piled on top of yesterday’s mess.

I’ve personally dealt with files consisting of over 100,000 documents and believe me, the condition of my desk is often an absolute nightmare. I know people who deal with even more paperwork than I do and one, who doesn’t get stressed out, shared a secret with me. “No matter how tired you are, clean your desk every day before you leave,” he said. “Even if you have to stack stuff on the floor or hide it in the closet, make sure your desk is clean.”

I started to doing this; in fact, having been doing so for a couple years now. The difference in clarity and focus is incredible. Granted, with a lot of paperwork, I might have stacks along the floor and credenza, but if my desk is clean, it seems easier to deal with. I’ve made it a practice to file any “old” paperwork right away and only keep the current work in my workspace. Even if it’s placing documents in folders in a cardboard box at the end of the day, it creates a sense of order and control that makes life a lot easier. I spend an hour or two on Saturdays cleaning up files and creating a checklist of what can be closed, what needs to be handled, and so forth.

“Clean thy desk” seems to be an essential stress management rule, at least for me. If you deal with a lot of paper and constant interruptions, try the desk cleanup technique. Ultimately, it’s a lot easier than going home exhausted and returning the next day to a stressful mess.

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Why is that people seem to think that government holds the answers to everything? Rasmussen Reports recently published a poll that I thought was quite disturbing. A surprising number of Americans think that government should regulate the Internet:

Nearly half of Americans (49%) believe that the federal government should regulate the Internet the same way it does radio and television, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national survey. (See the article)

Apparently, the survey was conducted after Lori Drew, whose daughter had a “falling out” with a 13-year-old neighbor girl named Megan Meir, set up a fictitious account on MySpace. Drew made up a profile of a 16-year-old boy on the popular social networking site allegedly to harass young Megan. Eventually, this made-up boy viciously rejected Megan, who then committed suicide.

If the alleged crimes are true, there’s something quite twisted about a parent using MySpace to harass a teenager. Drew has pleaded not guilty to various charges made by federal prosecutors. I certainly don’t know all of the facts of the case, but I couldn’t help but wonder where Megan’s parents were in this situation. Couldn’t they see the signs of depression that eventually led to suicide?

Social networking online is big these days … very big. Services such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and so forth have millions of users. These services appeal to young people and savvy Internet marketers. If government steps in and starts regulating them, what will happen? And how will this regulation take place?

Perhaps taxpayer funded committees will come up with some solutions, such as:

• Social networking sites would be required to obtain and verify a person’s identity before an account can be created. Existing accounts will be deleted if compliance with regulations is not done within “x” amount of days or weeks.
• An Internet police force will monitor all web posts.
• People will need to be licensed in order to publish blogs, social networking profiles or web sites.

The “licensing” requirement is something that’s already being discussed. (Are You Too Stupid to Surf? – Wired/AP) Proponents say that if people need to have a license to drive a car, then they should also pass a basic test to have a license to surf the Net. This “license” would cover basic stuff, like using an anti-virus program.

If the government regulates the Internet, then I suppose all websites and online publications of any kind will fall under regulatory scrutiny. We’re dealing with the worldwide web, so presumably, those folks who want government regulation of the Internet envision some sort of global governmental regulation, perhaps from the United Nations.

And it’s a huge project.

It’s speculated that nine new blogs are created every minute and there are 2.3 content updates every second (Caslon Analytics has some great stats). NetCraft reports that as of June 2008, there are over 170 million web sites. And the amount of social networking accounts and sites? I don’t have a clue, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are over 200 million of them. It is hard to imagine all of this being regulated and monitored. That’s insanity.

No matter which way you slice it, regulating the Internet will be expensive and a logistic nightmare. There’ll probably be some kind of a tax to fund all that regulation. And web-based businesses and networking services that are currently free to use might have to charge membership fees to cover all the potential liability and increased regulation.

In the meantime, why can’t parents monitor what their kids are doing on the Internet? Or talk to their teens, especially if they seem depressed or despondent? This seems like the cleanest, cheapest, fastest way to prevent tragedies such as Megan’s suicide. If parents cannot control their kids’ activities online, then they shouldn’t be giving their kids computers and Internet access in the first place.

It all boils down to responsibility. Rather than viewing government as the cure all, we need to empower ourselves by taking responsibility for ourselves and our children. It’s not right to refuse to take personal responsibility and as a result, force the rest of the community to be regulated and monitored.  If we expect government to be responsible for our lives, then we lose all freedom.

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