I, somewhat, disagree with that tweet - it isn't HALF the time; it is MOST of the time.

And, I only hear it from Liberals who are pissed that I don't think the same as them.

I agree with your correction.

Just had an interchange -- or rather an assholechange...except that the asshole was not transformed in any way -- with a reader.

He sneered that I was wrong about something really basic, when I simply hadn't gone into it in the column because it was off topic. (The topic was lactose tolerance as an evolved adaptation in some humans. He was all, "Hah! You're wrong! Mothers' milk is 40 percent lactose. You idiot, were you too busy to Google?"

Yes, babies all drink milk -- until they are weaned. What happens is that some people, after the advent of dairying, developed the ability to drink milk post weaning (via lactase enzyme produced post-weaning).

If I were writing a book, and not a column, I might have included that and then, oh, a section on "life history strategy" and how it affects mating preferences.

Anyway, the guy was all sneery and pissed off because I didn't "admit" that he was right and I was wrong, and that I didn't understand something simple.

Meanwhile, I once had a two-hour conversation on Skype about this with an anthropologist friend -- the kind of guy who stays up all night (at conferences) with nerdbros in a hotel room doing math problems.

If there's anything I'm schooled in, it's the evolution of lactose tolerance in humans!

PS If you're interested in this:

http://www.nature.com/news/archaeology-the-milk-revolution-1.13471

During the most recent ice age, milk was essentially a toxin to adults because — unlike children — they could not produce the lactase enzyme required to break down lactose, the main sugar in milk. But as farming started to replace hunting and gathering in the Middle East around 11,000 years ago, cattle herders learned how to reduce lactose in dairy products to tolerable levels by fermenting milk to make cheese or yogurt. Several thousand years later, a genetic mutation spread through Europe that gave people the ability to produce lactase — and drink milk — throughout their lives. That adaptation opened up a rich new source of nutrition that could have sustained communities when harvests failed.

In case you're wondering, as a person of Ashkenazi Jewish origins (northeastern Europe) I not only can drink milk in adulthood, I drink at least a pint of half and half a day in my coffee, and go through cheese like a family of French rats.

Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out.

Amy: "the guy was all sneery and pissed off because I didn't "admit" that he was right and I was wrong."

OMG! Yes! that's exactly it - some folks aren't interested in exchanging ideas or information. They just want you to "admit" their superior knowledge/intellect. How dare you not!

And it isn't something limited to online "conversations" either; I see/hear it ALL the time in the real world.

In the words of Dolly Parton (yea, I know using a country music star to make a point - how lame) some folks aren't "hard of hearing"; they're just "hard-of-listening."

Along the same lines, when I'd disagree with a former girlfriend of mine, she loved to hurl "You're just not listening to me!" at me or (my favorite), "You just don't respect women."

Needless to say, this relationship didn't last long.

Well, it IS you that has the problem: See?

I've seen a stat that 75% of humans cannot digest lactose into adulthood.

If that is anywhere near the ballpark...

1 in 7 people are Chinese.
1 person of 7 in my immediate family are lactose intolerant.
The Chinese tend to be lactose intolerant.

Logical conclusion: The lactose intolerant family member must be Chinese.