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SHOEING THE PREZ….I agree with Daniel Davies that tossing shoes at George Bush and tossing pies at Tom Friedman are both basically funny things, not worth getting a stick up your butt about. Just have a laugh, don’t let it get out of hand, and relax.

Following up on that, however, he admits: “Although seeing Bush get shoed was a laugh, it’s a nervous sort of laugh for anyone who is worried about the possibility of President Obama being assassinated, which I know that a lot of people are. And statistically, they’re right to be worried. Roughly 10% of all US Presidents ever elected have been assassinated (4 out of 43), which is roughly as high a death rate as street drug dealers.” Then, with a few heroic assumptions and the help of some geeky friends, he quantifies the job-related mortality rates of being president compared to, say, being a member of Hezbollah or the King of France. Turns out that being president is more dangerous. Read the whole thing if you want to know how much more dangerous.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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