Please note this post was originally entitled “Seriously Baltimore?”.

Frank M. Conaway, Jr. is a current lawmaker in the Maryland House of Delegates, automatically starting a new term since there is no challenger for the November election.  Mr. Conaway is the son of former Delegate Frank Conaway, Sr.  He made it through the Democratic primary earlier this year despite not doing any apparent campaigning.  While only an anecdote, there were no campaign signs visible at any polling places I visited or drove past leading up the primary.  Who needs contributions to spend on advertising when you have dynastic name recognition thanks to your dad?

I recently had the displeasure of coming across Frank M. Conaway, Jr.’s literary works which he has apparently been writing for the last 13 years and as recently as earlier this summer.  Thanks to Adam Meister for the first introduction to them.  They appear to include the following titles available on Amazon (source of the publishing dates) or through his new website:

• Baptist Gnostic Christian Eubonic Kundalinion Spiritual Ki Do Hermeneutic Metaphysics: The Word: Hermeneutics (2001)
• THE 20 PENNIES A DAY DIET PLAN (2012)
  • Aside: don’t be fooled, this largely involves the same concepts as the other books, and I stumbled across some food reviews in the YouTube videos mentioned below.
• Trapezium Giza Pyramid Artificial Black Hole Theory (2013)
• Christian Kundalini Science- Proof of the Soul- Cryptogram Solution of Egyptian Stela 55001- & Opening the Hood of Ra (2014)
  • If you’re wondering what Stela 55001 is, it is yet another typo and appears to reference 55001 Papyrus (regarded as the worlds first men’s magazine as it depicts erotica) which is in fact not a stela (or stone slab) at all, which is what makes it a unique artifact from Egypt (no other scroll paintings are known to have survived).

Mr. Conaway’s House of Delegates biography page lists him as an “Author”, while claiming no authorship to any specific works, so presumably this is the same Frank M. Conaway, Jr.  In the course of researching this post, I have confirmed this assumption thanks to his consistent misspellings, and also uncovered approximately 54 videos / rambling rants posted in the last month on YouTube under user account 314meta.  They are clearly the Frank M. Conaway Jr. in question.

Have a look below of his work entitled “Baptist Gnostic Christian Eubonic Kundalinion Spiritual Ki Do Hermeneutic Metaphysics: The Word: Hermeneutics” (yes, that’s actually the title) :

Upon starting to attempt to read his work, it immediately becomes evident that no one except perhaps Mr. Conaway  himself has ever read this book, much less an editor or publisher.  It is littered with grammatical and spelling errors and contains a delightful pseudo-bibliography at the end (“THE KEYS”) which, also littered with misspellings.  In an attempt to “unlock” Mr. Conaway’s writing with “THE KEYS” provided, I attempted to browse to the only website listed which appears to be an article discussing religion and the brain.  Unless this is another one of Mr. Conaway’s typographical errors, the domain “msnbo.com” does not exist and a cursory search of The Wayback Machine Internet Archive provided by Archive.org indicates the domain has never hosted anything more than a placeholder page.  I assume this was originally an MSNBC article which doesn’t seem to have been captured by The Wayback Machine.

I’m relatively new to Baltimore, having moved here in 2011 from Washington, D.C. so I had to do a bit more research to get a complete picture of Mr. Conaway in order to put his writings in context.  The City Paper was a great help, detailing Mr. Conaway’s notable baggage in an article from 2006.  The aforementioned article references Mr. Conaway’s 2003 separation from his wife in which she received a protective order against him and swore under oath that he was mentally ill, suffering from bi-polar disorder, and had stopped taking his medication.  Mind you, this is prior to Mr. Conaway’s first term as delegate beginning in 2007.

I do not take mental illness lightly, nor do I claim that I am a psychologist.  I want to make it clear that I do not mean to disparage Mr. Conaway for having a condition; however, when that condition may inhibit a public servant from performing one’s duties which inherently require clear thinking and the ability to discern logic from fallacious argument or complete nonsensical delusions, that is where I feel obligated to speak up.

Writing is the manifestation of consolidated thought — the ability to coherently put together and communicate ideas and arguments through written word.  Wildly disorganized writing which appears to communicate sincere belief in profoundly bizarre concepts, as illustrated by the content of Mr. Conaway’s literary works I find truly and genuinely disturbing as the work product of an elected official.

Mr. Conaway’s books detail his ability to interpret biblical scripture, including deciphering hidden messages in various biblical verses and Egyptian art.  His writings he passes off as “science” (in his “talking horse” titled video) as well, which is clearly a delusion.  John Nash, the very real Princeton professor whom Russell Crowe portrayed in A Beautiful Mind, had similarly attempted (with perhaps less self-perceived success) to find messages in numbers and equations.  Nash, a brilliant but afflicted mathematician, was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but not before it had unfortunately destroyed his marriage.  The parallels in Mr. Conaway’s life, based on the details provided by the City Paper article, closely mirror that of Nash.  The article above also notes that schizophrenia typically presents earlier than bi-polar, with which Mr. Conaway is said to have been diagnosed.  Given the creation or at least upload of 54 videos in the last month, I don’t think it is a stretch of the imagination that Mr. Conaway could be suffering from a manic episode, if his bi-polar diagnosis is correct.

While John Nash was integral in the development and advancement of game and number theory, Mr. Conaway’s weak resume and lack of accomplishments short of riding the coattails of his father’s name to election and now re-election, stand in obvious contrast.  The ability for Mr. Conaway to draw the most votes of any candidate in the general election of 2006 is inexplicable other than name recognition.  Unfortunately, more than a glancing look at this candidate show an inability to commit to jobs for particularly long, pursuit of foolhardy businesses (like his replica car business), and presumably difficulty following through an entire bachelors degree given the separation of his his years of study at three different universities.  This would be consistent with bi-polar as described here, and I would like to especially put emphasis on NIMH’s study discussed in this article which indicates an average worker with bipolar disorder misses 65.5 workdays on average, which I find to be unacceptable for an elected representative serving in the Maryland House of Delegates which is only in session from January to May.

Baltimore City appears to be continuing to elect the politicians it deserves (of questionable skills, questionable character surrounding themselves by convicted drug dealers in a town where an estimated 10% of the population is addicted to heroin, and questionable mental faculties) but not the one it needs (someone with character and high ethical standards, clear thinking, and unwilling to dodge questions), as is evidenced by the continued decay of many parts of the City.

Perhaps I’m suffering from “The Hubris of the Defeated“, to borrow from A Beautiful Mind, but anyone who doesn’t think that the political game in Baltimore isn’t flawed isn’t paying attention.  Mr. Conaway just happens to be a remarkable manifestation of how broken the local political scene is.