Against a rapist
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #65 • September/October, 2000
Can you use lethal force in self-defense against a rapist? The answer, of course, is yes. Deadly force is permissible only in a situation of "immediate, otherwise unavoidable...
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...
Which wars work best? The ones we fight or the ones we avoid?
By Dave Duffy
Issue #102 • November/December, 2006
History is supposed to teach us the lessons of wars past so we won't blunder into stupid wars in the present. Since I have mixed feelings about our...
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...
Tackling the real problems that face us
By Dave Duffy
Issue #134 • March/April, 2012
Thank goodness most of the apocalyptic scenarios the doom and gloomers talk about are either founded upon faulty premises or, if based on science, are extremely rare occurrences....
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...
Beautiful Women
By John Silveira
August 10, 2001
Who are the 50 most beautiful women in the world? Askmen.com recently came up with a readers' list.
At the bottom and rounding out the list is Sandra Bullock (50th). They...
Analyzing Obama on guns
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #158 • March/April, 2016
In early January, 2016, after announcing his "executive actions on guns" and talking on CNN's "Town Hall Meeting," President Barack Obama admitted that when he and his wife...
Reflecting on a life in the woods, and looking ahead
By Marjorie Burris
Issue #60 • November/December, 1999
It is a good life here on the old homestead. We've worked hard, and we are enjoying the fruits of our labor. It was tough digging the holes...
Armed civilians can help fight terrorism
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #90 • November/December, 2004
This article was written before terrorists seized a school in Beslan, a town in North Ossetia, one of the small republics that make up the modern Russian Federation....
The real gun criminals
By Dave Duffy
Issue #63 • May/June, 2000
If a person robbed a bank and murdered someone, and you drove the getaway car, would you be guilty of accessory to robbery and murder? If a man...
What is reality?
By John Silveira
April 7, 2006
I don't read much. So, I missed James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, though it made best sellers lists from the New York Times to amazon.com. If the truth be...
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 not risk it all!
By Dave Duffy
Issue #64 • July/August, 2000
I got this letter from a reader:
Please cancel my subscription. I had the opportunity to read your editorial glorifying your agenda as a "paranoid, gun-toting nut." This is...
An American dollar worth two cents
By John Silveira
Issue #129 • May/June, 2011
Most Americans are unaware that today's dollar has the purchasing power that roughly four cents had back in 1913. That was the year the Federal Reserve (the Fed)...
Body language and threat recognition
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #87 • May/June, 2004
Reader mail indicates that while some Backwoods Home readers turn to this column for advice on putting wild game on the table or keeping four-footed poachers out of...
