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TJP
Einstein on Israel
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive Editor"As far as my experience goes, [the Jews] are no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
In late 1953, Jewish philosopher Eric Gutkind sent his book Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt to Albert Einstein and asked for comments.
On January 3, 1954, Einstein replied in a letter that until recently was little known.
The Genesis of America`s Savage Winner-Take-All Society
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive EditorEven if you're comfortable, you're not one of the "winners". You've just been lucky enough to find a perch in the expanding monarchical/serf society. Economic security? You could be decimated in a nanosecond! Think of those "rich people" who had millions invested with Bernie Madoff and who were suddenly impoverished. It can happen to you without warning.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
“Capitalism is the best system ever devised,” said former President George W. Bush, speaking to the right-wing Manhattan Institute. But, capitalism is a winner-take-all system and how it was “devised” is a heretofore uncolligated horror story.
The Bill Gates Fantasy
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive EditorDoes Bill Gates deserve his fortune? Do the Walton offspring deserve to be billionaires? Do the children living in poverty in the ghetto deserve to grow up poor?
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
There are two main ways to become really rich. The first involves luck—e.g. win a big lottery. The second involves being born on third base…hmmm…also luck. Is this a contradiction? Let us explore further.
The richest person in the world today, outside of middle-eastern autocrats, is William Henry "Bill" Gates III, with a net worth in the ethereal neighborhood of $66 billion.
Report From the Pit of Hell
by Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive EditorTens of millions of Americans are no farther advanced than Bedouins of five thousand years ago trekking across the desert on their camels. And these people are allowed to vote!
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Over the years, a few commenters have asked why I hate America. It’s not hate or even dislike.
It’s just that since Americans have walked on the moon and gave up on the exploration, that I’ve felt a profound disrespect for American society overall.
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.
Daniel Johnson - Canada
Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.com
Email: omnisavant@shaw.ca
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 with the working title Cosmology of the Ants.
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