I'm really really happy that mozilla keeps pushing firefox. I was for some time concerned that chrome's success would put mozilla in an less productive state.
Other commenters are complaining about SQL written in the controller. I don't see this as problem in general, depending on project and workflow it can be valid. OOP nit-picks will see a problem there, but OOP users know how to fix it right?
Back on topic:
I'm grieving with ORM for some time now. The main problem is that people doesn't really think about how appropriate an ORM solution over any other solution is. They learn one ORM system and use it everywhere. Worse, they do everything the ORM way, writing abstract ORM queries that should have been straight SQL (for readability). And you know what? Those people (or projects) are fire-and-forget. They work on a project for few month and then they're gone. They don't have experience with projects that run several years and all those problems tied to it.
I think ORM (or full-stack framework) prototyping is much faster than straight SQL - within it's limitations. But for long term projects it's likely toxic.
So in my opinion, ORM is pretty good for prototyping or low maintenance projects, or just prototypes. Considering your past it's learning curve.
"Again, I think we need to talk about the best tool for the job, not the best tool for every job. Relational databases are not the best tool for every data storage job."
Pretty much disqualifies him as moron. Hell, he doesn't say anything.