Commentary Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

Is it time for an education revolution?

By Dave Duffy Issue #77 • September/October, 2002 Education is important, right? Of course it is. Then college must be really important, right? ... Did I hear some of you pause before saying, "Well, yeah, I...

Questions about global warming

By John Silveira Issue #108 • November/December, 2007 Global warming is in the news, infesting campaign rhetoric and the plot lines of many movies and TV programs. Our kids are being indoctrinated with its certainty in...

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...

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...

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...

The ‘Curious Guy’ and the ‘Offended Woman’

By Dorothy Ainsworth February, 2004 The March/April issue of BHM magazine came out with me on the cover and my house-building story inside. I was happy to have the opportunity to share my story and hopefully...

The world’s least-free country

By John Silveira Issue #77 • September/October, 2002 Here's a quiz: Which is the freest country on earth? The answer's easy. It's the United States. Ask anyone. And why are we the freest? Not because we're...

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...

Body language and threat recognition

By Massad Ayoob Issue #87 • May/June, 2004 Reader mail indicates that while some Backwoods Home readers turn to this column for advice on putting wild game on the table or keeping four-footed poachers out of...

Defending against terroristic mass murder

By Massad Ayoob Issue #160 • July/August, 2016 My friend Rich Grassi is a retired cop, a masterful instructor, and one of the best writers in the tactical field today. He recently wrote that it would...

The state of freedom in America

By Claire Wolfe Issue #149 • September/October, 2014 The world is becoming less free. In the Middle East and Africa, Islamist fanatics try to bring back the Dark Ages. Europe stagnates...

Lessons for My Children…Chapter 3: Hiding from the government

By Dave Duffy Issue #138 • November/December, 2012 After opening the discussion in this column last issue about the underground economy, I thought it would be a good idea to explore it more thoroughly since it...

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...

When “good” laws are bad

By John Silveira Issue #134 • March/April, 2012 I recently read an opinion piece on CNN's website titled, Edison would've loved the new light bulb law. It's supposed to be about the new law to force...

My View: Jury duty: The charge was rape

Dave Duffy I was on jury duty for 2½ weeks between issues. On trial was a 21-year-old man (now 23) accused of raping a 20-year-old girl during an encounter two years previous in which both...

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...