Sunday Roundup

This was a big week for big distractions. First, there was President Obama's televised press conference to discuss not jobs or Afghanistan or Syria, but the release of his long-form birth certificate. Yes, it's ridiculous that the president should be forced to show his papers to prove his legitimacy -- but couldn't he have sent his lawyer to Hawaii in 2008 and saved us the spectacle of Donald Trump claiming to have "accomplished something really, really important" by being proven dead wrong? Then there was Ben Bernanke's first scheduled press conference, which was largely focused on the threat of inflation rather than the clear and present danger of the ongoing jobs crisis. Brits meanwhile were royally distracted from their country's economic woes by what appeared to be a royal wedding -- although I won't believe it until I see Kate and William's long-form marriage license.