Remember that Canadian Broadcast Corportation (CBC) columnist, Heather Mallick, who wrote a story chock full of Palin Derangement Syndrome on September 5? Her hateful rantings against Sarah Palin were so over the edge that the CBC was forced to issue an apology:

 "Mallick's column is a classic piece of political invective. It is viciously personal, grossly hyperbolic and intensely partisan. And because it is all those things, this column should not have appeared on the CBCNews.ca site."

Well, guess what? According to the New York Times, Mallick was just "joking." Ian Austen, writing in the Times, provides the "joking"excuse in his story (emphasis mine):

Heather Mallick, an opinion columnist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Web site, is known for her use of humorous exaggeration. But last week after removing a column by Ms. Mallick, which said that Gov. Sarah Palin has “a toned-down version of the porn actress look” and suggested that Republican men were sexually inadequate, the government-owned CBC ruled that its opinion writers had to stick to the facts even when they were joking around.

Don't  you get it, folks? Mallick was just "joking around." So who were those humorless cads who lacked the enlightenment to figure out that she was just "joking?" Why big bad FOX News according to Mallick herself."

In an e-mail message, Ms. Mallick said she believed that the complaints had been “orchestrated” by Fox News and came largely from Americans.

“My problem is that I have to write with a certain kind of reader in mind, and that person is always going to be my vision of an intelligent Canadian,” Ms. Mallick said. “I don’t write for Fox viewers.”

In his report, Mr. Carlin said that after the column had been mentioned in at least three Fox News broadcasts, his office and Ms. Mallick had “received an alarming number of truly vicious and vituperative messages.”

Poor widdle Heather Mallick. How dare readers react to her hateful "jokes" about Sarah Palin! According to Mallick we uncouth souls just couldn't figure out that she was just "joking." Okay so let us now look at a selection of Mallick's "jokes" from her column:

Palin has a toned-down version of the porn actress look favoured by this decade's woman, the overtreated hair, puffy lips and permanently alarmed expression. Bristol has what is known in Britain as the look of the teen mum, the "pramface." Husband Todd looks like a roughneck; Track, heading off to Iraq, appears terrified. They claim to be family obsessed while being studiously terrible at parenting.

You're a card, Mallick! Please tell us some more "jokes":

Palin has it all, along with being vicious and profoundly dishonest. 

Yeah, some real bellylaughs there in that "joke." You're on a roll, Mallick, do continue:

She added nothing to the ticket that the Republicans didn't already have sewn up, the white trash vote, the demographic that sullies America's name inside and outside its borders yet has such a curious appeal for the right. 

Ahahahahahahahaha!!! You're such a laugh riot, Mallick. And, of course, you were just "joking," right? That seems to be your excuse and the New York Times has  apparently taken up your "joking" shield as well.

—P.J. Gladnick is a freelance writer and creator of the DUmmie FUnnies blog.