Salem-News.com Articles written by Daniel Johnson

The American Anti-Intellectual Part 2

America needs a second War of Independence and a new set of Founding Fathers.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - The observant reader of Part 1 may have been struck by the omission of academics and professors in the class of intellectuals. This was not accidental.

One person who objected to Part 1 was Andrew J. Coulson, Director, Education Policy, of The Cato Institute. He wrote that “Some folks object to intellectuals like Krugman because they often get their facts wrong.”

The American Anti-Intellectual Part 1

America can only be saved by intellectuals as a class.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - In the 2004 election, Republican operative Peggy Noonan, writing in the Wall Street Journal, said “Mr. Bush is the triumph of the seemingly average American man. He’s not an intellectual. Intellectuals start all the trouble in the world.”

Of course, I have been aware of this for many years, after reading Harvard economist and JFK confidant John Kenneth Galbraith who said: "Intellectuals have usually thought themselves disliked because others were jealous of their brains. More often it's because they make trouble."

Even the Dead Have Trouble Getting Out of Oregon

Oregon is among several states where dwindling revenues and reduced cremation costs are affecting the bottom line for mortuaries.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - States across the country are having to cope with increased numbers of indigent burials and cremations. The New York Times reports that in Oregon alone, the number of unclaimed bodies has increased by half over the last few years.

“There are more people in our cooler for a longer period of time,” says Dr. Karen Gunson, Oregon’s medical examiner. “It’s not that we’re not finding families, but that the families are having a harder time coming up with funds to cover burial or cremation costs..."

Zionist Spin in Canada may Weaken

A major Canadian broadcaster files for bankruptcy.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - Canwest, Canada’s largest media company, spanning newspapers, television and radio, with investments overseas, has changed since company founder Israel (Izzy) Asper died in October, 2003 and CanWest was taken over by his son, Leonard.

In January 2007, the company bought Alliance Atlantis at a cost of $2.3-billion, acquiring its 13 specialty TV channels. But the deal was expensive and to finance it, CanWest entered into a complex partnership with investment bank Goldman Sachs.

How Capitalism Destroyed American Democracy: Part 3 (of 3)

Neither political party represents the ordinary American anymore.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - The fact that American democracy doesn’t work is such a no-brainer that only those living in denial object to this assertion.

Benjamin Franklin was a key player in the founding of the United States. Biographer Walter Isaacson called him "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become."

Socialized Medicine Works, says VHA

A look at the positive side of veteran's healthcare in the U.S.A.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - The VHA has adopted a government run medical model to which most veterans would give high marks. Rick Tanner, 66, served in Vietnam and spent three decades in the U.S. Navy. He retired in 1991 with a bad knee and high blood pressure and now receives comprehensive care with few co-payments and a system that utilizes an electronic records system more advanced than almost anywhere in the private hospital system.

“The care is superb,” said Tanner of San Diego. The record- keeping is “state of the art.”

How Capitalism Destroyed American Democracy: Part 2 (of 3)

Ding! Americans do not live in a democracy but a plutocracy. Wake up and smell the coffee.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - In Part 1 (“How capitalism destroyed American democracy, Part 1” http://www.salem-news.com/articles/september242009/us_democracy_9-24-09.php ), I reviewed Vance Packard’s 1960 book The Waste Makers. I argued that any appearance of democracy in North America has been nullified and undermined by the twin capitalist idols of growth and consumption.

Many, if not most Americans, believe that growth and consumption are good things . But Packard noted that US oil consumption had tripled in the fifteen years since end of WW II. “With only one seventh proved reserves, the US is consuming more than half the world’s production.”

America the Prude

America! Wake up and get a life. Sometimes people swear. Get over it.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - As a society, America is in a parlous condition. One of the principle causes, I think, is the inability of Americans as a people to face reality. That, coupled with an incredible hypocrisy has brought America low. Two egregious examples. No one can forget, even if they never saw it (I didn’t), Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” (the term, used in all seriousness, sounds like something that would emerge from a Monty Python skit) and secondly Bono, receiving a Golden Globes Award in 2003 was so delighted that he said . "This is really, really f------ brilliant." The context and the great smile on his face makes clear that his comment is neither profane or obscene.

Try telling that to all the “concerned” citizens whose main “concern” is to impose their small-minded, backward-looking, Puritanism on the entire nation. The tragedy to this is that the majority of Americans just roll over and let them do it.

How Capitalism Destroyed American Democracy: Part 1

Book review: The Waste Makers by Vance Packard.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - American journalist and social critic Vance Packard (1914-1996) was the originator of the pop sociology book, with The Hidden Persuaders, his million-selling 1957 exposé of the use of consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including depth psychology and subliminal tactics by advertisers to manipulate expectations and induce desire for products.

Same Sex Marriage - Not

By trying to force religious people to recognize them, gay marriage proponents turned out to be as welcome as ants at a picnic.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - I’m opposed to gay marriage and same-sex marriage but not for a standard reason.

Opponents of same-sex marriage, argue vehemently that marriage is between a man and a woman. This is true and has been for thousands of years. This is because marriage has been defined as a religious coupling.

I can empathize with those who have been raised in a faith which sanctifies marriage as between a man and a woman. Now you have gay people, about whom many religious people already have very negative feelings, trying to push their way into a religious sacrament.