What is reality?
By John Silveira
April 7, 2006
I don't read much. So, I missed James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, though it made best sellers lists from the New York Times to amazon.com. If the truth be...
Our energy crisis Part 3 — Alternative energy resources for the nation and for...
By John Silveira
Issue #118 • July/August, 2009
The first installment of this energy series (Backwoods Home Magazine, September/October 2008) dealt with the fossil fuels which include petroleum, coal, and natural gas. The second installment (Backwoods...
Loading the gun for a dictatorship
By John Silveira
Issue #103 • January/February, 2007
My late friend, Jim Callahan, was a self-professed "liberal." At least, when I first met him, that's what he claimed. Actually, he wasn't. But Jim wasn't a "conservative"...
ID cards are an idea whose time should never come
By John Silveira
October 28, 2001
I just read in the October 8th issue of U.S. News and World Report a column by Randall E. Stross in which he advocates some kind of national I.D. Card....
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...
Should we scrap our ‘old’ Constitution?
By John Silveira
Issue #135 • May/June, 2012
In a recent New York Times article by Adam Liptak, he observed that the Constitution of the United States is not only the oldest constitution in existence, but...
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...
Justice Breyer is wrong about the 2nd Amendment
By John Silveira
Issue #128 • March/April, 2011
December 12, 2010, on Fox News Sunday, Justice Stephen Breyer said the Founding Fathers never intended for guns to go unregulated. His reasoning was that James Madison, often...
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...
Climate Change Theory: science or religion?
By John Silveira
Issue #153 • May/June, 2015
Is climate change theory a real science or is it merely a new religion? It's a fair question to ask because although climate change enthusiasts like to refer...
Is the Mainstream Media Finally Recognizing How the War on Drugs is Destroying Our...
By John Silveira
December 17, 1999
The December 1999 issue of Harper's Magazine has a headline the likes of which I'd given up ever seeing on the cover of a mainstream magazine. The newsstand jacket...
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...
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...
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...
Chicken with galanga in coconut milk soup
Recipe of the Week
Chicken with galanga in coconut milk soup
Courtesy of
John Silveira
This excellent recipe requires a few unusual ingredients. You should be able to find them at any Asian market though, and it...
