HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Crazy Growth of Student Loans.

TO PROVE THAT WE’RE AT THE TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN, NATCH: Why Kill Animals That Attack Humans?

Personally, I’ve made a point of eating things like rattlesnake, shark, alligator, etc. whenever possible. That way, even if one of them eventually gets me, I’ll still be ahead.

PROGRESS: German Town Assigns “Easy” Parking Spots To Women.

TRANSFORMING A VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE into a fighter jet. Well, sort of.

AN EXCERPT from Michael Totten’s new book, Where The West Ends.

ER, BECAUSE THEY’RE RACIST AND SEXIST? Why The Dems and the Media Won’t Stand For Condi As Veep.

UPDATE: More: “Will they have to worry that she’s more authentically black — American black — than Barack Obama? How will that debate about race be framed? Complicated. Here’s something Rice said to the Republican National Convention in 2000: ‘My father joined our party because the Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did.’ What will the Obama people do if that sort of thing is thrown in their face? Let them worry about it.”

Hey, Bull Connor was on the Democratic National Committee.

CONN CARROLL: Why Is Obama Granting Amnesty To A Wall Street Felon?

HMM: Tennessee tax revenue soars above estimates.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Growing U.S. Military Presence in the Gulf Leaves Obama with Fewer Options. “This latest deployment, as well as last week’s report of a steadily increasing U.S. military presence, may have unintended consequences for U.S. policy. Every step forward makes it more difficult for the Obama administration to back down. There’s not a lot of news in the very slow running contest between the United States and Iran, but the fuse on this bomb is lit, and at some point either Iran is going to back down, the United States is going to back down, or there is going to be war.”

ROGER SIMON: The Democratic Party As The Party Of Race. Well, it always has been. Bull Connor was on the Democratic National Committee.

A ROUNDUP OF REACTIONS TO Yale’s new PhD in Law.

DEREK THOMPSON: The End of TV and the Death of the Cable Bundle. “People have been predicting the demise of cable television for years. After this week, they might be right.”

AT AMAZON, up to $80 off on select Sony headphones and earphones.

Also, today only: Sonicare Healthy White Power Toothbrush, $69.99.

THE ROMNEY CAMPAIGN’S LATEST SPOKESMAN: Barack Obama. I think there’s a lot of this kind of stuff they can mine.

UPDATE: James Taranto: Obama’s Risky Campaign Strategy.

HARD-HITTING JOURNALISM: Big Boston Globe Hatchet Job on Romney Was Lifted from Far Left Mother Jones and TPM.

Hey, don’t knock Mother Jones. I’ve been in Mother Jones.

UPDATE: Prof. Jacobson writes that the recycling goes farther than that: “Actually, The Globe ran the story 10 years ago in 2002 and it was part of McCain’s oppo research book. The 2002 story was revived during the primaries this year when the McCain oppo research book was leaked. Question for TPM and Mother Jones, where did they get the story? Did they lift it from the Globe, which is too ignorant of its own archives to realize that they were first to the story by a decade?”

Plus: “It gets worse. The Globe has taken down the story temporarily and will give partial credit to TPM and Mother Jones for a story The Globe originated a decade ago!”

RELATIVE VALUES: Digg vs. Newsweek.

MICKEY KAUS: Obama weakens welfare reform (again). “Here are some quick initial reactions to the administration’s apparent surprising (and possibly illegal) attempt to grant waivers of the work requirements written, after great effort, into the 1996 welfare reform law. I’m posting Thursday night; the story should break for real tomorrow (Friday). This will be updated over the next few days if possible. . . . Obama could turn the HHS rule into a big political plus if he dramatically ordered Secretary Sebelius to withdraw it, saying he wanted to encourage people to work, not go on the dole. But that’s not his style.”

YOU KNOW, LIKE IT DID WITH OBAMACARE, WHICH WAS ALL STATESMANLIKE AND EVERYTHING: Damon Root: Should the Supreme Court Defer to Congress and Uphold the Defense of Marriage Act?

Remember that Roberts framed his vote upholding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as an exercise of judicial restraint, writing in his opinion, “It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.” I don’t see why Roberts wouldn’t rely on that same principle and vote to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act. Both Obamacare and DOMA are duly-enacted federal laws, after all.

If you cheered the chief’s ruling on health care, don’t be shocked when he grants the same deferential treatment to a federal law you don’t like.

I won’t be shocked. But I’m not promising that I won’t snicker a bit at the responses.

VEEPSTAKES: Audio Exclusive: The Speech That Landed Condi On Romney’s List. “Framing her speech around three major ‘shocks to the international system’ in the past decade — the 9/11 attacks, the global financial crisis, and the Arab Spring — Rice said Obama’s failed governance has thrown the world deeper into crisis.”

SEN. JAMES WEBB (D-VA) won’t support Obama’s tax plan.

WHY BUY THE COW WHEN YOU GET THE MILK FOR FREE: Is Obama taking black vote for granted? But I think he takes a lot of things for granted.

WASHINGTON POST: Rep. Jesse Jackson’s political future in question. “Jackson’s leave of absence, which his staff says officially began on June 10, came just as federal prosecutors in Chicago charged Raghuveer Nayak, his former fund-raiser, with $1.8 million in medical fraud. . . . after a week in which Jackson’s staff has been forced to try to dispel an array of rumors, including one that he is in an Arizona facility being treated for alcohol and drug problems, his friends in the Congressional Black Caucus are whispering that they expect him to resign.”

MARYLAND: Criticism of O’Malley’s commitments widens after storm.

Criticism of Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley as an aloof politician more focused on his presidential ambitions than fixing the problems at home is starting to creep beyond Republicans, as residents and even some Democratic lawmakers question the governor’s prolific national schedule in the wake of a massive power outage that wreaked havoc on the state. . . .

“I heard O’Malley’s been all over the TV,” said Frank Barnes of Silver Spring. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch because I was sitting in the dark. Let’s just say that I don’t have full confidence his attention is here at home.”

Ouch.

THEY DO SEEM TO BE FLAILING: Romney campaign manager: Obama should apologize for ‘out-of-control’ staff.

Meanwhile, when will we see Obama’s college and law school transcripts? Bueller? Carney? Anyone?