Vacuity alert …

… One Cliche Too Many by Barton Swaim, City Journal December 18, 2015. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

But hold on. If we follow the even-one-is-worth-it logic, we will find ourselves advocating all kinds of draconian bans and unreasonable requirements. If one preventable death is one too many, and if that is sufficient justification for further governmental coercion, we would impose an outright ban on football, skydiving, mountain climbing, bicycling, and countless other risky diversions. We aren’t prepared to ban any of these activities for reasons that have nothing to do with our concern—or lack of it—for human life. We don’t ban them because we value varying degrees of personal freedom more than we value absolute safety.

If one death is always one too many, what are we to make of the death notices in the paper?