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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The Government gorilla in our home
By Dave Duffy
Issue #101 • September/October, 2006
The other week, Vince, a contractor who does occasional work for me, was arrested for slapping his 14-year-old daughter on the behind when she talked back to her...
