My View: Grand Theory vs. Stark Reality
Dave Duffy
While visiting Boston between issues, my wife, Lenie, got into a conversation about preparedness. It was a brief, but telling, discussion because our host, like many people who live in cities, had not...
Introducing the international tax cartel
By Dave Duffy
February 13, 2001
Democrats on Capitol Hill aren't the only ones who don't like President Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut plan. A group of Western European nations think they should have global veto...
Can an understanding of math and statistics save America’s freedoms?
By Dave Duffy
Issue #66 • November/December, 2000
The other day John Silveira and I were walking by a gas station in Gold Beach, Oregon, where this magazine is located, when I remarked, "The price of...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The curse of oil
By John Silveira
Issue #82 • July/August, 2003
To many, the oil beneath the sands of the Middle East is a kind of godsend for them. My take on it is that it's illusionary wealth in...
Exercising with gadgets
By Dave Duffy
Issue #75 • May/June, 2002
We've all seen those TV commercials featuring all sorts of exercise gadgets that will get you that buff body or that rib-like belly with minimum effort. There are...
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 not risk it all!
By Dave Duffy
Issue #64 • July/August, 2000
I got this letter from a reader:
Please cancel my subscription. I had the opportunity to read your editorial glorifying your agenda as a "paranoid, gun-toting nut." This is...
Lessons for My Children, Chapter 2: Statistics, history, and the rise of the Underground...
By Dave Duffy
Issue #137 • September/October, 2012
I've always been a student of science and history. They tell you things many people don't know. I especially pay attention to statistics, which underlies all science, and...
Just how good of a bet are those lotto tickets?
By John Silveira
Issue #37 • January/February, 1996
I looked at the newspaper and tried to match up the lotto results printed there with my picks. I sighed. "Boy, I sure would've liked to have won...