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...

Which is better, a small town or city?

By Dave Duffy Issue #78 • November/December, 2002 Traveling has a way of giving you perspective. For the past several summers my family and I have traveled around the country, covering as much as 9,000 miles by...

Personal guns getting to be in style

By Dave Duffy Issue #74 • March/April, 2002 Have you noticed how the mass media's attacks against gun ownership have gone way down since the terrorist attacks of September 11? Of course, it's kind of difficult...

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...

Biological & chemical terrorism

By Dave Duffy Issue #73 • January/February, 2002 More than 5,000 American civilians lay entombed in the World Trade Center wreckage and more than 20,000 are taking antibiotics to fight off anthrax. America wages war against...

How environmental ideology hurts the solar energy industry

By Dave Duffy Issue #69 • May/June, 2001 Starting with our first issue 11 years ago, Backwoods Home Magazine has promoted renewable energies, especially solar energy, and for the past two years we have carried a...

Freedom, guns, & boycotts

By Dave Duffy Issue #71 • September/October, 2001 The other day I walked into my local Ace Hardware store and cancelled this magazine's longstanding account. "How come?" Dan, the owner asked surprised. I had shopped there ever...

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...

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...

How to fix your aching back using the McKenzie Method

By Dave Duffy Issue #144 • November/December, 2013 It's hard to get anything done around the homestead if you've got an ailing back. I've had an ailing back for about 40 years, but between issues, after...

Defending against terrorists

By Dave Duffy Issue #152 • March/April, 2015 I watched a lot of TV news in the days following the terrorist assassinations of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists in Paris. What struck me as odd was that...

How a high school band triumphed over a bureaucracy and union that tried to...

By Dave Duffy Issue #141 • May/June, 2013 The Gold Beach High School Band now practices in the BHM building, after being forced out of the school. There are few victories sweeter in life than that of young...

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...

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...

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...

Lessons for My Children Chapter 1

By Dave Duffy Issue #136 • July/August, 2012 I've been working for several years on a small book for my kids called Lessons for My Children that will attempt to give them advice about how to...