Salem-News.com Articles written by Daniel Johnson

The Pagan Christ

“The end of Christianity is coming because there is a system undergirding the traditional ‘economy of salvation’ which is more concerned with preserving its own power than exploring the truth.”-Harpur

(CALGARY, Alberta) - BOOK REVIEW:
The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light

Tom Harpur, Author


Hutterites are literalists in that they take the second commandment literally and brook no variations or relaxations. This phenomenon, argues Tom Harpur, is the source of the overwhelming harm that religion inflicts on society.

“Most of the atrocities committed by the Church and its more rabid followers down through the ages have been directly inspired by literalist thinking.

The Fomalhaut Mystery

Americans are fighters, not lovers.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - I was 11 years old when I discovered astronomy. Early one autumn evening, high in the western twilight, was a bright, white object. Was it a star or a planet? I believed it to be Venus, second planet from the sun, but how to know for sure?

Falling Down

The psychology of ”Falling Down” is the story of so much of America today. If ignorance is bliss, why are so many Republicans angry?

(CALGARY, Alberta) - Every once in awhile, I’ll remember a line from a movie that’s only an elusive, tantalizing fragment. I don’t remember who said it, or even the movie. It happened a few days ago when I was writing “Whither, America?”

I’ve always been a great movie fan, but not obsessive. Because it’s been about 15 years since I’ve watched any TV, I don’t see the runners for new movies. I get my movie news from newspapers I read online. So, there are lots of movies released that I’ve never even heard of.

Whither, America?

What every thinking, humanly caring American (which rules out Republicans as a class) needs to do is open the window or go out on their balcony or front step and shout as loud as they can: I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - After 9/11, the civilized world rallied around America. The tragic thing, though, is that America never rallied around itself.

The headline alone in today’s New York Times filled me with anger and frustration because the only thing I can do is write this article.

Maslow Effect Amok

What has happened to America the free?

(CALGARY, Alberta) - It was only yesterday that I published my article explaining the Maslow Effect. Today, the New York Times has a story egregiously demonstrating it.

The story is about some conservative parents in Houston (and around the nation), who are absolutely opposed to President Obama’s speech next Tuesday from a school in Virginia being streamed live on the White House website to classrooms nationwide where their children will be exposed to it. They see it as political propaganda.

The Maslow Effect

Fanaticism requires the endless outpouring of propaganda.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, goes the old saying. So, it turns out, are social truths. I’m here today to explain.

A psychiatrist is testing a patient. He shows him the first of the ten Rorschach inkblots and asks him to describe what he sees. The man volunteers a detailed description of sex between a man a woman. With the second inkblot, he describes a graphic sex scene between two men. Men, women, animals—it was the same kind of response for the remaining eight.

Fixing Democracy

It may have been just an opium dream, but I have figured out the way to fix democracy.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - There’s a piece going around the internet these days—I received it twice in the last week—allegedly written by Charley Reese who was reportedly a journalist for forty-nine years. It’s called “545 people”.

His argument is simple. The problem with politics is the politicians.

The Houdini Tax Trick

My argument is that if corporate taxes were eliminated, then there could be fairer price competition among businesses.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - Houdini was able to make an elephant disappear in a crowded theatre. How was he able to do it? Misdirection.

Misdirection is the primary process in our tax system and no one wants to explain it. I’ve tried more than once over the last thirty years, but the mainstream media (the little people who are the gatekeepers) will not touch it. Here it is.

Why I Write

There are millions of fine Americans, many of whom I know or know of. I would venture that a sizable proportion of Salem-News readers are among them. There’s just not enough of you.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - I’m sure that some readers, over the last five months, have wondered where I, as a Canadian, get the chutzpah to criticize and analyze America and its culture.

Murphy`s Law-Plus

A few you have heard and many more that you possibly haven't.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - Avery's Observation: It doesn’t matter if you fall down, as long as you pick up something from the floor when you get up.

MURPHY'S LAW: If anything can go wrong, it will.

Murphy's Corollary: Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.