Last Week in Review: April 16, 2010

Last week brought sad news, happy news, and the comforting realization that I am not the most offensive person on the internet. Not that I thought I was, or anything …

• Poland is in mourning after President Lech Kaczynski and numerous other governmental officials died in a plane crash. They were heading to Russia for the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which thousands of Polish military officers and civic leaders were murdered by Russian troops during WWII. Interestingly, I also wrote about President Kaczynski in this blog post a few weeks ago.
• In far, far better news, President Obama has extended hospital visitation rights to gays and lesbians, ensuring that same-sex couples will have the same rights as married couples at the nation’s hospitals. It kind of falls into the category of legislation that should have passed ages ago, but it’s still an amazing achievement for the president, and one that I’m pretty happy about. Regardless of your political views, and whether or not you agree with someone’s life, there should be little debate over the fact that you should get to see your partner when they’re in the hospital.
• We’re number 1! We’re number 1! We’re … wait, what? (via reddit.com)
• Prepare to be offended and entertained, simultaneously (and no, I can’t take credit for this one), thanks to the evil genius behind Don’tEvenReply.com. He sends  insane responses to online classified ads, and posts the subsequent email conversations. I laughed so hard, I nearly peed.
• If you’re watching American Idol (and unless you’re a Communist, why wouldn’t you be?), and dislike Tim Urban as much as my husband and I, then you’ll love this mock motivational poster. I want a life-sized version. (via BuddyTV)
• In other tales of pseudo-offensive entertainment, I found this collection of vandalized ads to be hilarious (via gofugyourself.com).
• I may have found my favorite culinary site, ever. The woman behind A Cookie For Every Country has dedicated her website to – you guessed it – cookie recipes from every single country on earth. She’s now gone through every country at least once, and is going through the list again with new recipes. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me.