Commentary Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

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...

The ‘Curious Guy’ and the ‘Offended Woman’

By Dorothy Ainsworth February, 2004 The March/April issue of BHM magazine came out with me on the cover and my house-building story inside. I was happy to have the opportunity to share my story and hopefully...

My View: Jury duty: The charge was rape

Dave Duffy I was on jury duty for 2½ weeks between issues. On trial was a 21-year-old man (now 23) accused of raping a 20-year-old girl during an encounter two years previous in which both...

Do rural homeowners need guns for self-defense?

By Massad Ayoob Issue #72 • November/December, 2001 Do rural homeowners need guns for self-defense? Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't, according to Ayoob's experience, but those who did never really knew they would until...

The Government intimidation factor and its effect on the health of society

By Dave Duffy Issue #142 • July/August, 2013 How do you take the temperature of a society, that is, how do you tell if a society is healthy or sick? Several years after the Soviet Union dissolved...

Putting it all on the Amtrak line for Self-Reliance magazine

By Dave Duffy Issue #163 • January/February, 2017 As publisher of Backwoods Home Magazine for 28 years, I have not had to work as hard in recent years, as younger people like Managing Editor Jessie Denning...

The media’s treatment of blacks makes their socialist bias obvious

By Dave Duffy January 23, 2000 Most of us who are concerned about the continuation of America's constitutional freedoms, which underlie a free enterprise system that has made us the most prosperous nation in history, realize...

Getting the state out of marriage

By John Silveira Issue #127 • January/February, 2011 There's a new TV "reality" show on TLC called Sister Wives. It's about a polygamous family: Kody Brown, his 3 wives, their 13 children, and a soon-to-be (maybe...

Homemade bread: a metaphor for life

By Claire Wolfe Issue #113 • September/October, 2008 My parents never actually bought Wonder Bread; I got my fix only at friends' houses. The breads that entered our little three-bedroom,...

Dark Winter — A simulated terrorist attack on three American cities using weaponized smallpox

By Dave Duffy Issue #81 • May/June, 2003 Historically, smallpox has been the most deadly of all diseases for humans, killing between 300 and 500 million in the last century alone, far more than the 111...

Reflections on the Second Amendment

By Massad Ayoob Issue #77 • September/October, 2002 A reader named Molly e-mailed a note to the office of BHM asking what the editor thought of Attorney General Ashcroft's recent affirmation of the Second Amendment as...

Real-life heroes

By John Silveira January 15, 2000 TV programs and movies are often about heroes. Here's the thinnest of plots: someone's in trouble and a John Wayne-type character shows up to rescue him--or her. In the meantime...

Self-reliance equals freedom

By Dave Duffy Issue #107 • September/October, 2007 There seems always to be an underlying debate among self-reliant types who make up a majority of the readership of this magazine as to whether or not the...

The destruction of the mass print media will help save freedom in America

By Dave Duffy Issue #119 • September/October, 2009 I tend to be an optimist, even though the state of America's economy and politics does not appear very promising right now. So I want to talk about...

Man vs. the machine

By John Silveira Issue #71 • September/October, 2001 About 10 years ago, I was living in southern California and I was summoned for jury duty. I was glad to be called. I've always liked the concept...

Magnesium and the International Criminal Court

By John Silveira Issue #125 • September/October, 2010 There was an interesting ad that ran in BHM for two issues, but it was pulled for lack of response. It was about magnesium, the lack of it...