Commentary Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

Exercising with gadgets

By Dave Duffy Issue #75 • May/June, 2002 We've all seen those TV commercials featuring all sorts of exercise gadgets that will get you that buff body or that rib-like belly with minimum effort. There are...

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...

“Gun control” for dummies

By Massad Ayoob Issue #141 • May/June, 2013 Barack Obama, outspokenly anti-gun for his entire political career, fooled an amazing number of gun owners by keeping a "hands off" attitude toward Second Amendment issues until his...

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...

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...

Defending against terroristic mass murder

By Massad Ayoob Issue #160 • July/August, 2016 My friend Rich Grassi is a retired cop, a masterful instructor, and one of the best writers in the tactical field today. He recently wrote that it would...

The unheralded roots of America’s freedoms

By John Silveira Issue #108 • November/December, 2007 I've just finished reading a fascinating book by Charles C. Mann. It's titled, 1491, and subtitled New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. The book has turned what...

Lessons for My Children Chapter 1

By Dave Duffy Issue #136 • July/August, 2012 I've been working for several years on a small book for my kids called Lessons for My Children that will attempt to give them advice about how to...

My view: Socialism’s promises always end in disaster

By Dave Duffy Issue #176 • April/May/June, 2019 There are lots of news stories these days about socialism’s rise in the United States, especially among the young and admirers of newly elected New York Congresswoman Alexandria...

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...

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...

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...

Common sense about burglary prevention

By Massad Ayoob Issue #89 • September/October, 2004 Read this month's editorial. Publisher Dave Duffy got burgled. The residue of hurt this experience leaves behind is a primal thing that you never get over entirely. It...

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,...

A government with not enough to do, but lots of hungry mouths to feed

By Dave Duffy Issue #130 • July/August, 2011 Most people look in the wrong places for threats to society, and their perceptions are easily manipulated by the mass media, which is often spoon-fed its stories by...