MEGAN MCARDLE: Debt-Blame FlimFlammery:

This chart from the White House, which purports to prove, with the scientific magic of math, that basically everything bad that has happened to the budget is the fault of one George W. Bush, has been making the rounds. My colleague approvingly calls it “Another chart that should accompany all debt ceiling discussions”.

I’m a little less enamored, considering that this graph attributes decisions made by Obama and an all-Democratic Congress–like doubling down in Afghanistan–to Bush, while taking responsibility for basically nothing except the stimulus. When Obama extends the Bush tax cuts for the rich under pressure from Congressional Republicans, that disappears from his side of the ledger, because after all, he didn’t want to do it. When Bush enacts Medicare Part D under pressure from Congressional Democrats, the full cost is charged against his presidency. The list of such silliness goes on.

Plus, a modest remonstration directed at James Fallows. Read the whole thing.

TURF WAR: Gas vs. Electric Lawn Tools.

GEORGE WILL calls Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie’s Declaration of Independents the beach read of the summer. “America is moving in the libertarians’ direction not because they have won an argument but because government and the sectors it dominates have made themselves ludicrous. This has, however, opened minds to the libertarians’ argument.”

EUGENE VOLOKH: Asians As “White.”

PETER WEHNER: More Evidence of Obama’s Eroding Support.

CHANGE: States no longer wedded to idea of alimony for life.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on bestselling men’s athletic shoes. Also work boots.

ALEXIS GARCIA REPORTS FROM THE SMART GIRL POLITICS SUMMIT: Lessons From Wisconsin: What happens when you take on the public sector unions and win? You get a better state.

FIXING THE BUDGET CRISIS by getting people to die by 70?

A READER NOTED THAT WE EXCEEDED THE DEBT LIMIT IN 2009. It wasn’t a such big deal back then, but I guess that’s because both houses of Congress were controlled by Democrats.

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING: “Cowboys and Aliens does in fact offer cowboys and aliens.”

STOP THE PRESSES: Denise Richards Regrets Her Boob Jobs. (Via the expert on all things boobish.)

PLAYING POLITICS: Democrats enforce filibuster against their own debt bill.

UPDATE: The Man With No Plan accuses Republicans of irresponsibility.

Also: Washington annoyed at Wall Street’s failure to panic.

SURPRISE: Measles Outbreak Triggered By Unvaccinated Child.

I had a column on this problem here. And note this on anti-vaccine junk science.

THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW: “If it could be unconstitutional for Congress to fail to raise the debt ceiling, thereby calling the government’s debts in doubt, could not a Presidential veto of legislation increasing the debt ceiling also be unconstitutional?”

Original post here.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: “Is He Only Interested in Me for Sex?”

HOW DID I MISS THIS? David Baron: The Cougar Behind Your Trash Can. Anybody who wants to kick me off the apex of the food chain had better be prepared to wind up as a rug.

Nonetheless, David Baron has been ahead of the curve on this one. I had mentioned his terrific book earlier this morning, but I didn’t know about the oped from Thursday until reader Robert Schwartz sent me the link just now. Thanks! In my defense, I’ve been at a legal conference this week: Just spoke this morning to a bunch of deans about the higher education bubble as it applies to legal education.

LOSING WEIGHT DESPITE willpower depletion.

FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE PUNK ROCK MUSIC.

AGE DISCRIMINATION: Former AG Sues Michigan State, Files EEOC Complaints Against 100 Law Schools, for Age Discrimination in Hiring. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a case.

PROF. JOSEPH CAMPBELL: A media myth eruption: WaPo, Watergate, and Nixon’s fall. “The past couple of days have brought an eruption of media myth — notably, the rich and appealing tale that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s reporting for the Washington Post brought down Richard Nixon’s corrupt presidency in the Watergate scandal. Not even the Post buys into that simplistic and media-centric interpretation.”

JOEL KOTKIN: How Los Angeles Lost Its Mojo. “Los Angeles today is a city in secular decline. Its current political leadership seems determined to turn the sprawling capitalist dynamo into a faux New York. But they are more likely to leave behind a dense, government-dominated, bankrupt, dysfunctional, Athens by the Pacific.”

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: The Facts About Spending Cuts, the Debt, and the GDP.

BAD NEWS: Americans Are More Indebted Than The U.S. Government. “While government debt sits at 94 percent of national revenue, U.S. household debt sits at a whopping 107 percent of personal income. The household balance sheets of Americans are in worse condition than anytime since the Great Depression. The ratio of household debt-to-GDP is greater than anytime since 1929. And while we all are trying to comprehend a poorer nation, many American’s have not yet comprehended their own personal poverty.” There’s a lot of denial out there.

UPDATE: Several readers point out that Americans’ mortgages are secured by tangible assets pledged as security, which is different. And reader Rosie Moore emails:

As a happily debtless person, I read the Wimpy piece while rolling my eyes. So true, yet the current administration (and state/local cohorts) are preying upon those of us who’ve worked hard to build a nest egg. The piece should therefore be amended to read, “In doing so, such investors build an engine through the miraculous power of compounding interest…..and every level of government then robs much of their gains through high capital gains taxes, estate taxes, punitive deduction rates for charitable contributions, irrational inflation of home values, etc.”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to own two homes outright and have a financial cushion to sustain me in retirement or emergency, but all levels of government are even happier that I’ve been “responsible”. I’m buying more government than I want or need to support the Wimpies, whose votes have been bought with politician promises they knew they’d never pay. That’s gotta change!

Indeed.