~Truth~
~Justice~
~Peace~
TJP
On being dead, Pt. 1
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive Editor"Existence, the preposterous miracle of existence, still remains the mystery of all mysteries."
(Physicist, John Archibald Wheeler)
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Two men are walking along. Says one: “Do you believe in life after death?”
“Yes,” says the other man.
The first man asks: “Then how do you know you’re not dead already?”
Which is the greater NRA failing: Clinical Paranoia or Willful Blindness?
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive EditorOf the 12 deadliest mass shootings in American history, six have occurred since 2007.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Wayne Lapierre, CEO and executive VP of the NRA in his statement on Friday morning said: 'Now, I can imagine the shocking headlines you'll print tomorrow morning: ‘More guns,’ you'll claim, ‘are the NRA's answer to everything!’”
It's nice for the NRA for once to be truthful.
Israel: Showdown or Shutdown? (Addendum Dec 4, 8 pm)
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive EditorIs the end of Israel in sight, or just the end of Nazi Zionism?
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
I remember the Arab-Israeli Six Day War of June 1967 as if it were just six days ago. My friends and I rooted for the Israelis as they routed the Arabs, and we all confirmed among ourselves that “nobody f…s with the Jews.” We all read the book (or watched the movie with its stirring theme music) Exodus by Leon Uris.
How the Israelis have since sunk in the eyes of the world—from courageous, heroes—to Nazi-like perpetrators of their own international crimes against humanity.
Recycling
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive EditorDespite the hypocritical lip service, recycling is not a capitalist value.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
The health of the economy depends on citizens consuming—buying more and more of what they need less and less of. When there is high unemployment or a depressed economy, consumer confidence is polled and policy makers try to find ways to kick-start the economy which means, fundamentally, how to get more money into people’s hands and encourage them to spend it.
Made in Canada
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive EditorI didn't write this letter, but it's an open letter to Stephen Harper, our conservative Prime Minister
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Dear Mr. Harper, Please find below our suggestion for fixing Canada's economy.
Instead of giving billions of dollars to banks who will just squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, we suggest the following plan. You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan...
Palestinian Revenge
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive EditorIt’s time for the Palestinian people to take the gloves off.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it, goes the old saying. The Jews were subject to genocide and ethnic cleansing with the Holocaust. Now that the Jews have the unlimited backing of the United States, they see the shoe is on the other foot. It’s their turn to subject the Palestinians to genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Is this fair? The majority of Jewish people seem to think so.
Portrait of a Corporate Criminal
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive EditorUnder California’s Three Strikes Law, an individual criminal faces life in prison. BP is long past its three strikes.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Criminality is rampant in the world of business. It is rare for miscreants to be brought to any effective justice. Wall Street is the most obvious example where a handful of firms virtually brought the world economy to its knees and no one has actually been held accountable.
“Corporations are people,” Mitt Romney said.
`G.O.P. Strains to Define How to Close Gap With Voters`--NYT
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive EditorThe United States may be getting ready to join other progressive nations in the 21st century.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
I’m a daily reader of the New York Times online. I know most people aren’t and that they get most of their news from less concentrated sources like TV and tabloids. Some people don’t read the NYT on principle because it’s liberal. I suppose that’s true, but in admitting this, I put my alleged bias right up front.
Sex, Ayn Rand and the Republican Party (Updated Oct 13, 2012)
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive Editor"Some people are moulded by their admirations, others by their hostilities." (Irish novelist Elizabeth Bowen)
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Although she died in 1982, Ayn Rand and her acolytes, like the living dead, keep rising from the ground to walk the streets.
A Romney Presidency
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive EditorEight years of Bush/Cheney was only the beginning...
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
The main reason most people choose in supporting Mitt Romney for president is that he has a lot of business experience and will be able to put that experience to work in turning the economy around. Here are my thoughts on how he might go about doing that and beyond.
The first thing he will do is look at the national debt/deficit in order to bring down those astronomical numbers. Looking at America the balance sheet, he will weigh the positives and negatives in terms of the individual states.
Daniel Johnson - Canada
Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.com
Email: DanielJohnson@telus.net
Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, as a teenager, Daniel Johnson aspired to be a writer. Always a voracious reader, he reads more books in a month than many people read in a lifetime. He knew early that in order to be a writer, you have to be a reader.
Another early bit of self-knowledge was that writers need experience. So, in the first seven years after high school he worked at 42 different jobs ranging from management trainee in a bank (four branches in three cities), inside and outside jobs at a railroad (in two cities), then A & W, factories and assembly lines, driving cabs (three different companies), collection agent, a variety of office jobs, John Howard Society, crisis counsellor at an emergency shelter, salesman in a variety of industries (building supplies, used cars, photocopy machines)and on and on. You get the picture.
In 1968, he was between jobs and eligible for unemployment benefits, so he decided to take the winter off and just write. The epiphany there, he said, was that after about two weeks, “I realized I had nothing to say.” So back to regular work.
He has always been concerned about fairness in the world and the plight of the underprivileged/underdog. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that he understood where that motivation came from. Diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) he researched the topic and, among others, read a book Scattered Minds by Dr. Gabor Maté, an ADD person himself. Maté wrote: "[A] feeling of duty toward the whole world is not limited to ADD but is typical of it. No one with ADD is without it."
That explains his motivation. Hard-wired.
As a professional writer he sold his first paid article in 1974 and, while employed at other jobs, started selling a few pieces in assorted places. He created his first journalism gig. In the late 1970s, when the world was recovering from a recession, the Canadian federal government had a job creation program where, if an employer created a new job, the government would pay part of the wage for the first year or two. The local weekly paper was growing, so he approached the publisher and said this was an opportunity for him to hire a new reporter. The publisher had been thinking along those lines but cost was a factor. No longer.
Over the next 15 years, Daniel eked out a living as a writer doing, among other things, national writing and both radio and TV broadcasting for the CBC, Maclean’s (the national newsmagazine) and a host of smaller publications. Interweaved throughout this period was soul-killing corporate and public relations writing.
It was through the 1960s and 1970s that he got his university experience. In his first year at the University of Calgary, he majored in psychology/mathematics; in his second year he switched to physics/mathematics. He then learned of an independent study program at the University of Lethbridge where he attended the next two years, studying philosophy and economics. In the end he attended university over nine years (four full time) but never qualified for a degree because he didn't have the right number of courses in any particular field.
In 1990 he published his first (and so far, only) book: Practical History: A guide to Will and Ariel Durant’s “The Story of Civilization” (Polymath Press, Calgary)
Newly appointed as the Deputy Executive Editor in August 2011, he has been writing exclusively for Salem-News.com since March 2009 and, as of summer 2011, has published more than 160 stories.
He continues to work on a second book which he began in 1998.
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy