Why I’m nice to telemarketers

By John Silveira July 22, 2000 We complain because they bug us during supper. Of course, it wouldn't make sense for them to call us at 1:00 in the afternoon because we're not usually home then....

How America can be saved from stupid people

By Dave Duffy Issue #155 • September/October, 2015 Fifteen years ago (in Issue No. 65) I wrote an article in this space titled, "Can America Be Saved from Stupid People?" It was widely read and stirred...

Reflections on the Second Amendment

By Massad Ayoob Issue #77 • September/October, 2002 A reader named Molly e-mailed a note to the office of BHM asking what the editor thought of Attorney General Ashcroft's recent affirmation of the Second Amendment as...

The false argument about defending our freedom

By John Silveira Issue #142 • July/August, 2013 I'm tired of hearing how we should honor our veterans because they're defending our freedoms. They're not. No one in any of the Islamic countries is trying to...

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...

Lessons for My Children, Chapter 2: Statistics, history, and the rise of the Underground...

By Dave Duffy Issue #137 • September/October, 2012 I've always been a student of science and history. They tell you things many people don't know. I especially pay attention to statistics, which underlies all science, and...

Fixing a broken jury system

By John Silveira Issue #78 • November/December, 2002 "I blame every juror who let him go, every juror who sat on that trial and believed this man over those little girls. I will never understand. And...

Dark Winter — A simulated terrorist attack on three American cities using weaponized smallpox

By Dave Duffy Issue #81 • May/June, 2003 Historically, smallpox has been the most deadly of all diseases for humans, killing between 300 and 500 million in the last century alone, far more than the 111...

A history lesson from Ayn Rand

By Dave Duffy Issue #44 • March/April, 1997 For the past several weeks I've been reading the Letters of Ayn Rand, which is a collection covering her letters from 1926, when she arrived in America from...

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...

Terrorist attack! Was this predictable?

By John Silveira September 11, 2001 I was awakened to news about the suicide attacks by my daughter. Quite frankly, I thought it was the beginning of a bad joke she'd heard and I was expecting...

Libertarian and Conservative

By John Silveira Issue #133 • January/February, 2012 I cringe when I hear libertarians lumped with conservatives — or at least today's conservatives. Liberals want you to view us as conservatives so you won't look any...

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....

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...

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...

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...