Publisher:
Bonnie King
CONTACT:
Newsroom@Salem-news.com
Advertising:
Adsales@Salem-news.com
~Truth~
~Justice~
~Peace~
TJP
Pay Teachers More
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comThis update is to note that in nearly thirty years, nothing has changed!
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Last month Jerry West wrote a piece titled (“US Extremism Not Surprising") As part of the comments, the relative efficacy of teachers came up.
When the subject of teachers and unions appeared I offered this analysis: “Jerry and Kevin: The two of you are now arguing about money going into education. I think money is, in a fundamental sense, the least important factor...'
Why Unions Go Bad
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comUnions are the deformed offspring of capitalism: As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Unions have a lot of bad press in the United States on two levels. First is the real or alleged corruption that has been displayed by union officials/people over the decades.
Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comAnd as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in hell
Could break that Satan's spell...
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Americans are losing it—in fact, may have already lost it—democracy, that is.
There are those who argue for American exceptionalism and on this point I will yield. The United States was the first new country to come out of the 18th century Enlightenment but it was founded under the false pretences of rationalism—the belief that reason and rationality can govern human society.
Economics as Pseudoscience
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comModern economics is based almost entirely on myths first pronounced by the 18th century moral philosopher, Adam Smith.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
If any field of study is a pseudoscience, it's economics. As Leonard Silk, late economics columnist for the New York Times (an economist himself) once wrote:
Public vs. Private: The winner is...
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comFor those who doubt this thesis, a real world experiment is about to take place; AOL recently bought the Huffington Post for $315 million.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
The battle between public and private is the most destructive theme running through our society.
Now, in the centenary of Ronald Reagan’s birth, the mythology is being goosed by the manufactured mythology of Reagan himself.
Tea Party - The Real Agenda
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comHow has this sorry state been achieved?
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
If you’re a tea party supporter, be careful what you wish for.
If politicians holding the "tea party" philosophy ever gain any real power, here’s what you can look forward to.
The Second American Civil War
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comThe Second American Civil War is not going to be North against South, but is going to be worker against worker; those have a little, against those who have less.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
It’s called whistling past the graveyard—something the majority of Americans are now doing. They think, hope, they can escape the imminent conflagration.
The unraveling of America has begun in earnest. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), 42 percent of American children live in low-income homes and about a fifth live in poverty.
America: Between a Rock and Hard Place
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.com"Remember, we’re all in this alone" - Lily Tomlin
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
In March, 2009, astronaut Sandra Magnus was a mission specialist at the International Space Station. Asked what the earth looks like from the ISS, she said:
Up here I've seen the world from a different viewpoint. I see it as a whole system, I don't see it as a group of individual people or individual countries...
America: The Counter-Revolution
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comIn the “democracy” that America has evolved to, money counts more than people.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
I’ve been watching the build-up 40 years. The counter-Revolution is on.
I’m talking about the American rich against you and everyone else. The middle class is being decimated and the ranks of the poor continue to swell.
Calgary Elects Canada`s First Muslim Mayor
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comNenshi’s election is apparently the result of a resurgent youth in the city.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
The political tectonic plates in Alberta shifted on Monday when Calgary, a city widely perceived to be the most conservative in the country, elected 38-year-old Naheed K. Nenshi to the post of Mayor.
I only first heard of Nenshi a few days ago when I saw some of his supporters wearing “Nenshi for Mayor” sweatshirts when I was downtown.
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.
Salem-News.com:
googlec507860f6901db00.html
Quick Links
DINING
Willamette UniversityGoudy Commons Cafe
Dine on the Queen
Willamette Queen Sternwheeler
MUST SEE SALEM
Oregon Capitol ToursCapitol History Gateway
Willamette River Ride
Willamette Queen Sternwheeler
Historic Home Tours:
Deepwood Museum
The Bush House
Gaiety Hollow Garden
AUCTIONS - APPRAISALS
Auction Masters & AppraisalsCONSTRUCTION SERVICES
Roofing and ContractingSheridan, Ore.
ONLINE SHOPPING
Special Occasion DressesAdvertise with Salem-News
Contact:AdSales@Salem-News.com
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy