Commentary Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

Armed citizens: the deterrent factor

By Massad Ayoob Website Exclusive • January/February, 2001 Does an armed citizenry deter tyranny and invasion? History and logic both answer emphatically, "Yes!" Some months ago, in an article in this publication titled The Rationale of the...

How to fix your aching back using the McKenzie Method

By Dave Duffy Issue #144 • November/December, 2013 It's hard to get anything done around the homestead if you've got an ailing back. I've had an ailing back for about 40 years, but between issues, after...

A history lesson from Ayn Rand

By Dave Duffy Issue #44 • March/April, 1997 For the past several weeks I've been reading the Letters of Ayn Rand, which is a collection covering her letters from 1926, when she arrived in America from...

Homemade bread: a metaphor for life

By Claire Wolfe Issue #113 • September/October, 2008 My parents never actually bought Wonder Bread; I got my fix only at friends' houses. The breads that entered our little three-bedroom,...

Self-reliance equals freedom

By Dave Duffy Issue #107 • September/October, 2007 There seems always to be an underlying debate among self-reliant types who make up a majority of the readership of this magazine as to whether or not the...

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...

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...

Reaching for the stars during a recession

By Dave Duffy Issue #125 • September/October, 2010 Toby is the volunteer assistant golf coach for the team this magazine sponsors, the Gold Beach High School Panthers. He has spent hundreds of hours of his own...

The rationale of the automatic rifle

By Massad Ayoob Issue #70 • July/August, 2001 There are those who would ban private citizens' ownership of semiautomatic rifles. After 27 years of carrying a badge, the author profoundly disagrees. If there is any place you...

Animal rights loonies save the chickens but ruin the County Fair

By Dave Duffy Issue #84 • November/December, 2003 We had our County Fair between issues. It was a small Fair with just a few thousand in attendance, but no one in our town of 1500 would miss...

If you want to survive an emergency, look to yourself, not the Government

By Dave Duffy Issue #96 • November/December, 2005 Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath said what I could not have said convincingly in ten thousand words: The government cannot protect you in a major emergency. It doesn't...

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...

Fixing a broken jury system

By John Silveira “I blame every juror who let him go, every juror who sat on that trial and believed this man over those little girls. I will never understand. And that is why he...

Three honest words: “I don’t know”

By John Silveira Issue #63 • May/June, 2000 As we enter another political campaign season I'm reminded of my three favorite words: "I don't know." Some years back, when I lived in southern California, I met the...

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...

That old survivalist mumbo jumbo and 10 reasons why it makes sense

By Dave Duffy Issue #91 • January/February, 2005 I've got a suggestion for a sensible New Year's resolution for self-reliant types like myself, and I've got at least 10 good reasons to keep it. The resolution...