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Culture

Dept. of Failed Assassinations

Jesse Walker | 10.24.2008 10:08 AM

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Cracked lists "The 6 Most Utterly Insane Attempts to Kill a US President."

Bonus video: Here's how to do it right:

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Jesse Walker is books editor at Reason and the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

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  1. Lefiti   17 years ago

    Why bring this up now?

  2. Warty   17 years ago

    Shut the fuck up, Lefti.

  3. phalkor   17 years ago

    This topic makes me fear that the statist bogeyman will come get me for thought crime.

    Where does the line between talking about past assassination attempts to speculative attempts become a threat and therefore a punishable offense?

    Why bring this up now indeed! We are all going down for thought crime. oh DooM.

  4. R C Dean   17 years ago

    Why bring this up now?

    Because Cracked is teh funny, and just posted it?

  5. t. j.   17 years ago

    when i was a kid cracked was the poor man's mad magazine now it's an occasionally hilarous humor website. their list articles like "worst celebrity sex tapes" and the best "7 most retardeds way celebrities have tried to go green" are really funny.

  6. J sub D   17 years ago

    Great link!

    My belated thanks to Reason for turning me on to Cracked.com.

  7. TallDave   17 years ago

    Hey guys, how about something on democracy activist Hu Jia winning the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought?

  8. Umbriel   17 years ago

    Mr. Garfield, of course, would likely have survived being shot down low if not for the aggressive incompetence of his attending doctors --

    http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/garfield/index.html

  9. Josh   17 years ago

    Second best way to assasinate-use a digital watch to mind control Reggie Jackson.

  10. Warren   17 years ago

    T. R. gave a 90 minute speech with a bullet in his lung? As much of a trust-busting, war-mongering douche he was, you gotta admit, he was covered in manly.

  11. nonPaulogist   17 years ago

    That Nick Gillespie sure can play the guitar, but he's looking really old.

  12. Jeff P   17 years ago

    There is no situation, condition, or circumstance that the phrase "covered in manly" cannot improve.

  13. robc   17 years ago

    Josh,

    That only works against Queens. Cant be used for presidents.

  14. Blue   17 years ago

    Is this an anti-Palin thread?

  15. R C Dean   17 years ago

    Is this an anti-Palin thread?

    Around here, every thread is an anti-Palin thread.

  16. David   17 years ago

    Warren wins the thread.

    "Covered in manly"--that's a keeper. 😉

  17. Jeff P   17 years ago

    My doctor prescribed a regimen of anti-Palins to help reduce my political apathy.

    Side-effects include...

  18. Billy Beck   17 years ago

    "T. R. gave a 90 minute speech with a bullet in his lung? As much of a trust-busting, war-mongering douche he was, you gotta admit, he was covered in manly."

    On July 23, 1892, Henry Clay Frick was at work in his office and in charge of Carnegie Steel operations during the strike at Homestead Pennsylvania. Alexander Berkman walked into his office armed with a revolver and a steel file sharpened for stabbing. Berkman shot Frick twice in the neck as Frick attempted to tackle him. In the furball, Berkman stabbed Frick repeatedly in the leg with the file.

    Berkman was subdued and taken away. Frick sat at his desk and without anesthetic directed doctors for two hours in removing the bullets from his neck. He took a couple of days off, but not before he finished that workday with routine paperwork at his desk.

    Frick was made of "manly".

  19. Jackson   17 years ago

    So, we have the song about Garfield; there is "White House Blues"; and there is that song by Dion that gets credit as a two-fer. Any others?

  20. Syd Henderson   17 years ago

    "Instead the bullet struck his breast pocket where it had to punch through Roosevelt's one-hundred page speech and his glasses case, before lodging itself in the wall of his lung."

    Maybe there was another reason for the assassination attempt.

    PS: Did Roosevelt actually read a hundred-page speech with a bullet hole in the middle of it?

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