The Crowbar

PZ Myers, everybody’s favorite atheist biologist, seems to think he’s far superior to those morons who believe in delusional religion. On his blog, Pharyngula, Myers covers a horrific story of a religious cult in Baltimore, MD:

…they denied a 16-month-old boy food and water because he did not say “Amen” at mealtimes. After he died, they prayed over his body for days, expecting a resurrection, then packed it into a suitcase with mothballs. They left it in a shed in Philadelphia, where it remained for a year before detectives found it last spring.

The mother, Ria Ramkissoon, is on trial for murder but Myers really has a beef with the psychiatrists who evaluated her:

Psychiatrists who evaluated Ramkissoon at the request of a judge concluded that she was not criminally insane. Her attorney, Steven Silverman, said the doctors found that her beliefs were indistinguishable from religious beliefs, in part because they were shared by those around her. “She wasn’t delusional, because she was following a religion,” Silverman said, describing the findings of the doctors’ psychiatric evaluation.

Myers response to this? “Well. Why should the religion label excuse delusional beliefs?” Just Damn. Myers is attempting to ‘slam’ those who hold religious beliefs by grouping them in the same class as “delusional” child murderer Ria Ramkissoon. Good going, there, Myers. Obviously the psychiatrists were trying not to let this woman get away with the insanity defense, which means she would get life in prison or the death penalty instead of going free. I guess in Pharyngula-world that’s really awful of them.

Yes, Kevin Drum contemptuously dismisses the market reaction to Obama trap-dooring GM’s CEO and forcing Chrysler to merge with foreign car maker Fiat:

As for the news that the stock market plunged on the news, spare me.  Investors are idiots if they think this is bad news.  A tougher restructuring plan is better in the long run for everyone but the auto industry’s bondholders, and I’ll bet that even most of them have either hedged their positions or else sold off their holdings at 70 cents on the dollar to speculators.  Save your tears for someone else.

Drum has nothing but contempt for those who dare to exercise a choice contrary his Better Judgement. He regurgitates the idea that restructuring is “better.. for everyone” but bondholders. Yeah, restructuring has worked so well. Amazing.

How dare anyone suggest that people starting new businesses turn first to family when looking for funding! And, how dare you suggest that vampirically taxing the rich would mean less money would be available for people starting new business! Swami Progressive Matt Yglesias thinks that that idea is “crazy.”  You see, Yglesias instead believes that all rich uncles should be forced to give their money to the government:

The argument is that “we can’t have progressives taxes because somebody’s rich uncle might not have the wherewithal to subsidize somebody’s business start-up.”

So you see that Yglesias and Democratic Strategist Ed Kilgore believe that Evil Rich People are horde all their money giant vaults like Scrooge McDuck from the cartoon Duck Tales. And, like every good progressive, Yglesias believes that he knows best how to spend someone else’s money. Like on Universal Socialized Medicine:

The lack of a guarantee of affordable health coverage is a major impediment to entrepreneurship in the United States. The status quo systematically discourages talented, skilled people form leaving jobs at existing firms in order to strike out on their own

Of course Yglesias forgets to mention that one major impediment to affordable health coverage is half-baked government run health care programs like Medicare. The other major impediment is that eployer provided medical insurance removes direct responsibility for health coverage from the consumer, creating a dependent class ripe for political manipulation. Yglesias is being disingenuous by acting like he’s pro-entepreneur. He isn’t pro business, but he’s trying to fool you into thinking he is by throwing up the “we all need universal health care’ specter. The truth is that Yglesias and other progressives want to tax your rich relatives out of existence so you have to rely on government to start your business. It’s all about control.

Ahh, the fantabulous Markos Zuniga of DailyKos has indulged in fantasy once more. This time Zuniga wonders aloud, “Where would conservatives go?” His fantasy consists of this scenario:  if conservatives were like the fringe reality-challenged liberals who promised to move to Canada when Bush won, which countries would they move to? Zuniga believes that if conservatives were like the out-of-touch fringe liberals, they would flee to Iran, Russia, Singapore and Dubai. He indulges in his fantasy even though, through his own admission, conservatives are have never declared such intentions. Through his words Zuniga does give us insight to his broken concept of conservatives, which I compiled: Conservatives:

• love Theocracy
• also  want an Oligarchy as a form of government
• desire a police force that regularly assaults members of the populace who do not hold to proper moral standards
• are warmongers who wish to engage in war above all else
• are imperialists who desire an empire
• believe in “unfettered” capitalism
• would throw all gay people in jail
• are all white and racist against Asians
• are all wealthy enough to live in an Arab emirate
• enjoy oppressive religion

Sit back and marvel for a moment. That’s what fringe liberals like Zuniga really think conservatives are like. Is there really any hope of communicating with people like this? I think not.

Juan Cole of Informed Comment discovered an interesting report from Guardian TV.

A Guardian Television report suggests that 75% of the 80,000 Afghan army troops are regular marijuana users. Many are alleged to be village juvenile delinquents who were kicked out. Discipline and tactical know-how is limited. They are facing old-time guerrillas like the Hizb-i Islami of Gulbadin Hikmatyar. Will 4,000 additional US trainers, promised by President Obama on Friday, be enough?

At least they’re in a good mood.

Our friendly friend Digby is upset that Notsocialist Overlord-of-All-Big-Corporations Obama didn’t also fire Chrysler CEO Richard Nardelli. Nardelli has deeply offended Digby in the following ways:

• He was compensated $210 Million after resigning as Home Depot CEO
• He donated $16,200 to Republican Thomas Suozzi’s New York gubenatorial campaign
• NY GOP operative Roger Stone helped bring down Elliot Spitzer (Digby implies Stone is somehow protecting Nardelli)

Digby thinks that Obama should “make an example” of Nardelli, “ the poster boy for worthless, overcompensated losers.” So very kind of her.

Speaking of populism, Christy Hardin Smith over at Firedoglake is up in banadaged arms about health care. She is specifically upset that the government isn’t footing the the entire health care bill for everyone in the nation.  Smith has a message for us all, that “half-assed health insurance doesn’t work.” I suppose that means that Whole-Assed insurance would work? Isn’t that the angelic Notsocialism that leftist bloggers keep telling us about, Christy? Smith builds her argument in favor of socialized medicine entirely with anecdotal accounts of people having difficulty with the existing health care system. Making people pay for their own care is Evil Capitalist talk.

In what universe does it make sense that the people who most need regular medical care are the ones least likely to get it?

That would be in the Socialized Medicine Universe.

Going a bit populist. Rob Scorcia stood up for himself after years of being bullied and ended up being convicted of assault and having to serve a one year jail term.

 When their cars were then egged again, Scorcia finally snapped. “I just felt I was backed into a corner,” he explains, an earnest kid living a nightmare he can’t believe. “Every authority figure I turned to in my life couldn’t solve the problem for me. I was seriously in fear of him harming my life or someone in my family. Looking back, I didn’t feel I had a lot of options.” So Scorcia did what he admits was the “dumbest thing” he’s ever done. On June 18, 2006, the 18-year-old grabbed a pellet gun and went with a friend to try to scare away the guy who has terrorized his life. At the sight of the weapon, the bully fell to his knees. “I want you to leave me and my family alone,” Scorcia told him. A few hours later, he was under arrest for using an imitation handgun in the commission of a robbery.                     

His parents should set up a legal fund, at the very least.

Amazing post by mayfly at Feministing.

This post was inspired by an obnoxious beat down I got recently at another blog when I dared to refer to myself as a rape victim. Apparently there was nothing wrong with my post except for my “offensive” use of the word victim when referring to myself.  

The woman is extremely brave. 3:46PM UPDATE: Just for clarification, I was NOT raped. The purpose of this post is to highlight the courage of poster “mayfly” over at Feministing. I encourage everyone to read carefully before coming to conclusions.

Good news for Obama, zippy890 at Democratic Underground says this:

Instead of speaking in generalities about good-and-evil or the democratic transformation of an entire region, Obama laid out a clear and focused goal – “to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future.” It may not be easy to reach that goal, but by delineating specific, limited objectives Obama gave the public definite criteria by which his strategy may be evaluated.

So, Obama won’t be judged by the number of American soldiers killed like Bush was? If there is another terrorist attack in the US, methinks Obama will be judged by that.