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~Truth~
~Justice~
~Peace~
TJP
Why Occupy Wall Street?
By Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.comThe eighteenth century philosopher John Locke, famously coined the concept of people’s fundamental rights as being to life, liberty and property and qualified this by asserting that people should appropriate only what they could use, leaving “enough and as good” for others.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
There is no consensus definition of capitalism, but there is general agreement that it is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned, or primarily so.
Under the umbrella of competitive markets, goods and services are created with the goal of generating profits with wages and prices being the basic elements of the system.
Is It Effective to Occupy Wall Street?
By Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.com“The trade unions joined on Wednesday. That was good enough for me, and I joined, too,” writes Paul Berman. And for those who criticize the movement as lacking specific demands, he retorts: “Everyone intuitively knows the demands.”
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
You may recall that when this protest movement began a few weeks ago, the mainstream media ignored it. It was only covered by less powerful outlets like Salem-News.com.
America itself, as a Crime Against Humanity
By Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.comAmerica, originally intended to be a “shining city on a hill” has in its moral priggishness turned out, instead, to be a sinkhole in the valley of the shadow of death.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
I am so angry today against the United States and its moral crimes, that I fear I may go a bit overboard. So be it.
We all know what’s happened and is happening in Mexico because of America’s drug policy. And now the same fate is befalling Guatemala. Mexican cartels working with local gangs control around 40 percent of the country.
Why most people believe in capitalism
By Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.comNo cheers for capitalism!
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Capitalism is fundamentally about the production, distribution and consumption of goods. By itself, this is a neutral and harmless reality.
The harm enters when production alone, becomes capitalism’s raison d’être Capitalism “works” because capitalists risk their capital in an enterprise in the hope/expectation they will receive an increased return (profit) on their investment. Again, this is not an unreasonable expectation.
Rick Perry for President
By Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.comAmerica, it has been said, is on its way to becoming a Fascist state. This depends on the definition. The WW2 dictator Benito Mussolini said: “Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power”.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
In an August 25 column in the New York Times, David Brooks said “It’s time to take Perry seriously. He could be our next president.”.
Being reasonable and progressive has little traction in American politics these days. But I’m not giving up; I just see the writing on the wall. The American people are going to have to be driven to their knees and their faces ground into the dirt, before they realize how they have been fooled.
The T.A.M.I. Show-Wha Hoppen?
By Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.comI can only come to one conclusion: Politically the American people are, collectively, the stupidest people on the planet, followed close behind by the people of Alberta.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
A few days ago I read an excerpt from a new book by Marc Spitz titled Jagger . The excerpt covered the Stones’ appearance at
Barbara Sue Beaver was no capitalist
By Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.com“America’s credit-driven capitalist model has suffered a warning heart attack and needs a total rethink.”
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
The sun was low in the north-west, sixteen minutes away from setting on May 25, 2011.
From I to We (Updated)
By Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.comCapitalism is framed on the assumption that man is an animal--end of discussion. But, because, transcendentally, man is infinitely more, it's undeniable that capitalism is not natural as a dominant way of life for society.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
“To live as a rational animal does not mean to think like a man and live as an animal. We must both think and live as men.” Living as an animal, is the ethos of capitalism.
Living Wages
By Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.comThe American people en masse have been doing what good capitalists never do—they’ve been spending their capital.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
When I leave a restaurant, in addition to leaving a generous tip, I silently thank everyone working there for giving me money. They hadn’t given me money directly of course, but they did indirectly, in that they are not paid a living wage which is reflected in lower meal costs. In other words they paid for part of my meal.
The standard rebuttal from restaurant owners is that they would “like” to pay their people more, but in order to remain competitive they have to cut costs as much as possible.
Canada safe haven from terrorism
By Daniel Johnson, Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.comCanada ranks 86 out of 197 nations. The U.S. is at 61, just behind Germany. Norway had been at 112 before the Oslo massacre.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
All the Western nations were in the medium risk range with the U.S. at 61, Germany at 62 and France at 45. There are 197 countries tracked.
The rankings are based on the frequency and intensity of terrorist incidents from April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011 and taking further into account the history of terrorism in the country. Norway is ranked at 112 although that rank predated the Oslo massacre of last month.
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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