Meanwhile, back in the world of things that actually matter to everyone...

Thanks to Melina for her post yesterday about l'Affaire Edwards. I myself am once again shaking my head at a media that works itself into a lather about this when they refused to touch the John McCain/Vicki Iseman nookie-for-legislation story, but I've learned that trying to understand why the media work themselves up into a frenzy every time a Democrat does something scummy while looking the other way while Republicans commit actual crimes is a waste of energy -- and I have precious little of that to waste on this sort of thing these days; I have actual worries and concerns in my own life.

But while David Gregory and his ilk are fantasizing about John Edwards naked, there are actually Important Things going on in the world, things that matter a great deal more to the lives of more people than the work one couple has been doing to repair a marriage.

For one thing, we have Russia now at war with neighboring Georgia, where two Russian planes were shot down over South Ossetia today. This conflict is important because Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is a western ally and so this is starting to smell very much like the U.S./Soviet proxy wars we used to see crop up from time to time to defuse any energy that might otherwise lead to global thermonuclear war.

And the FBI has admitted that it improperly obtained the phone records of reporters in Indonesia for the New York Times and the Washington Post in 2004. Maybe that's why the press is giving the Bush Administration a free pass on forging a letter that led to the lies-based Iraq War while going nuts over what John Edwards did in 2006.

And in case you thought it might be safe to put your home on the market, mortgage rates are creeping up again.

And already they've arrested a guy for threatening to assassinate Barack Obama.

And if you buy Mike Leavitt's contention that his proposed regulation to deny federal funding for family clinics that refuse to hire people who oppose family planning (yes, you heard me) does not redefine most contraceptive methods as abortions, then I have a bridge to sell you.

And already there's been a murder at the Beijing Olympics, when a relative of a U.S. volleyball coach was stabbed to death at a tourist spot.

And there's something wrong when impeachment is off the table when an American president lies us into a war, but it's on the table in Pakistan.

And finally, Congress is asking questions about why someone with an unstable mental health history had a security clearance to work in a bioweapons lab.