Perspective

Pop quiz: In terms of your risk of being murdered goes, which is safer, Chicago or any city in Iraq that isn’t Bagdhad?

OK, it’s a trick question.

Turns out it’s about a wash.

Update:

Thanks to those who left comments pointing out the arithmetical error at Powerline. John forgot to multiply by 12 to get the rate for Bagdhad. So it is about an order of magnitude worse there than in Washington, D.C. in a bad year.

But that still leaves the main point I was trying to make: If you don’t count Bagdhad, the rest of Iraq averages out about the same as Chicago. So it’s still important to have perspective.