Publisher:
Bonnie King
CONTACT:
Newsroom@Salem-news.com
Advertising:
Adsales@Salem-news.com
~Truth~
~Justice~
~Peace~
TJP
The Canadian Health Care Edge
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comAbout 41,000 Canadians a year go south for medical care; a tiny fraction of the millions who stay in Canada.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Danny Williams, conservative Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, is a multi-millionaire who used his wealth to fly to an unknown U.S. location for an unknown cardiac procedure done on February 4.
American Entropy
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comAmerica has been a net debtor nation since 1986 with a current national debt of about $12 trillion, and a deficit of nearly $2 trillion.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Entropy, also known as the second law of thermodynamics, is the measure of disorder in a system. The entropy of the universe as a whole tends to a maximum.
Why I Write for Salem-News.com
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comI’ve made my share of trouble. This is why I never stayed with the so-called mainstream media. They didn’t want trouble.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
It’s coming up a year since I first started writing for Salem-News. I’d like to explain, to the open-minded and receptive readers of goodwill, what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.
I write, basically, because I have no choice.
The Second Amendment Fantasy and How Americans Have Been Taken In
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comPeople who advocate for concealed and assault weapons make up an anti-government segment of society.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
The Second Amendment has evolved into an emotional issue par excellence that has divided American society. But the underlying issues are not about guns but about fear—on two levels.
Why I Don`t Believe in Democracy
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comThe problem is not lack of leadership, but the presence of the wrong kind of leadership—meaning they don’t have the interests of the polity in mind.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
The Republicans winning Ted Kennedy’s old seat in Massachusetts confirms my pessimism about democracy. While a Republican agenda is far from a slam-dunk, there are nation-shaking possibilities near at hand. This may end Obama’s quest for health care reform as a small number of people in one state are able to derail national policies.
Look to more public support for tax cuts that benefit the wealthy while hurting public services that almost everyone relies on to one degree or another.
Vancouver, B. C. Drug Injection Site Gets More Court Support
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comInSite serves more than 7,200 registered clients with 15,000 to 20,000 visits each month.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Control over controlled substances is gradually starting to loosen up across North America.
The various reports on medical marijuana being legalized in different U.S. jurisdictions plus California at least talking about legalizing and taxing it, are encouraging signs that a cultural shift has begun.
Answering the Randroids
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comWith no metaphysics and minimal consciousness, Objectivism turns out to be an opinion—one among many.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
The key to the validity of Objectivism overall is the first, metaphysics. If its metaphysics is invalid, then the other three points are simply an ideology like any other. Objectivism then becomes Subjectivism.
Physicists have known since 1905 (the very year in which Rand was born) that there is no objective world, thus proving Objectivist metaphysics false. As Einstein said: “For those of us who believe in physics, this separation between past, present and future is only an illusion, however tenacious.”
Going Galt, Going Crazy
By Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comShe called her “philosophy” Objectivism although, said philosopher Gary Merrill “if there is such a thing as a pseudo-philosophy this is it.”
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
“Going Galt” is the resurgence of a movement that began in the 1950s as an effort to reject all the positive aspects of our social society, based on the pseudo-philosophy of Ayn Rand, a Russian émigré who died in 1982.
Who is buying them? A steady flow of new recruits, primarily adolescents—impressionable and often confused.
Thomas the Troll vs. Daniel Johnson, Enemy of the American People (in the pink tights)
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comAnalyzing the words of a neoconservative.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
I don’t know who Thomas the Troll is. I don’t even know if Thomas is his real name. Never mind. He’s such an over the top neocon that I can’t resist puncturing his pretensions.
He’s already declared me an enemy of the American people, so I hardly see where I can go wrong.
America: A Nation of `Damned Fools`
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comAmericans have to decide to join the rest of the human race on the planet instead of staying with the pig-headed belief that everyone must fit them.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Book review: The Limits of Power: The end of American Exceptionalism by Andrew J. Bacevich (New York: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2008)
Calling himself a “conservative Catholic”, Bacevich is a professor of history and international relations at Boston University and a retired Army colonel. He is the author of four other books, including The New American Militarism: How American are seduced by war.
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.
googlec507860f6901db00.html
Quick Links
DINING
Willamette UniversityGoudy Commons Cafe
Dine on the Queen
Willamette Queen Sternwheeler
MUST SEE SALEM
Oregon Capitol ToursCapitol History Gateway
Willamette River Ride
Willamette Queen Sternwheeler
Historic Home Tours:
Deepwood Museum
The Bush House
Gaiety Hollow Garden
AUCTIONS - APPRAISALS
Auction Masters & AppraisalsCONSTRUCTION SERVICES
Roofing and ContractingSheridan, Ore.
ONLINE SHOPPING
Special Occasion DressesAdvertise with Salem-News
Contact:AdSales@Salem-News.com
Salem-News.com:
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy