Self-reliance is a mindset — A woman’s opinion
By Dorothy Ainsworth
Issue #94 • July/August, 2005
Self-reliance is a mindset. If you have it, you are on your way to independence. If you don't, it would be in your best interest to develop it....
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...
Why bureaucracy will likely destroy America
By John Silveira
Issue #50 • March/April, 1998
"Civilizations rise and fall," Dave said and I turned around to see if he was talking to me, but he was still staring at his monitor. I looked...
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...
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...
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...
Our ‘unenumerated’ rights
By John Silveira
Issue #110 • March/April, 2008
I received this question in an e-mail from my younger brother, Mike: "Jack, the other day a friend asked me where in the Constitution does it say you...
Book Review: Guns Save Lives — True Stories of Americans Defending Their Lives with...
Reviewed By John Silveira
Issue #79 • January/February, 2003
I like movies with heroes: High Noon, Death Wish, Dirty Harry and the like where the good guy comes to the aid of guys like you and...
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...
A lesson in respect
By John Silveira
Issue #65 • September/October, 2000
When I was 10, Dad lived on a farm in New Hampshire with my stepmother and two of my sisters, and I went to stay with them that...
Exercising with gadgets
By Dave Duffy
Issue #75 • May/June, 2002
We've all seen those TV commercials featuring all sorts of exercise gadgets that will get you that buff body or that rib-like belly with minimum effort. There are...
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....
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...
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...
Every group needs a black sheep
By John Silveira
Issue #74 • March/April, 2002
I used to play a lot of poker and I learned things about people that surprised me. They were things other than the "Know when to hold 'em,...
Fake lawsuits, stacked juries, and LAWYERS!
By John Silveira
Issue #89 • September/October, 2004
Mac, that's O.E. MacDougal, our poker playing friend from Southern California, is back. He blew into town yesterday with the good weather and brought his fishing rods, his...
