They say Abraham Lincoln once posed this question: If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a horse have? Four. Because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg. This may come as a surprise to some, but we’ll come back to it in a minute.

What do successful con jobs and hoaxes have in common? Neither of them would work without gullibility. Now, gullibility is an interesting word. Experts disagree on its origins. Here’s my personal favorite. If you look back far enough, in some ancient mother language, all newly hatched birds are called “gulls.” And you know how baby birds are. They have their tiny beaks open all the time and they’ll eat anything that’s poured down their little throats. Pretty graphic picture of gullibility, wouldn’t you say?

The word “gullibility” has been on my mind a good deal lately. You don’t have to look far to see thousands of tiny beaks open wide and waiting for the next load: Ponzi schemes, government bailouts, affirmative action, health care reform, family planning, global warming, gun control — pick your poison. If you need a dose of toxic nonsense, there’s no shortage of true believers battling for the open throats of the gulls.

It so happens this week is the anniversary of one of my favorite hoaxes. Back in 1868, an atheistic tobacco peddler named George Hull got into an argument with the Rev. Turk, a fundamentalist minister. The Rev. Turk insisted the earth was once inhabited by giants and pointed to Genesis 6:4 as proof. Hull countered by pointing out there were no giant skeletons to back up the biblical claim.

The argument stalemated until Oct. 16, 1869, when workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. (Stub) Newell in Cardiff, N.Y., uncovered the petrified remains of an ancient 10-foot giant. Naturally, many fundamentalist Christians seized on this sensational find as proof of the Bible’s reliability. Imagine their embarrassment when they discovered that Stub Newell was George Hull’s cousin and the giant was really a likeness of Abraham Lincoln carved on a gypsum block. This block was, at Hull’s expense, carved and transported from Chicago to be buried on Newell’s farm where it was sure to be “discovered” by the well diggers.

Some years later, fossilized remains discovered in Piltdown, England, exhibited traits characteristic of modern humans and prehistoric apes. These remains quickly took center stage in the raging debate between scientists committed to the Darwinian theory of evolution and those opposing Darwin’s theory as it conflicts with biblical creation stories. Piltdown Man was triumphantly put forth as scientific proof of the evolutionary link between man and apes. Once again, imagine the embarrassment when, in 1953, many years into the debate, Piltdown Man was conclusively proved a forgery.

You can see the pattern here. Gullible fundamentalists were quick to seize on gigantic remains as conclusive proof of their preconceived beliefs. Gullible scientists were just as quick to embrace a forgery because it offered support for a widely accepted theory. Eagerness to uncritically accept any assertion that agrees with our prejudices makes us all — gullible.

This brings me back to the Lincoln quote. One hallmark of gullibility is the willingness to call a tail a leg because that’s the party line. If the party says it’s a leg, it’s a leg. If the committee agrees it’s a benefit, it’s a benefit. If the organization determines it’s cost effective, it’s cost effective. If the council proclaims it’s healthy, it’s healthy. If the newsman says it’s a fact, it’s a fact. If there are no questioning voices, if there is no respectful dissent, there’s something wrong. Someone’s being gullible.

This week we learned our president is a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Ordinarily a nation would take pride in the fact its leader is selected for such an honor. Unfortunately, this particular award seems to be a source of embarrassment. There seems to be a difference of opinion on whether this selection is justified. But in this case, bellyaching is useless. If the committee say it’s a leg then it’s a leg and that’s the way history will report it.

So what’s all this got to do with manliness? Well, a manly man does his thinking for himself and he may argue about a lot of things, but he won’t deny the facts. Two weeks from today, for Halloween I’ve got another ghost story for you.

I’m Hink and I’ll see ya.