You’re right, Terminus. A weblog is a great step forward for this magazine. Is blog to weblog like Frisco is to San Francisco? I remember once while visiting someone on my first trip to San Francisco that I referred to the city as Frisco. I got a cold stare and was sternly corrected. A Similar thing happened when I got to Oregon. I pronounced the state name as OR-UH-GONE, with the accent on both first and last syllables. My neighbor told me that if I was going to live here I might as well learn to pronounce the name of the state. It is OR-UH-GIN, with the accent only on the first syllable.

We don’t really avoid politics in the magazine. Almost all my “My View” columns are about the abuses of Big Government, as are many of John Silveira’s “Last Word” columns. We are committed small government Libertarians, and no doubt this weblog will hit on politics. But talking a lot about behind-the-scenes publishing contributes to the freedom discussion. I think the internet is already the greatest freedom tool of all time, and learning how to publish freedom ideas correctly, so they have impact and wide appeal, will help the cause of freedom.

After all, when you think about it, Backwoods Home Magazine is really a magazine about freedom first, with all the how-to articles necessary adjuncts for the individual to achieve maximum freedom. There is more than one way to achieve freedom and roll back the abuses of Government. Publishing BHM, with its mix of commentary and how-to ideas, is a very effective, very subtle way to champion the cause of freedom. Look at the wide audience we reach. People don’t have to read an editorial about freedom to get a lesson in freedom. An article about installing a photovoltaic energy system or building your own home can teach that same lesson in a less direct way. The inculcation of self-reliance topics is an effective way to teach freedom and individualism over the long term. I think more people should do what I do: couch freedom ideas into a very digestible format. The direct approach is too hard to take for a lot of people; they are too busy with their lives to listen to a sermon. So I give them something to do while I discuss freedom over their shoulder.

I’m on the road, and just spent the night with my family at a motel in Troutdale, Oregon, which is east of Portland. We’ve got 2,000 miles more to go to get to the Energy Fair in Custer, Wisconsin June 13. The Fair, the largest energy event in the country, runs June 13-15. I have a feeling I’ll be posting on this weblog more often than Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the time being.

– Dave