Commentary Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

The Electoral College — How we elect the President

By John Silveira Issue #18 • November/December, 1992 I've been getting a lot of telephone calls from Oregon lately. My article is late again and Dave Duffy, the fellow who publishes this magazine, keeps...

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...

Some thoughts on growing older in the backwoods

By Marjorie Burris Issue #16 • July/August, 1992 "Just how long are you going to be able to live in the backwoods like that?" my friend, Pat, asked. "You're not getting any younger, you know!" I've known...

If you want to take care of your health, you have to take control...

By Dave Duffy Issue #100 • July/August, 2006 The other day a man called the office to thank me for writing Issue 98's page 7 editorial, in which I urged readers to get a stress test...

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...

If you want to survive an emergency, look to yourself, not the Government

By Dave Duffy Issue #96 • November/December, 2005 Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath said what I could not have said convincingly in ten thousand words: The government cannot protect you in a major emergency. It doesn't...

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...

The Runaway

By John Silveira February 9, 2006 My kids are grown. But it didn't come about without a lot of frustration, tribulations, and laughs. Runaways: What do you do with a six-year-old who threatens to run away? One woman...

“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...

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 Coming American Dictatorship Part XII — The militarization of America’s police forces

By John Silveira Issue #146 • March/April, 2014 He's back our poker-playing friend from Southern California, O.E. MacDougal. He came up here to fish. I thought he was after salmon, but this time he came...

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...

That old survivalist mumbo jumbo and 10 reasons why it makes sense

By Dave Duffy Issue #91 • January/February, 2005 I've got a suggestion for a sensible New Year's resolution for self-reliant types like myself, and I've got at least 10 good reasons to keep it. The resolution...

Guns, suicide prevention, and backwoods lifestyles

By Massad Ayoob Issue #153 • May/June, 2015 Note to readers: I've served for going on twenty years as firearms editor of Backwoods Home Magazine. The following article is going to be somewhat different from what...

How to achieve affordable health care

By John Silveira Issue #120 • November/December, 2009 Despite all the hubbub about health care, the United States can have affordable health care tomorrow if we want it. There have been real solutions available, solutions that...

Running your own business: a mother’s perspective

By Ilene Duffy Issue #62 • March/April, 2000 When my middle son, Robby, was a baby, he had two seizures. After the second one the doctor informed me that I needed to get him to the...