I stink! but that’s okay

By Dave Duffy Issue #83 • September/October, 2003 There are valuable life lessons to be learned from realizing you're not very good at a lot of things, even at things you think are important to be...

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...

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...

Activists on both the left and the right spotlight a broken federal government

By Claire Wolfe Issue #97 • January/February, 2006 On October 28, 2005, 400 citizens of Vermont met amid the pomp of their capitol building and voted to secede from the Union. The media, to say the...

Want proof of luck, ESP, and psychic powers?

By John Silveira Issue #40 • July/August, 1996 We were riding down the Pacific Coast Highway— Mac, his girlfriend Carol, and I. Mac's the poker playing friend of Dave Duffy, the fellow who publishes this magazine....

My View: Three Cheers for Free Enterprise

By Dave Duffy I love free enterprise. I see it all the time in our many trips across the country to show Backwoods Home Magazine at the fairs and expos we attend. Perhaps the most...

Is it time for an education revolution?

By Dave Duffy Issue #77 • September/October, 2002 Education is important, right? Of course it is. Then college must be really important, right? ... Did I hear some of you pause before saying, "Well, yeah, I...

Let’s stop apologizing for guns

By Dave Duffy Issue #62 • March/April, 2000 I carry a concealed Ruger P97 .45 caliber eight-shot semi-automatic handgun almost everywhere I go, and I keep a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle with folding stock in my...

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....

Perspectives on the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin shooting

By Massad Ayoob Issue #143 • September/October, 2013 The media told us a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain and wannabe cop with gun-derived courage was on patrol when he profiled a young child because he was black...

Working for a dad who works at home

By Annie Duffy Issue #40 • July/August, 1996 I am homeschooled, and part of my homeschooling involves working for my Dad on this magazine. It has been a good learning experience for me. Not only have...

Why oil and other fossil fuels are good

By John Silveira Issue #152 • March/April, 2015 Last issue I concluded The Last Word saying I'd "... talk about the myth of oil destroying the environment." But between issues I thought about it and realized...

When “good” laws are bad

By John Silveira Issue #134 • March/April, 2012 I recently read an opinion piece on CNN's website titled, Edison would've loved the new light bulb law. It's supposed to be about the new law to force...

10 traits for better living

By Claire Wolfe Issue #151 • January/February, 2015 It's a mystery why one person can be poor but still proud, independent, and reasonably content while the guy next door is merely content to slide into a...

Planning the lives of generations to come

By John Silveira March 8, 2006 I was reading the March 2006 issue of Discover Magazine and read Asteroid Watcher Worries, an interview with Clark R. Chapman, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute at...

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...