The tough get going. The State of Israel came into existence in such a situation of extreme crisis that responding to a crisis is second nature to it. Here are two good examples of such.

Israeli Medical Volunteers Release Ventilator Blueprints Using Off-the-shelf Parts

I have a new piece up over at PJ Media in which I discuss some of the more bizarre incidents of overzealous law enforcement going on across Southern California in the name of keeping us “safe” from the coronavirus. I’m sure members of the Ricochetti across the country can describe similar happenings in their own cities and towns.

I do not discount the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic. Indeed, I am of a sufficiently advanced age to be considered a high-risk patient if I were to contract the disease. But neither do I discount the genuine threat to liberty posed by the various orders, decrees, edicts, and mandates lately imposed by the nation’s governors, mayors, health commissioners, and every other sort of government functionary exercising their newly discovered power to limit the freedom of their fellow citizens. In the case of the people being hassled for watching the sunset, cited above, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department was so proud of this exercise of authority that they made it their pinned tweet on their Twitter account.

Today, I turn my attention to Sweden. Powerline blog is focusing on it (I took this post’s title from them) and will periodically report on the numbers there.

What is the best film portrayal of a book character?

The Rules:

In the ancient world, people dealt with the unknown future by bribing the gods, offering up children and animals and crops in order to purchase a better outcome. In other words, they pre-emptively accepted punishment in order to limit the total damage. It sounds crazy and irrational, of course. But I think we are seeing precisely the same thing right now.

I see people in my community, city, and across the world telling themselves and everyone else that what is needed most of all is self-sacrifice. The more we isolate, the more we become impoverished, the more we suffer and endure, the better the outcome will be. The bogeyman Corona will spare those who suffer the most.

The screengrab above and the ones below show what’s going on (to the extent data tells it) in the 53 countries and reporting locations with less than 1 million in population. I have rearranged the Worldometers columns and sorted by active cases. The data is as of o:00 GMT last night.*