Editor, Gazette-Journal:

We’ve all seen the letters from the "Agenda 21" crowd, ceaselessly uttering their contempt for the climate change minions who are being controlled by the intellects of a supposed global plot to take over their property in Mathews. Ken Cuccinelli’s (and others’) very public, baseless attacks on scientists and their work on climate issues have left reasonable people scratching their heads. Why would people with no knowledge of a subject presume to know more than the people who live and breathe it? Why are the attacks reaching extreme emotional levels? There’s more going on than it seems.

In fact, anti-intellectualism has become popular in the new conservative movement. Rick Santorum, at a recent Tea Party event, said that President Obama has a vested interest in getting everyone to go to college, which makes him a "snob" who wants young people to be indoctrinated by liberal professors. What? Anti-intellectual sent...