What IS that smell???

Thank God for the News Journal
By: Joseph Walther

Delawareans cannot pick up a newspaper lately without reading tirades predicting the impending doom of the state’s political system. The News Journal, unfortunately the only newspaper of consequence within the state, has been plastering its pages with dire reports. To begin with, there is the alleged blatant cronyism on the part of the state’s governor. It seems she wants to appoint a couple of old friends to her cabinet. How shocking! They hit us again with more bad news reports about the General Assembly exempting itself from the Sunshine Laws, thus keeping the perception of secret, smoke-filled back rooms alive and well. Continuing with the bad news stuff, the newspaper reports that there is the appearance that once elected; a member of the General Assembly tends to remain there for life. The next thing the newspaper will claim is that it appears as though when a member of the General Assembly dies in office, the spouse has an apparent right to fill the vacancy.

The Governor, Ruth Ann Minner, has the look of a matronly older woman who cares deeply about people. She has been affectionately nicknamed “Aunt Bea” of Mayberry fame. “Aunt Bea” of Mayberry was, indeed, a kind, caring, and nurturing matronly aunt. Ruth Ann Minner, however, is the antithesis of “Aunt Bea.” In reality, she is a calculating, nasty old politician who is now trying to con St. Peter into eventually permitting her to enter heaven. Some people in Delaware wonder how in the world she rose to a statewide level in Delaware Politics. There are two reasons that come to my mind.

First, there is her long-standing dedication to the Delaware Democratic Party. She became involved with the General Assembly about two weeks after the birth of Jesus Christ or maybe it was Moses. Regardless, she remained steadfast in her loyalty, doing whatever task the party leadership assigned. You name it and she did it for the good of the “team”, including two terms as the state’s Lieutenant Governor, an office that ranks right up there with… with… Well, to tell you the truth, we are not sure what the Lieutenant Governor does. We have to get back to you on that. Be this as it may, in 2000, gasping in horror and realizing that everyone else was busy that year, the party leadership crossed its collective fingers and gave her the nomination for Governor.

The second reason, intimately tied to the first, is the impression that the Delaware Republicans have major problems walking and chewing gum at the same time. This is especially obvious relative to getting its candidates elected to statewide office. Individually, there are some intelligent and capable republicans. Collectively, however, the party could not hit the water if it fell out of a boat!

The Republican Party, with the recent exceptions of Pete (Six Pack) du Pont and Mike (The Consensus Maker) Castle, has a dismal record in the statewide arena. The party’s propensity for peeing on its own foot is shocking to watch. No matter how sure a win seems, the party always manages a major intra-party hissy fit, resulting in a party-splitting primary that hands the victory to the Democrats.

She received her party’s nomination for reelection in 2004. Her party’s logic was as solid as logic gets. The only thing standing in her way was those annoying ole Republicans and, even under the best of circumstances, they have trouble electing their candidates to statewide office even when you practically give them the election. Even though she did everything in her power to lose, she won because the Republicans had still not learned how to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Of course, other circumstances favored Ruth Ann’s reelection. She had, although luckily, weathered a rather bleak state economic downturn, “leading” the state back to prosperity. She even managed to find some previously “lost” funds that made it possible to give state employees a raise. Suddenly, about six months before her reelection, the economic forecasts took a turn for the better and things started looking a lot brighter for the state. Couple this with the fact that she had not intentionally killed anyone and the Republican constant of not being able to win a statewide office, even with no opponents, and it is easy to see how she won reelection. Oh, and the fact that Delaware voters seem oblivious to all but the rankest of political stenches, did not hurt her chances either.

Politicians, for the most part, have huge egos. Political environments make such egos almost a necessity. However, those egos have heavy coats of lacquered humility and congeniality, both of which are required to render a politician likeable. Listening to her during some of her statements to the press makes it apparent that Ruth Ann Minner never made it to the lacquer factory for her treatments.

The reports of her penchant for cronyism are true. Can you imagine it, a politician with a penchant for cronyism? She simply wants to appoint two old and, as she puts it, “competent” friends. Mr. Cordrey is a congenial individual. He was a competent leader during his tenure with the General Assembly. Unfortunately, the position of Finance Secretary requires some technical qualifications that Mr. Cordrey does not have. No matter how old a friend he is or how competent a politician he was, I do not think he will be a good and competent Finance Secretary.

Mr. Sharp, on the other hand, was nothing more than a strong-armed thug during his long tenure as a member of the General Assembly’s leadership. He had an ego the size of Jupiter and a tempter to match. He was vindictive to a point of obsession. He not only did not make it to the lacquer factory, he was unaware that one existed. The only thing that has changed in his life is his age. Permitting his likes around innocent human beings without a muzzle is a mistake at best and an atrocity at worst.

Finally, most incumbents in this state seem to stay in office for life. They either die in office or retire before any new blood surfaces. Even then, the new blood may not actually be new. A lot of older blood has tried for years to get to the political surface. I am not sure that this is a bad thing in and of itself. Delaware has enjoyed solid growth in most areas over the past thirty years. It is financially solid and does not share the dire problems many other states experience with alarming regularity.

None of this happens by accident. Regardless of how flakey some of the statewide office holders seem, the General Assembly is non-partisan when it counts. Delawareans know this and leave well enough alone. They are willing to make changes but the political stench emanating from Dover has to be unbearable before they do so. Things could change, though, especially with the recent exposé of the General Assembly exempting itself from the Sun Shine Laws. Then again, maybe it won’t. I guess it will depend on how strong an odor comes out of Dover. Time will… Do you smell that? Anyway, as I said, time will tell. God, that smells! Did something crawl in here and die?

Joe Walther is a freelance writer. You may contact him by clicking on CONTACT ME above or by email at Joe_Walther@comcast.net

Absolutists with high blood pressure should not read this!

It Ain’t Science!
By: Joseph Walther


Warning, this column contains some highly reactionary terms, particularly for members of both the God and Non-God groups. The mere sight of some of these terms has caused some uncontrollably severe reactions. In some cases, people begin to babble incoherently. In others, the blood vessels located in the temple and forehead areas just burst from pent-up frustration. In the most serious of reactions, some members of both groups just start foaming at the mouth. If you include yourself among the clueless, proceed with extreme caution.

The News Journal, Wilmington, Delaware published an article entitled; “Local creation scientists bring passion to evolution debate” this past Saturday, January 8, 2005. On Sunday, January 9, 2005, the Pittsburg Post-Gazette® published another article entitled “Intelligent design: Is it just creationism lite?”. Both articles pertained to the ongoing battle between the God and Non-God folks. Both articles were informative and neither one took a stand.

The News Journal article related the attempts of a retired chemist by the name of Dr. Harry Wolfe, to reconcile his evangelical Christian beliefs with evolution. Harry believes that God created the world in six 24-hour days and that the Earth is no more than 20,000 years old. Harry sums up the motivation behind his conversion by saying, “The more I thought about the details of evolution and how one species led to another, the more I thought there is no way it could have occurred.”

The Pittsburg Post-Gazette® article was similar in concept but far more alarming in content and reasoning. Among other things, the school board in a York County Dover Area School District instructed its teachers to discuss intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in a ninth-grade biology course. The board reasoned that Darwin’s theory is both controversial and incomplete.

I want to make a distinction between creationism and intelligent design. They are not the same. Creationism is a belief in the Old Testament and the Book of Genesis as both a religious theology and a scientific and historical record of the origins of the universe and human civilization as created by God. Intelligent design leaves God out of the picture and bases its core believe around a contention that neither natural selection nor macro-evolutionary biology adequately explains sub-cellular development. Proponents of intelligent design believe that life reaches a point of “irreducible complexity”. Once reached, nature cannot reduce it further without destroying it. Therefore, there must be an intelligent designer.

Harry Wolfe of Newark, Delaware holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry. He is not stupid. I readily concede that his theory could be correct. I make the concession because I do not know if there is a God. What bothers me, though, is that Harry could be wrong. Yet, I see no hint of willingness on his part to make such a concession. Harry, a trained scientist himself, violates the most fundamental tenets of legitimate science. He did not form any sort of hypothesis test for his theory.

The group from Pittsburg, as well as Harry Wolfe, confuses theory with facts. Such people use the two terms interchangeably. This is a mistake because they are not the same thing.

Facts are things that happen, nature’s reality as it were. Theories attempt to explain facts. Legitimate scientists take consistent facts and form testable hypotheses. A hypothesis that substantially and consistently supports the facts becomes a theory. As the body and diversity of the facts explained becomes ever larger, scientists label the theory “robust”. If we can use that theory consistently in the prediction of new outcomes, scientists label it as “reliable”. A scientific theory stands until proven wrong using the same scientific reasoning in its development. No one EVER proves a theory correct!

In light of the above, Darwin’s Theory has done quite well since its publication over 150 years ago. If anything, the theory has been refined beyond anything Darwin could have imagined. While it has not answered many questions, it has withstood the ultimate test in time and countless scientific experiments.

Creation theory is NOT science. Intelligent design is NOT science. Are these worthy of study? Yes, they certainly are, but NOT in science courses. I suspect that the use of different terminology when describing religious absolutism has an ulterior motive. That motive is to get religion into the public school system. There is nothing wrong with this, either, as long as administrators do not reduce it to dogmatic indoctrination. A course in Comparative Religions IS appropriate; a biology course is NOT!

Legitimate science consists of numerous questions. We may never find the answers for many of them. Religious indoctrination however, consists of many unquestioned answers. We are not supposed to question those answers under any circumstances. I prefer the former predicament.

Science takes no stand relative to God’s existence. Attempts to disguise religious absolutism as science for the purposes of indoctrination, stinks. Adding the term “science” does not legitimize it. We can spray a turd with lots of perfume to make it smell better. When we step on it, though, it still smells like a turd. It ain’t Science!

Joe Walther is a freelance writer. You may contact him by clicking on CONTACT ME above or by email at Joe_Walther@comcast.net