Commentary Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

Next time you see me, don’t be afraid to say, ‘Hello.’

By John Silveira January 29, 2000 Mom and Dad were divorced before I even turned four, so it didn't dawn on me they'd even been married until I was a lot older. But, as I grew...

Here are some answers to often-asked questions of anti-gunners

By Massad Ayoob Issue #45 • May/June, 1997 It has become increasingly politically incorrect to be a firearms owner. This is because trends tend to be set by the fashionable and the media-connected in metropolitan environments....

Defunding government is a sensible voter solution to reining in local government

By Dave Duffy Issue #128 • March/April, 2011 Like so many other communities across the country, my community of Curry County on the southern Oregon coast has rejected efforts by local government to raise taxes in...

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...

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...

Confronting the enemy

By Dave Duffy Issue #81 • May/June, 2003 I got a lot of criticism a couple of issues ago from liberals when I pointed my finger at black Americans and asked why they had their heads...

Paying for social security with worthless $

By Dave Duffy Issue #117 • May/June, 2009 The year was 1976. I was 32 and writing a book about retirement planning with Tony Lamb, a noted 73-year-old activist who had taken up the cause of...

Losing our rights as we watch television

By John Silveira Issue #44 • March/April, 1997 Dave's poker playing friend, O.E. MacDougal, came back. I don't know where he's been and he doesn't volunteer much in that regard. I'd heard he'd been playing a...

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...

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...

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...

Talking to your kids about death

By Dave Duffy Issue #97 • January/February, 2006 How do you talk to a child about the death of someone they love? How do you explain the impossible? It's a task many of us parents have...

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...

If you don’t like it here, why don’t you move to another country?

By John Silveira Issue #99 • May/June, 2006 That's a question I've been confronted with, more than once, when I've complained about the PATRIOT Act, the RICO Act, creeping gun control, the empowerment of the bureaucracy,...

My View: Grand Theory vs. Stark Reality

Dave Duffy While visiting Boston between issues, my wife, Lenie, got into a conversation about preparedness. It was a brief, but telling, discussion because our host, like many people who live in cities, had not...

Should we scrap our ‘old’ Constitution?

By John Silveira Issue #135 • May/June, 2012 In a recent New York Times article by Adam Liptak, he observed that the Constitution of the United States is not only the oldest constitution in existence, but...