back when they expelled a 6-year-old student from the york, pa school system for having nail-clippers in his backpack, i noted that though it would be difficult to kill someone with nail clippers, it would be a truly monstrous way to commit murder: you'd have to skin someone bit by infinitesimal bit, over a period of weeks. so all right-thinking people had to support the expulsion. and now i ask: if you were going to assassinate someone by throwing shoes at them, how would you proceed? what brand of shoes? what kind of range and velocity would you have to achieve? one good thing about shoes as weapons: they come in pairs. so the first shot can be used to stun and immobilize, the second to deliver the fatal blow. that also goes for socks, though pat benatar famously importuned: "stop using socks as a weapon."