Salem-News.com Articles written by Daniel Johnson

Death Squads in America?

The soil for death squads to form and operate within the United States is fertile and very real.

(Calgary, Alberta) - Anyone who has followed events outside the U.S. over the last few decades has heard of the death squads.

They have been active as extrajudicial killing forces in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Peru, Venezuela, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and others elsewhere in the world.

Capitalism 1, United States 0

Steve Jobs to Barack Obama: "Those jobs aren't coming back."

(Calgary, Alberta) - Here is an uncomfortable truth: America is great at capitalism when there is no competition or weak competitors.

The fundamental problem with Americans today, is that its middle class has been trained to consume products and eat tons of junk food, while growing up through the decades after the Second World War, when global competition did not exist to any significant degree.

The NRA -- A terrorist organization

Guns + testosterone + NRA = American terrorism.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - There were sombre ceremonies across Tucson, Arizona on Sunday, January 8, 2012, in remembrance of Jared Loughner’s shooting spree a year ago where he seriously wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords, killed six and wounded 12 more.

I suggest that the Untied States, is the only country in world, where remembrances could be held virtually every single day of the year for egregious killings of citizens by their other citizens—all indirectly supported by the National Rifle Association.

When the Gods Changed: Book Review

The courageous American who reads When the Gods Changed with an open mind, will be amply rewarded with insights on how to improve their own dysfunctional politics.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - It’s the rare American who actually knows anything accurate about Canada—or even cares. But here we are, living in what Robertson Davies called North America’s attic. (I consider Davies to be Canada’s greatest novelist—and certainly among the top ten of the world—in the same company as writers such as John Steinbeck, Ken Follett and Wilbur Smith.)

Since we attic lodgers elected a conservative government on May 2, 2011, it’s no surprise that conservatives on the floor below have been saying (through comments on this site) that it’s now only a matter time until the Canadian people—who have now seen the light— will follow the American political example.

Texas. Iran. What is the theological difference?

Tried under Sharia law, she was sentenced to death by hanging, while Darabi got 95 lashes.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - I was sifting through some archived files today and two articles jumped off the screen, wanting to be together.

Although this may seem to be old news, it’s current because the overall cultural realities in both Texas and Iran, if they have changed at all, have only become more extreme through the intervening five years.

American Nightmare: Return of the Luddites

“At this moment nothing but the army preserves us from that most dreadful of all calamities, an insurrection of the poor against the rich…”

(CALGARY, Alberta) - The Luddites of the early 19th century in England have been given a bum rap. The term is now used to refer to people who are against progress or resist change, which was not the case, at all.

The Luddites of the early 19th century were desperate English workers. The Poor Law had been passed in 1601 and frequently amended, offering some help to the destitute.

Treating capitalism as the social evil it is

Our raison d’être since our inception has always been to stand up for human rights, for fairness and against injustice—no matter the race, religion, gender or creed. This is the exact opposite of what capitalism stands for.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - Epiphany: noun: “a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.”

Propaganda: noun: “information, ideas, or rumours deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.”

The Free Market Fallacy

For you supporters of less government and more free-market, you're barking up the wrong tree.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - We’ve been seeing the warnings at the start of VHS/DVD movies for so long, that we don’t even notice them anymore, except to be irritated that we have to endure them because we can’t fast forward past them.

What does Occupy Wall Street Mean for the Future?

The outcome of this movement cannot be predicted just as, when an earthquake occurs, it’s a fool’s game to try to say how the world will look like when the ground stops moving.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - The Occupy Wall Street movement (the name may change as it evolves) marks the beginning of an epochal cultural revolution and promises to be a societal shift of seismic magnitude.

Lest I be accused of exaggeration, recall that the modern world seems to reinvent itself every 80 years—give or take. If we begin with Galileo in 1610 and go ahead in eight decade jumps...

Top 50 points against capitalism

I differentiate between capitalism and free-enterprise and describe a free-enterprise business as one with no more than two or three co-owners and where the owner(s) know at least 80% of their employees by their first name.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - Most of the good done in the world is done by non-capitalists.

Here are the top 50 aspects of capitalism (in no particular order) that are combining to destroy the earth and mankind along the way...