Commentary Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

Should both drugs and guns be legal?

By Dave Duffy Issue #59 • September/October, 1999 Answering the question of Should drugs be legal? is like answering the question of Should guns be legal? Whoever answers either question steps onto a minefield of passionate...

What kind of Americans sit on our juries?

By John Silveira March 16, 2000 Our jury system is supposed to be a buffer between us--the citizens--and the government. It is there to prevent the abuse of power that governments have exercised since the dawn...

Running your own business: a mother’s perspective

By Ilene Duffy Issue #62 • March/April, 2000 When my middle son, Robby, was a baby, he had two seizures. After the second one the doctor informed me that I needed to get him to the...

The world’s least-free country

By John Silveira Issue #77 • September/October, 2002 Here's a quiz: Which is the freest country on earth? The answer's easy. It's the United States. Ask anyone. And why are we the freest? Not because we're...

The rationale of the automatic rifle

By Massad Ayoob Issue #70 • July/August, 2001 There are those who would ban private citizens' ownership of semiautomatic rifles. After 27 years of carrying a badge, the author profoundly disagrees. If there is any place you...

Is the Mainstream Media Finally Recognizing How the War on Drugs is Destroying Our...

By John Silveira December 17, 1999 The December 1999 issue of Harper's Magazine has a headline the likes of which I'd given up ever seeing on the cover of a mainstream magazine. The newsstand jacket...

Gun control, race, and rotten politicians

By John Silveira Issue #83 • September/October, 2003 Is gun control really about guns? Sounds like an odd question on the surface, but it's really right on target. In fact, the answer is: No, gun control...

Dr. Laura tells her listeners she’s decided to pack a gun

By Dave Duffy February 12, 2000 The showdown between the Federal government and the American people over gun rights may have tilted in favor of the people recently when the nation's third most popular radio talk...

Our energy crisis Part 2 — Nuclear energy is sensible and safe

By John Silveira Issue #114 • November/December, 2008 When an atomic bomb was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945, the amount of energy...

Terrorism in America — The armed citizen’s view

By Massad Ayoob Issue #150 • November/December, 2014 The warnings come in non-stop... FoxNews: "A new English-language Al Qaeda magazine features a how-to article on making car bombs and suggests terror targets in the United States, including...

The parasitic nature of bureaucracy

By Dave Duffy Issue #106 • July/August, 2007 As we go to print with this issue, my local newspaper's main page one headline reads: County tax levy soundly defeated. I applauded at my desk to the...

Why bureaucracy will likely destroy America

By John Silveira Issue #50 • March/April, 1998 "Civilizations rise and fall," Dave said and I turned around to see if he was talking to me, but he was still staring at his monitor. I looked...

Fake lawsuits, stacked juries, and LAWYERS!

By John Silveira Issue #89 • September/October, 2004 Mac, that's O.E. MacDougal, our poker playing friend from Southern California, is back. He blew into town yesterday with the good weather and brought his fishing rods, his...

Looking back on 20 years of BHM

By Dave Duffy Issue #120 • November/December, 2009 I was freezing when I slipped into my old down-filled Army sleeping bag. But I was used to the drill. I'd just lay there motionless as a mummy...

ID cards are an idea whose time should never come

By John Silveira October 28, 2001 I just read in the October 8th issue of U.S. News and World Report a column by Randall E. Stross in which he advocates some kind of national I.D. Card....

Justice Breyer is wrong about the 2nd Amendment

By John Silveira Issue #128 • March/April, 2011 December 12, 2010, on Fox News Sunday, Justice Stephen Breyer said the Founding Fathers never intended for guns to go unregulated. His reasoning was that James Madison, often...