Following is an email from LD Shannon of Peyton, Colorado. I think it’s a glimpse into a world into which America is now going — a world in which Big Government bureaucrats control everything. I’m glad BHM was helpful in this case.

We are recent subscribers & now ardent fans!  The advice in Backwoods has, literally, saved our lives as we had a major shock hit us this week.

We received a letter from the State of Absurdity (names changed to protect the guilty) that they had placed liens on all of our accounts because we had not paid enough in taxes to the tune of $81,000.  Problem is - we have not lived in that state for four years and their information was flat dead wrong!

Correcting faulty information would be simple enough …  if a ‘police’ state followed due process and had actually NOTIFIED us prior to these illegal seizures.  We had NEVER heard a peep from these bureaucrats before in our lives!

I am a disabled vet and have days where I can barely get out of bed.  We have four children, one  a son with down syndrome who requires plenty of extra care, ie, we have enough on our plate without this brand of bs dropping out of the sky!

Now comes the good part.

After our initial shock, after our calling these nut-cases in the state of absurdity with no success at all in explaining their irrationality, well … after all that my wife and myself looked at each other and began to laugh!

That is because we have built a heck of a pantry to feed our family.  We have chickens laying near a dozen eggs a day.  I am pretty handy with a rifle and have put down a deer and in the next few weeks expect to harvest a buffalo and two elk.  We have gallons of homemade wine.  And finally, and most importantly, we have cash.  Not in the bank … cash in hand!

We’ll straighten out the nut-cases.  And yes, we’ll probably have to pay some lawyer to prove our innocence and never get an apology or that fee refunded when we prove them wrong.

But because we have read and followed the great advice from all of you at BHM we have the best sleep-at-night insurance one can buy - self reliance!

This illegal seizure of property is a sign of the times, Dave.  The Federal government created this mess and is now taxing the bejesus out of us all to try and bail out a sinking ship.  State Governments are feeling the trickle down choke and are deciding to take it out on the citizenry.  And this is just the beginning of this g## damn mess.

Thank you for showing the way, Dave … thank you and all your writers and staff for helping all of us build our ‘ark’ so we can survive and thrive these coming bad times.

God bless you and all the staff of BHM, Dave.

LD Shannon
Peyton, CO

Without firing a shot, the socialists took over America today when Congress passed the $850 billion bailout package. Most Americans slept through it all and probably won’t realize what happened for years.

Backwoods Home Magazine will, ironically, benefit because Americans are going to have to be more self-reliant than ever. The magazine has just become the best buy in town when it comes to Americans spending their soon-to-be scarce dollars. I didn’t want to get rich this way, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. The all powerful Government will soon tax most of it away anyway and we’ll all be working for pennies.

But what the heck! Wall Street and the banks will be making money, right. At least for six months to a few years. With the Government’s new powers to control what we used to call capitalism, the politicians can float their friends on Wall Street for quite a while. The rest of us, unfortunately, will have to be hunkered down with back issues of BHM trying to figure out how to be more frugal with what money is left over for us.

It’s been fun being a free capitalist all these years. Too bad it had to all end today. Click here to subscribe to BHM so you can prepare for a grimmer future.

Here’s how members of the House of Representatives voted today to pass this nation-changing legislation.

Well, the Senate passed the bailout, now estimated to be as much as $850 billion with all the pork added on. The House is expected to vote on it Thursday night or Friday morning. The socialists among us must be licking their chops. Their moment of taking over America is about to arrive, they must think. Maybe it will when the House votes.

Here’s another guy, Dave Ramsey, who has his head screwed on pretty straight when it comes to this bailout. He doesn’t subscribe to Ron Paul’s fix, namely, let the market go through a correction, but he agrees the bailout currently under consideration in Congress is a very bad idea.