On Tuesday, Curt Schilling praised the "breathtaking resilience" of the employees of 38 Studios.

On Thursday, he fired them.

All of them.

Curt Schilling -- the champion of small government, the first person to find a microphone (or radio station) and lecture us on individual responsibility -- is now spectacularly, unquestionably and forever a business failure. As great a pitcher as he was -- and he was great -- he's twice as horrific at running a company. And as true conservatives go, he has shown himself to be a terrific liberal.

He took $75 million from the jock-sniffing, bloody-sock-story-craving morons in Rhode Island and pissed it away. And now close to 400 people are out of work and the state of Rhode Island is on the hook for (with interest figured in) about $112 million.

Turns out Schilling is basically the welfare recipient he has told us is responsible for so much of our current economic troubles. He happily and famously accepted money from Rhode Island to help out his business -- which is, of course, perfectly within his rights but spits in the face of everything he has ever said or written when it comes to government -- and when he couldn't make payments on the $75 million loan he got on his hands and knees and begged the state for more money, as all true advocates of small government should. A real Tea Party moment. And when the decision-makers said no, what did Schilling do?

Follow his own words, written two years ago -- "It falls on us, the individuals, to find a way out of our own personal crisis." Sort of, I guess. He sure found a way out, the ol' path of least resistance.

But not before Schilling does what Schilling does best, make sure his own ass is covered. He advanced the company $4 million of his own money months ago but was paid back with funds from the Rhode Island loan.

Now, I'm not about to tell Curt Schilling -- who made $114.1 million during his playing career -- what to do with his own money. That's because I actually believe in limited government. But the $4 million Schilling quickly snatched back would've bought a couple of weeks worth of payroll, no? If he truly felt, as he wrote on Tuesday afternoon, that the people at 38 Studios were "determined to stand together as hard and as long as they can," why not keep the taxpayers and the government out of it and be the picture of personal accountability for a month or two? Better yet, why did Schilling even accept the loan in the first place? A real limited government guy might have punted when he couldn't raise enough private equity, would have paused before going into business with a group as inept as the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.

The answer to both is this: Because Curt Schilling isn't pro-business, isn't pro-limited government, isn't pro-conservative, isn't even pro-38 Studios. He's pro-Curt Schilling. Whatever's best for Schilling is what will be done. The marriage between 38 Studios and the state of Rhode Island is exactly what happens when one side hasn't heard the word "no" in 20 years and the other side can't wait to say "yes." If Dave Roberts had been thrown out by Jorge Posada in the 2004 ALCS, the taxpayers of Rhode Island wouldn't be staring at a $112 million bill. Fanboys with checkbooks equals disaster. Schilling deserves plenty of blame, but this was a blunder from top to bottom.

Schilling will, eventually, speak to someone at some length about what went wrong at 38 Studios (sympathetic ears do exist for the guy in this media). And he'll tell us how he accepts all responsibility while also telling us how it's not really all his fault. And then he'll go back to talking about baseball on ESPN (something he's really, really good at) and calling radio shows and, at some point, he'll even touch on political topics. It'll seem a joke to most of us, but it'll happen. Because Schilling thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, he really can't help himself and there will always be jock-sniffers ready to listen.

And years after Schilling is done with his image rehabilitation tour and he's writing about the evils of some government program -- and maybe even kicking around the idea of starting another company (there are 49 other states with wallets) -- the people of Rhode Island will be bailing him out, paying for his failure. And maybe, while Schilling is making the case for some political candidate, some of the 400 people out of work at 38 Studios will have found another job.

"Breathtaking resilience" is exactly what you need when you have to deal with Curt Schilling.