The Stimulus...Leadership...Bioethics...Politics...Innovation

CHEAP GRACE

"Cheap grace—that grace which is accepted without any concern for the responsibility that comes with it—is only possible in times of comfort and stability. The addiction begins when we desperately cling to security of the culture we grew up with, of the powerful position we inhabit in society, etc. Costly grace is the grace we receive as a commission to pick up the cross and follow Christ into a world that doesn’t want him. For grace produces both gratitude and obedience."  Derek Caldwell, Slice of Infinity

CORONAVIRUS

"If, as the evidence suggests, the Chinese virus is enormously dangerous to people with certain medical conditions and those over 70 years old, but a much smaller danger to those under 70, then shutting down the entire country indefinitely is probably a bad idea. 

But even when the time is right -- by Easter, June or the fall -- there will be no one to stop the quarantine because the media will continue to hype every coronavirus death, as if these are the only deaths that count and the only deaths that were preventable."   Ann Coulter, Drudge Report

"Shoppers desperate, but not desperate enough to go vegan"  Drudge Report

"We have a contagious viral outbreak that is genuinely scary and stressful to even the calmest, most rational, even-keeled people out there. Now put people in a situation where they have to keep their distance from everyone except their immediate family to avoid spreading the coronavirus — a formula for “going stir crazy” behavior. Now add state and local officials shutting businesses down and enforcing quarantines, curfews, and other restrictions right out of the most paranoid fantasies of the radical militia groups."  Jim Geraghty, National Review Online

"The coronavirus pandemic is the greatest crisis since the Cuban missile confrontation of 1962." Patrick Buchanan, Townhall

THE STIMULUS

"Congressional Democrats have not risen to this occasion. They saw an opportunity to advance goals on the environment, racial diversity, and Planned Parenthood funding that, whatever their other merits, do not belong in this bill. And they have been willing to slow down the process toward these ends.

Some Republicans are also losing perspective, albeit less crassly. They fear that the expansion of unemployment insurance in the bill is too generous and will incentivize quitting or refusing to take work. Under normal circumstances, we would share this concern. But at the moment we should be more focused on helping the unemployed — especially since the rules of unemployment insurance discourage the gaming of the system, however imperfectly, and this expansion is temporary. (Congress has let temporary expansions expire before.)"  The Editors, National Review Online

"If you want to persuade normal Americans to take a crisis seriously, you have a moral obligation to act as if you take it seriously, too. Using it as an opportunity to get things you couldn’t successfully argue for before the crisis tells people you’re not as serious as you expect them to be. And that is a sure-fire way to sow precisely the sort of partisan distrust you decry."  Jonah Goldberg, NRO

LEADERSHIP

"In the present crisis of the coronavirus, what will determine the effectiveness of President Trump’s leadership is not what the media scream today or the polls say tomorrow. The praise of his supporters or the predictable damnation of his enemies won’t matter.

Rather, Trump will win or lose on whether he has strategic foresight. If he panics and keeps the country locked down for too long, we will go into depression that will cost more lives than the virus. But if Trump prematurely declares victory and urges Americans to rush back to normal life, he may reboot the virus and reignite another cycle of panic.

Instead, Trump will have to possess the confidence to see how the world’s greatest economy, greatest medical talent, greatest military, and greatest energy and food production can all be marshaled in a symphonic fashion. That correct formula could fend off a potentially biblical plague without destroying the largest economy in history.

If Trump exhibits such cunning and wisdom, then he can balance the consensus of his medical experts that the virus is existentially dangerous with the warnings of his economic advisers that shutting down a multi-trillion-dollar economy can become even more ruinous — and lethal — for Americans."  Victor Davis Hanson, NRO

BIOETHICS

"President Trump’s daily press conferences for his coronavirus task force have become one of the centerpieces of commentary on the crisis. Critics have bashed his optimistic riffs on potential cures or when normal life can resume. But as crowded as the stage has been, and as much as the administration’s response has become a source of partisan division, there is someone crucially absent in the public effort to deal with the pandemic: a bioethicist. The lack of someone who is qualified to speak specifically to the moral and ethical issues raised by the pandemic in terms of dealing with shortages and the treatment of the elderly — who remain the group considered the most vulnerable to the disease — is potentially leaving the president without the sort of advice he desperately needs as the crisis becomes more acute."  Jonathan Tobin, NRO

POLITICS

"Yes, it is better for the Biden campaign if Sanders calls it quits, but at this point Biden could lose every remaining contest by about 10 points and still win the nomination. This primary is effectively over. Sanders is not likely to be a major factor in the general election, short of, say, declaring an independent bid. Right now, the 2020 presidential election is likely to be a referendum on the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus. If the country feels like it dodged a bullet, Trump will get reelected. If the country feels like Trump made a bad situation worse, the country is likely to elect Joe Biden (or whomever the Democrats nominate)."  Jim Geraghty, NRO

"Biden is winning the Democratic nomination on the basis of not being Bernie Sanders and wants to get elected president on the basis of not being Donald Trump. He’s as purely a negative candidate as we’ve seen in a very long time, running largely on who he isn’t and what he won’t do."  Rich Lowry, NRO

INNOVATION

"While most schools have put at least some courses for credit online, far fewer have put their entire curricular offerings online. Until now.

What makes an innovation disruptive is not merely a whizzy new technology; it is the confluence of multiple factors: new technology plus widespread public demand -- or dissatisfaction with the existing business model -- and, sometimes, circumstances no one anticipated. Hello, COVID-19."  Laura Hollis, Townhall

MY COMMENT:  What happens to higher education or even secondary education as "consumers" discover that they can earn a degree or high school diploma online?

THE MEDIA

"Only one institution that Gallup asked about, the media, had negative approval rating — sitting 19 points behind its archenemy Donald Trump. And there are likely many other people and places that the public has more trust in than journalists.

This reality is a disaster for a liberal democracy, and much of it is brought on by the press’s own blinkered, sanctimonious, and transparently partisan temperament. On this topic, I could provide a book-length list of grievances. Every day brings an exasperating number of misleading and bad-faith takes by political journalists and “fact-checkers.”  David Harsanyi, NRO