The website of John C. Snider
“The very existence of the Second Amendment is designed purposefully to empower the people to be able to resist the force of tyranny used against them to step over their natural rights given to them by God. That is why the Second Amendment exists. That is very specifically why the Second Amendment exists.” – Congressman …
The news out of Afghanistan is shocking, to be sure–but mostly because of the speed of the Taliban reconquest. I don’t know anyone who didn’t think that if the US and our allies exited Afghanistan that the Taliban (or ilk) wouldn’t be in charge eventually. But now it looks like the Taliban will have established …
Today is the NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER. Let us pray that American Christians come to realize that: * The NDP is a propaganda and publicity stunt organized by politicians and activists to manipulate the faithful into equating (conservative)(Protestant)(Christian) religion with patriotism, and to send a signal that non-religious Americans are second-class citizens. It is, to …
April 9, 1865: On this day, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, effectively ending the American Civil War. I say effectively, because this War, like so many others, was not so neatly concluded. April 14, 1865: President Lincoln was assassinated. May 9, 1865: Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, declared the insurrection had ended. May 10, …
The House has voted to impeach Trump. Again. There was a lot of talk by Republicans about the unprecedented and precipitous way in which the House pursued this second impeachment. However, I would point out that the circumstances were unprecedented. Never before in our history has a sitting president sicced an armed mob on Congress …
In the aftermath of the Civil War only one person (the commandant of the infamous Andersonville prison camp) was ever held directly accountable for war crimes. Robert E. Lee lost his swank plantation at Arlington and the right to vote. Jefferson Davis was imprisoned by the Army under harsh conditions for two years before being …
I’m often taken aback at how readily my fellow citizens resort to sadism when discussing our justice system, fantasizing about how miserable a future prisoner will be, expressing no compassion over botched lethal injections, even excitedly daydreaming about the prospect of male-on-male prison rape. We should be striving for a system where punishment is rarely …
Zach at the atheist-themed Zachrilege Cast was kind enough to have me as a guest on his Zachrilege Cast. He’s a pleasant and unassuming interviewer; his podcast is still going strong. Check it out right here.
You may be aware that 2018 is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a book widely considered to be the first proper science fiction novel. I had not read it in many, many years, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit it. Here are my thoughts: The …
Trump has this peculiar habit of declaring “nobody knew” about things that everyone manifestly knew, or “everybody knows” about things for which there is considerable controversy, confusion, or skepticism. An example of the former is Trump’s exasperation that “nobody knew” solving healthcare was complicated. An example of the latter is his recent deadpan that “everybody …