Goodbye TV, hello constructive time
By Dave Duffy
Issue #67 • January/February, 2001
About six months ago the satellite dish for my family's TV stopped working. Because we are too far from cable TV and an antenna does not bring in...
Analyzing Obama on guns
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #158 • March/April, 2016
In early January, 2016, after announcing his "executive actions on guns" and talking on CNN's "Town Hall Meeting," President Barack Obama admitted that when he and his wife...
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...
Terrorist attack! Was this predictable?
By John Silveira
September 11, 2001
I was awakened to news about the suicide attacks by my daughter. Quite frankly, I thought it was the beginning of a bad joke she'd heard and I was expecting...
Guns, suicide prevention, and backwoods lifestyles
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #153 • May/June, 2015
Note to readers: I've served for going on twenty years as firearms editor of Backwoods Home Magazine. The following article is going to be somewhat different from what...
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...
Can America be Saved from Stupid People?
By Dave Duffy
Issue #65 • September/October, 2000
There are a lot of taboos, that is, things we're not supposed to talk about, in modern society. If we do talk about them we are labeled a...
The Coming American Dictatorship revisited
By John Silveira
Issue #77 • September/October, 2002
Mac's back. After a long absence our poker-playing friend from southern California, O.E. MacDougal, walked into the Oregon offices of Backwoods Home Magazine.
Poof, and there he was. No...
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...
Tackling the real problems that face us
By Dave Duffy
Issue #134 • March/April, 2012
Thank goodness most of the apocalyptic scenarios the doom and gloomers talk about are either founded upon faulty premises or, if based on science, are extremely rare occurrences....
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...
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...
Man vs. the machine
By John Silveira
Issue #71 • September/October, 2001
About 10 years ago, I was living in southern California and I was summoned for jury duty. I was glad to be called. I've always liked the concept...
My view: Socialism’s promises always end in disaster
By Dave Duffy
Issue #176 • April/May/June, 2019
There are lots of news stories these days about socialism’s rise in the United States, especially among the young and admirers of newly elected New York Congresswoman Alexandria...
Stumbling over your own stupidity
By John Silveira
Issue #64 • July/August, 2000
There are several morals to be found in this story. You can find most of them yourself. But I'm only interested in one of them. The story was...
Running your own business: a mother’s perspective
By Ilene Duffy
Issue #62 • March/April, 2000
When my middle son, Robby, was a baby, he had two seizures. After the second one the doctor informed me that I needed to get him to the...
