Commentary Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

Planning the lives of generations to come

By John Silveira March 8, 2006 I was reading the March 2006 issue of Discover Magazine and read Asteroid Watcher Worries, an interview with Clark R. Chapman, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute at...

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 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...

A vast cultural divide exists between environmentalists and gun owners

By Dave Duffy Issue #113 • September/October, 2008 Backwoods Home Magazine has had an exhibitor's booth at the MREA Fair in Wisconsin almost every year since its founding by Mick Sagrillo in 1989, which is the...

Gulf War II opened the eyes of Americans to the UN and the media

By Dave Duffy Issue #82 • July/August, 2003 How many of you were tightly tuned to the TV like I was during Gulf War II. I hope a lot because it was a great education. Not...

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 current ‘Gun control’ push — A cop’s eye view

By Massad Ayoob Issue #142 • July/August, 2013 First, a word of explanation. The reason "gun control" is in quotes in the title and in this sentence is because, for a very long time, the prohibitionists...

Putting it all on the Amtrak line for Self-Reliance magazine

By Dave Duffy Issue #163 • January/February, 2017 As publisher of Backwoods Home Magazine for 28 years, I have not had to work as hard in recent years, as younger people like Managing Editor Jessie Denning...

The attack on Colin Powell prompts questions I’m not supposed to ask

By Dave Duffy Issue #79 • January/February, 2003 What's wrong with black Americans? Provocative question, isn't it, especially when it's being asked by a white guy like me. We white guys aren't supposed to question what blacks...

Which wars work best? The ones we fight or the ones we avoid?

By Dave Duffy Issue #102 • November/December, 2006 History is supposed to teach us the lessons of wars past so we won't blunder into stupid wars in the present. Since I have mixed feelings about our...

Some thoughts on growing older in the backwoods

By Marjorie Burris Issue #16 • July/August, 1992 "Just how long are you going to be able to live in the backwoods like that?" my friend, Pat, asked. "You're not getting any younger, you know!" I've known...

The unheralded roots of America’s freedoms

By John Silveira Issue #108 • November/December, 2007 I've just finished reading a fascinating book by Charles C. Mann. It's titled, 1491, and subtitled New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. The book has turned what...

An American dollar worth two cents

By John Silveira Issue #129 • May/June, 2011 Most Americans are unaware that today's dollar has the purchasing power that roughly four cents had back in 1913. That was the year the Federal Reserve (the Fed)...

Getting rich through generosity

By John Silveira Issue #89 • September/October, 2004 The conventional wisdom is that to get filthy rich, you need to be greedy. So, it may come as counterintuitive that it's generosity, intentional or accidental, and not...

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...

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...