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~Truth~
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TJP
Stockholm Religion
Commentary by Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comWe are a culture in deep denial, and I’m not talking about global warming.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
In 2002 16-year old Bethany Hughes of Calgary was diagnosed with leukemia, which doctors said could only be treated with blood transfusions and chemotherapy.
The Hughes’ were devout Jehovah’s Witnesses who did not believe in blood transfusions and, because of her own, parentally inculcated, devout beliefs, Bethany did everything she could, even in her weakened state, to resist treatment, including pulling tubes out of her arms.
A Liberal/Conservative Convergence
Commentary by Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comAn outcome on which liberals and conservatives can agree? You decide.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
This essay is based on a true story. It’s about a couple I will call Bob and Alice.
The Unbearable Emptiness of Being a Conservative
Political Perspective by Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comIn the first installment of this Conservative Dilemma series “ReadHayek” (whoever he is) began his comment: “It's all about individual liberty and economics man. Conservatives don't believe in the collective.”
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
What if ReadHayek is demonstrably wrong?
Take away man’s uniqueness as an individual and conservatism withers away.
Western society, America in particular, worships an individualistic, every man for himself ethic. Individuality is the fundamental underpinning of conservatism.
Conservative Dilemma 4: Prelude to Regime Change in America
Political Perspective by Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comSome thoughts du jour.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was not an isolated episode. It was the culmination of a 110-year period during which Americans overthrew fourteen governments that displeased them for various ideological, political, and economic reasons.
Like each of these operations, the ‘regime change’ in Iraq seemed for a time—a very short time—to have worked.
The Conservative Dilemma 3
Political Perspective by Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comThe story continues...
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
For those conservatives who still maintain that Adam Smith supports their ideology, here is an extended “interview” gleaned from Smith’s most famous work The Wealth of Nations.
Johnson: Capitalism is very competitive. Is there no room for cooperation?
Smith: Without the assistance and cooperation of many thousands, the very meanest person in a civilized country could not be provided, even according to what we very falsely imagine, the easy and simple manner in which he is commonly accommodated.
Conservative Dilemma 2
Political Perspective by Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comThe story so far…
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
The conclusion from Part 1, for those who understood the argument and did not get sidetracked with the emotion of ideology, is: Conservatism is an opinion, based on assumptions. For liberalism it is the same.
The Conservative Dilemma
Political Perspective by Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comOne of Einstein’s most famous quotes is, “God does not play dice with the universe,” believing until his dying day that the universe is predictable if we can just look deeply enough.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
“It is the theory that decides what we can observe,” said Albert Einstein.
By this he meant that if physicists used one tool to measure light, they would see light as a wave; and, using another tool, they would see light as a particle. To show how seriously physicists take this duality, in 1906 British physicist J. J. Thomson was awarded the Nobel Prize for proving that light and electrons are particles. In 1937 his son, George, received the Nobel Prize for proving that light and electrons are waves.
The Ann Coulter Defense
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comA nation is a community of diverse people, held together by common beliefs, goals and aspirations.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
What do Theo van Gogh and Ann Coulter have in common? Religious extremism.
Van Gogh was murdered in 2004 in Amsterdam by an Islamic fundamentalist who believed that van Gogh had insulted Islam. Similarly, Coulter implicitly urges her readers to kill those who do not agree with her own extreme religious conservatism.
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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