Commentary Archives - Page 2 of 12 - Backwoods Home Magazine

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...

Science and truth. Are they related?

By John Silveira Issue #46 • July/August, 1997 It was an argument about science. Dave and I were on one side, Dave's friends Tom and Bill, though curiously nonallied, were on the other. I say nonallied...

Here are some answers to often-asked questions of anti-gunners

By Massad Ayoob Issue #45 • May/June, 1997 It has become increasingly politically incorrect to be a firearms owner. This is because trends tend to be set by the fashionable and the media-connected in metropolitan environments....

Armed civilians can help fight terrorism

By Massad Ayoob Issue #90 • November/December, 2004 This article was written before terrorists seized a school in Beslan, a town in North Ossetia, one of the small republics that make up the modern Russian Federation....

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,...

Avoiding legal traps

By Massad Ayoob Issue #105 • May/June, 2007 Dave Duffy wrote recently on the plight of Brad Metcalf. There are several lessons to be learned. Metcalf represented himself, pro se, in court. This is almost never a...

Reflections on the Second Amendment

By Massad Ayoob Issue #77 • September/October, 2002 A reader named Molly e-mailed a note to the office of BHM asking what the editor thought of Attorney General Ashcroft's recent affirmation of the Second Amendment as...

How America can be saved from stupid people

By Dave Duffy Issue #155 • September/October, 2015 Fifteen years ago (in Issue No. 65) I wrote an article in this space titled, "Can America Be Saved from Stupid People?" It was widely read and stirred...

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...

A Republic vs. A Democracy

By John Silveira Issue #90 • November/December, 2004 He was in the other office when I heard his voice. But he was getting closer and closer and then he came through the door into the editorial...

The Coming American Dictatorship Part XII — The militarization of America’s police forces

By John Silveira Issue #146 • March/April, 2014 He's back our poker-playing friend from Southern California, O.E. MacDougal. He came up here to fish. I thought he was after salmon, but this time he came...

Common sense about burglary prevention

By Massad Ayoob Issue #89 • September/October, 2004 Read this month's editorial. Publisher Dave Duffy got burgled. The residue of hurt this experience leaves behind is a primal thing that you never get over entirely. It...

Why bureaucracy will likely destroy America

By John Silveira Issue #50 • March/April, 1998 "Civilizations rise and fall," Dave said and I turned around to see if he was talking to me, but he was still staring at his monitor. I looked...

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...

Dark Winter — A simulated terrorist attack on three American cities using weaponized smallpox

By Dave Duffy Issue #81 • May/June, 2003 Historically, smallpox has been the most deadly of all diseases for humans, killing between 300 and 500 million in the last century alone, far more than the 111...

Understanding the gun debate, part 1

By Massad Ayoob Issue #161 • September/October, 2016 It has been said that gun legislation and abortion are the two most polarizing issues in the United States. The former has taken the lead on both the...