Somewhere in the American South, or on a chaparral hillside in California, there is very likely a live oak — one of a handful of evergreen *Quercus* species that share the name for their wide, low, spreading crowns — that […]
"Sacred cow" is a metaphor borrowed from an animal that was never actually being protected for the animal's own sake — reverence for cattle in the traditions the phrase comes from was never primarily a policy for the cow's welfare, […]
Here is the sharpest version of the objection, stated plainly rather than strawmanned: what you're calling a ratchet, I'm calling a clean kitchen. You don't actually object to daylighting laws or sight-triangle rules. You object to cleanliness itself — you'd […]
["Unsafe Safety"](/posts/unsafe-safety) argued that "safety" earns the deference it currently gets for free only when a claim survives being checked — a stated mechanism, a measurable harm, a cost that's actually been weighed, and a review process that puts the […]
No one has ever stood up in a public meeting and argued for danger. That is precisely what makes "safety" the most useful word in politics — not because it describes something everyone wants, though it does, but because invoking […]
Social Liberty