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.