Cogita ante salis

Canada Free Press is a whacko news site that touts itself as the ''fastest-growing independent news source'' in the country. (Note that the site has several times trashed me.) Owned by the, um, eccentric Judi McLeod, it hosts the musings of everybody from Ann Coulter-wannabe Rachel Marsden to American free market fink-tanker Tom DeWeese.

I have long thought of McLeod as a right-wing crayon artiste. Now I think she should be weaving baskets.

That's because I just got word from a couple of bloggers in Ohio that McLeod has been bewitched by their satirical Mel Gibson site, Mel's Musings. (Check it out; it made me snarf my cran juice all over the screen.) It filters U.S. politics through Gibson's religious prism, with a lot of Latin tossed in.

The mischievous duo, who prefers to remain anonymous, tells me that it all began a few days ago when, as one of them emailed, he

found an article by Judi McLeod, "Tragically Hip in Sweden,'' which ominously describes the secularism run amok in Sweden, as exemplified by jeans with skulls on them commonly worn by the Swedish youth.  I thought it was hilarious, and posted it on my blog, with commentary.

(I added the links.)

The McLeod piece about Cheap Monday jeans reads

Politically correct mores are alive and thriving in Sweden where the Rev. Karl-Erik Nylund, vicar of St. Mary of Magdalene Church in Stockholm, laments, "No one wants to provoke Jews or Muslims, but it’s totally OK to provoke Christians."

Cheap Mondays are starting to sell abroad. The jeans and their anti-Christian message are being shipped to Norway, Denmark, Britain, the Netherlands, France and Australia.

Orjan Andersson, the creator of the brand, says he’s working on introducing Cheap Mondays to the U.S.A. and elsewhere.

That means jeans with the anti-Christian message are coming soon to an outlet near you.

The makers of Cheap Mondays with their logos of upside crosses may find a willing overseas clientele among young people who think it’s hip to advertise an anti-Christian message.

But not if those young people get another message first: Cheap Mondays originate from a country that will not protect its female population from immigrant-Muslim rapists.

The blogger, who points out the unattributed similaritities between McLeod's story and this AP report, goes on:

Judi McLeod contacted me, thinking I was Mel Gibson and told me how excited she was about my having posted the article on the site.  A series of letters has followed during which Judi and I have shared our "mutual" frustration with the socialist politics which have taken over California and Canada.  And, Judi has placed a link to my site on the front page of the Canada Free Press.

Now Judi has contacted me and asked me if I would mind if she published a story on "Mel Gibson's" Blog in the Free Press!

It gets better. Not only does Free Press now link to the joke Mel Gibson blog, McLeod herself has written about her ''unexpected gift'' on the feast of the Epiphany from the movie star in a column entitled Braveheart in Real Life.

Overjoyed to think that someone I had admired for so long from afar had posted my story to his blog I sent off a quick thank-you email, never really expecting to ever have it answered.

There was a response in my mail from the actor/director/producer by the end of the day.

Fiercely independent, impressively creative and downright courageous, Mel Gibson is no cookie cutter Hollywood star.

To my way of thinking, he’s a beacon of light in the dark, whose Ash Wednesday 2004 release of The Passion of the Christ brought the authentic last hours in the Life and Times of Jesus Christ the Savior back before the masses of the 21st century.

<SNIP>

This is the same kind of inspirational thinking to be found on the new blog. If you’re a discouraged Christian worried about the future, a visit to www.melgibsonsblog.blogspot.com is like an elixir and sends you on your way with newfound hope.

Taurus excreta cerebrum vincit.

I am going to Hell for this post, aren't I?

Comments

Straight on! :)

Enjoy the ride. Methinks you'll have lots of surprising company along for the ride

[steve]

Kind of sad in a deservedly funny way.

I'll go to hell with you.

[Name:]

Ho, ho, ho! It couldn't have happened to a crazier crackpot.

Does this mean the Mafia wasn't behind 9/11?

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/cover071105.htm

Your buddy Bob Tarantino doesn't seem too excited about the theory. Even seems to be slightly embarassed about associating with them.

http://letitbleed.blogs.com/blog/2005/07/profiling.html#comment-7312763

[Bill-Muskoka]

Uh Hum! Rumour has it that Hell has been cancelled due to too high fuel prices.

You may thank Ralph Klein, the Chancellor of Alberta!

Sorry, but those with parkas and arctic experience will be laughing now! *Shhh...Don't tell the Vatican! It has been keeping people in tow for millenia, eh?).

[NPS]

You are there already, old dear!!!!!!!!!!

[Antonia Z.]

Does that explain the hot flashes?

Count how many times ol' Judi writes "bog" instead of "blog" in the article. Me thinks the looney lady needs a copy editor. Or learn how a spell-check program works.

Of course, maybe she finds her articles too painful to read through after she writes them. If I were her and I had to write such drivel I wouldn't bother to re-read them before posting.

[Robert McClelland]

"No one wants to provoke Jews or Muslims, but it’s totally OK to provoke Christians."

I keep seeing this gibberish repeated quite often by the right. How can these freaks believe this when it's practically open season on Muslims. The US is imprisoning and torturing Muslims around the world in many cases without just cause. The right routinely denounces all Muslims as being evil and terrorist supporters and two Muslim nations have been invaded and their innocent citizens killed by the Bush war machine. How seriously delusional do you have to be in order to then claim that Christians are the ones facing the most persecution around the world?

[arthurdecco]

"Does that explain the hot flashes?"

Nahh, they arise out of your love of prose and your passion for fair play. lol

[Greg Soucie]

Thanks for this one Antonia. I'll admit, I started reading the post, noted the words "Canada Free Press" and I started to skip to the next one. Glad I stuck with it though, fun stuff! Not that I'm all about the Shadenfreude generally, but those people are so out and out bonkers it's fun to watch them make fools of themselves.

[kt]

Oh no! She's calling your blog a "hatchet job!". Thanks for one of the funniest 24 hours I've had in a long time. If the Onion or the Daily Show invented this, it couldn't have been any funnier: http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/edesk011306.htm

[dp]

Ms. Zerbisias, you rule! Thank you for providing me with the hi-lite of my sad little week. It gives me hope in these dark days of a thriving resistance movement.