Commentary Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

My View: Call Me Miracle Man!

By Dave Duffy Issue #177 • July/August/September, 2019 Superheroes are the rage these days at movie theaters. Even I am fascinated by them. Old style heroes like Superman and Batman seem tame by comparison to characters...

In time of war — The Israeli answer to terrorism

By Massad Ayoob Issue #81 • May/June, 2003 When war seems imminent, citizens think about protecting themselves. The war of the moment involves a declared enemy that has already used unconventional tactics to murder some three...

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,...

Can an understanding of math and statistics save America’s freedoms?

By Dave Duffy Issue #66 • November/December, 2000 The other day John Silveira and I were walking by a gas station in Gold Beach, Oregon, where this magazine is located, when I remarked, "The price of...

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...

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)...

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...

Gun control, race, and rotten politicians

By John Silveira Issue #83 • September/October, 2003 Is gun control really about guns? Sounds like an odd question on the surface, but it's really right on target. In fact, the answer is: No, gun control...

Confessions of a former liberal

By Dave Duffy Issue #50 • March/April, 1998 There is an old adage that goes something like: "If you're not a liberal when you're in your 20s you haven't got a heart; if you're not a...

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...

Defending against terrorists

By Dave Duffy Issue #152 • March/April, 2015 I watched a lot of TV news in the days following the terrorist assassinations of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists in Paris. What struck me as odd was that...

Which is better, a small town or city?

By Dave Duffy Issue #78 • November/December, 2002 Traveling has a way of giving you perspective. For the past several summers my family and I have traveled around the country, covering as much as 9,000 miles by...

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...

Helping crackpots kill kids

By John Silveira February 23, 2000 I've moved to Oregon and one of the first "privileges" in this state I intend to avail myself of is the state's easy-to-obtain concealed weapon permit. Never mind that the...

Concealed carry laws reduce crime

By John Silveira Issue #143 • September/October, 2013 This year, Illinois became the 50th state to allow the carrying of concealed weapons by law-abiding citizens. That's a milestone that heralds a lot of good news for...

The tenuous hold of honesty in modern America

By John Silveira Issue #87 • May/June, 2004 The other day I stopped in the middle of Myers Creek Road, just outside of Gold Beach, Oregon, and took some photos of my roommate. It was cold....