No, science shows that the healthy brain continues to develop new connections well into 60s. The brain matures in the later 20s. That has nothing to do with maximum potential.

Of course, those studies do not factor in the long-term effects of FoxNews and Glen Beck - which may, in fact, over - stimulate the amygdala to the deteriment of the cerebral cortex.

Better than Beck -
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/michael_merzenich_on_the_elastic_brain.html

On the question of brain "maturity", I do not have at hand the "science" of this but it is well known that most geniuses do their most important work before they are thirty. I also note that they seldom become department heads at that age.

Disdain for science and scientific expertise has been a hallmark of the Reight-WingNuts Tampering with reports on climate change, suppressing science within the U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife, radically misrepresenting the research potential of existing stem cell lines—these are just a few cases where the wing-nuts have distorted scientific research to appease political and business interests.

Previous Republican administrations have proved willing, on occasion, to subordinate science to politics. As Chris Mooney argues in his book, The Republican War on Science, disregard for scientists and the scientific method has grown and ripened with the modern conservative movement. From Barry Goldwater's anti-intellectualism, through Ronald Reagan’s sympathy for creationism and Newt Gingrich's passion for science "skeptics," on through the present day, Republicans have shown a marked preference for politically inspired fringe theories over the findings of long-established and world-renowned scientific bodies.

How did "wing nut", a lowly fastener, become a term of disdain?

Ah, yes... the neo-fascists railing against the intellectuals.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

Oh, and never mind that Dr. Sowell is an Ivy League educated, intellectual (clearly one of those eggheads we should ignore).

"Yes, too many of our "brilliant" elites continue to mistake intelligence for wisdom."

Could Thomas Sowell be one of them, or does he get a pass because he is a Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow at The Hoover Institution?

I can't recall any grass roots organization springing from the Hoover Institution. Nor do I recall Milton Friedman calling for populist control of society. He seemed to greatly favor large capital intensive corporations.
OldTimeLefty