The chances of global disaster
By John Silveira
Issue #57 • May/June, 1999
We were preparing the current issue and the office hummed as it always does during deadline. Dave Duffy, the fellow who publishes this magazine, explained to our new...
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....
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...
A reason for the Second Amendment
By John Silveira
Issue #141 • May/June, 2013
Right after the shooting of 20 children and 6 teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, I was asked by several people, "Does anyone really...
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...
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...
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...
Confessions of a former liberal
By Dave Duffy
Issue #50 • March/April, 1998
There is an old adage that goes something like: "If you're not a liberal when you're in your 20s you haven't got a heart; if you're not a...
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 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...
Want proof of luck, ESP, and psychic powers?
By John Silveira
Issue #40 • July/August, 1996
We were riding down the Pacific Coast Highway Mac, his girlfriend Carol, and I. Mac's the poker playing friend of Dave Duffy, the fellow who publishes this magazine....
What kind of Americans sit on our juries?
By John Silveira
March 16, 2000
Our jury system is supposed to be a buffer between us--the citizens--and the government. It is there to prevent the abuse of power that governments have exercised since the dawn...
Turn the poor into capitalists
By John Silveira
Issue #137 • September/October, 2012
I'm not a fan of the welfare system and I think it's been more of a failure than a success. It may serve as a 'safety net' for...
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...
Remembering a decade of BHM
By Dave Duffy
Issue #61 • January/February, 2000
Deadline has just ended as I sit down to write this, the last remaining page of this issue. The staff has gone home, and, except for Silveira who...
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...
