Why a certain percentage of Amtrak riders don't really care for Charles Blow!

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2012

The essence of tribal hustle: Since alighting from Amtak, we've spent a good deal of our time visiting with a sick older friend. But before we head back to the Medicaid-funded facility in question, we thought we'd help you see why a percentage of Amtrak riders don't much care for Charles Blow.

On Wednesday, we discussed Marco Rubio's response to that "curveball question" concerning the age of the earth. That same day, Rubio said that he doesn't doubt the accuracy of current scientific estimates. (Current estimate: very old).

But that wasn't nearly enough for Blow. Reading his new column, we thought we spoted a bit of a hustle in support of the deadly old game in which one tribe must be incomparably right and the other tribe must be horrifically wrong.

Can you spot the hustle here?

BLOW (12/8/12): This week, in an interview with Politico, [Rubio] attempted to mop up that mess.

He said, “There is no scientific debate on the age of the Earth. I mean, it’s established pretty definitively. It’s at least 4.5 billion years old.”

But then he hedged: “I just think in America we should have the freedom to teach our children whatever it is we believe. And that means teaching them science. They have to know the science, but also parents have the right to teach them the theology and to reconcile those two things.”

Why the hedge? Because he is in a party of creationists. According to a June Gallup report, most Republicans (58 percent) believed that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. Most Democrats and independents did not agree.

This anti-intellectualism is antediluvian.

For ourselves, we don't believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. Then too, we don't believe in hustling the tribal rubes, as Blow so typically does.

We were struck by Blow's construction. 58 percent of the other tribe believe that crap; "most" of our tribe does not! Alarms rang all over our temporary headquarters.

We decided to get the statistic. In this case, how much is "most?"

As it turns out, our tribe is pretty heavily antediluvian too! According to the Gallup report Blow cites, 41 percent of Democrats believe that God created humans within the last 10,000 years.

Why didn't Blow give you the actual number? Do you have to ask?

Blow was in his tribal element, letting us know that their tribe is dumb and letting us think that our tribe isn't. The fact that our tribe keeps swallowing Blow's malarkey shows you the flaw in that thinking.

We've noted the basic point here before. We liberals love to mock the other side for holding beliefs which are widely held within our own exalted tribe. It makes us feel good, and it makes us more dumb.

More pensees when we return from today's visit.