The logic behind term limits and a historical perspective

By John Silveira Issue #35 • September/October, 1995 It was Tuesday and we were in deadline mode. Heat was seeping through the uninsulated walls of the new offices of Backwoods Home Magazine like little beasts from...

Money can buy happiness

By John Silveira Issue #72 • November/December, 2001 The results are in: money can buy happiness, but it doesn't come cheap. Not only that, the amount of happiness your money can buy can be measured. I know...

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...

Real-life heroes

By John Silveira January 15, 2000 TV programs and movies are often about heroes. Here's the thinnest of plots: someone's in trouble and a John Wayne-type character shows up to rescue him--or her. In the meantime...

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...

Tackling the real problems that face us

By Dave Duffy Issue #134 • March/April, 2012 Thank goodness most of the apocalyptic scenarios the doom and gloomers talk about are either founded upon faulty premises or, if based on science, are extremely rare occurrences....

Just how good of a bet are those lotto tickets?

By John Silveira Issue #37 • January/February, 1996 I looked at the newspaper and tried to match up the lotto results printed there with my picks. I sighed. "Boy, I sure would've liked to have won...

We don’t need no steenking 2nd Amendment

By John Silveira Issue #58 • July/August, 1999 I usually get up to the magazine from southern California in plenty of time for the bimonthly deadline. Not this issue. I was late and way behind. But...

Working for a dad who works at home

By Annie Duffy Issue #40 • July/August, 1996 I am homeschooled, and part of my homeschooling involves working for my Dad on this magazine. It has been a good learning experience for me. Not only have...

Dealing with Liberals and History

By John Silveira February 6, 2000 Years ago I hated talking politics with liberals. I have a good memory and a good sense of history, but whenever I mentioned any historical "fact" that countered their arguments,...

Training for the Boston Marathon

By Dave Duffy Issue #92 • March/April, 2005 Ever get a wild idea in your head that just won't go away, and you start working on it like crazy? It happens to me all the time....

ID cards are an idea whose time should never come

By John Silveira October 28, 2001 I just read in the October 8th issue of U.S. News and World Report a column by Randall E. Stross in which he advocates some kind of national I.D. Card....

Can the U.N. Ban America’s Guns?

By Claire Wolfe Website Exclusive • April, 2013 The rumor flashed across the Internet last winter: the Obama administration is going to use a United Nations arms treaty to get around the Second Amendment and ban...

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...

Can America be Saved from Stupid People?

By Dave Duffy Issue #65 • September/October, 2000 There are a lot of taboos, that is, things we're not supposed to talk about, in modern society. If we do talk about them we are labeled a...

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,...