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...
Finding solutions in firewood
By Dave Duffy
January 16, 2000
When I am confounded and afraid, that is, when I have trouble figuring out what to do next in a critical situation, I go to my woodpile, grab an axe,...
Why I Hated Santa Claus
By John Silveira
December 21, 1999
Even as a little kid I didn't like Santa Claus. I liked the loot he brought; I wanted toys. With some trepidation, I even sat in his lap at the...
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...
The meltdown and the bailout: why, how, and what they mean
By John Silveira
Issue #115 • January/February, 2009
To understand how the recent meltdown and bailout came about, you have to know what brought them on. According to some, there are PhDs who have problems grasping...
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....
Sgt. Jim Duffy — An ordinary hero
By Dave Duffy
Issue #95 • September/October, 2005
My brother, Jim, died between issues. It was an expected death, as Jim suffered from lung cancer. My oldest brother, Bill, had called with the news in the...
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...
The burglar does far more than steal!
By Dave Duffy
Issue #89 • September/October, 2004
"Never mind about stealing the damn stuff!
This is the wrong place!
We have to leave!"
"That's what they were saying Dad, right outside my window," my 12-year-old son Jake told...
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....
Getting the state out of marriage
By John Silveira
Issue #127 • January/February, 2011
There's a new TV "reality" show on TLC called Sister Wives. It's about a polygamous family: Kody Brown, his 3 wives, their 13 children, and a soon-to-be (maybe...
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...
Do rural homeowners need guns for self-defense?
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #72 • November/December, 2001
Do rural homeowners need guns for self-defense? Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't, according to Ayoob's experience, but those who did never really knew they would until...
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...
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...
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...
