I don't see "bashing" (whatever that means) either. I do however, think the Kansas remark was unnecessarily derisive and subtracted from the author's otherwise solid message.
I have to agree with you. You would, in my humble opinion, not have all that much more luck finding a "simple-mindedly pious audience" in Kansas than in any other sizable region in the world.
In fact, theres more likelyhood of finding an audience that at least appears simple-mindedly pious in places like Turkey, where standing up to argue a scientific viewpoint in the wrong company is more likely to result in physical violence and even death threats than in Kansas, where the likely results of arguing evolution's case with its opponents are frustration and incredulity at displays of wilful ignorance.