Commentary Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

How environmental ideology hurts the solar energy industry

By Dave Duffy Issue #69 • May/June, 2001 Starting with our first issue 11 years ago, Backwoods Home Magazine has promoted renewable energies, especially solar energy, and for the past two years we have carried a...

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...

My View: Gaining an appreciation for risk

By Dave Duffy January/February/March, 2019 Now and then you have to make a daring move in your life, or you’ll run the risk of losing your dreams. Some people do that by changing their job to...

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...

Turn the poor into capitalists

By John Silveira Issue #137 • September/October, 2012 I'm not a fan of the welfare system and I think it's been more of a failure than a success. It may serve as a 'safety net' for...

Getting rich through generosity

By John Silveira Issue #89 • September/October, 2004 The conventional wisdom is that to get filthy rich, you need to be greedy. So, it may come as counterintuitive that it's generosity, intentional or accidental, and not...

My View: Grand Theory vs. Stark Reality

Dave Duffy While visiting Boston between issues, my wife, Lenie, got into a conversation about preparedness. It was a brief, but telling, discussion because our host, like many people who live in cities, had not...

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...

Lessons for My Children…Chapter 3: Hiding from the government

By Dave Duffy Issue #138 • November/December, 2012 After opening the discussion in this column last issue about the underground economy, I thought it would be a good idea to explore it more thoroughly since it...

Fixing a broken jury system

By John Silveira “I blame every juror who let him go, every juror who sat on that trial and believed this man over those little girls. I will never understand. And that is why he...

Our energy crisis Part 3 — Alternative energy resources for the nation and for...

By John Silveira Issue #118 • July/August, 2009 The first installment of this energy series (Backwoods Home Magazine, September/October 2008) dealt with the fossil fuels which include petroleum, coal, and natural gas. The second installment (Backwoods...