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Deadline Hollywood puts the best spin they can on the disastrous season finale ratings for HBO's impossibly low-rated series "Girls." Deadline calls the a dismal 670,000 viewers "steady." Yeah, "steady" in the same way the Titanic steadily sank. After three airings Sunday night, "Girls" averaged only a million viewers. If you are looking for a reference point, the season finale of "True Detective" averaged 11 million viewers. Not beholden to ratings, and obviously eager to not the pop the bubble of a small group of elite urban provincials who have spent three years trying to convince themselves "Girls" is not...

CNN’s Don Lemon has been entertaining all sorts of theories about the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, including the chance something “supernatural” happened, but on Wednesday night, he actually asked panelists about the possibility a black hole was involved.

Maher began the monologue by declaring that America is “stupid” because 60 percent of the country reportedly believes the tale of Noah’s ark is literally true. He went on to slam the film Noah as “floating giraffe cr**,” but said it “must be doing something right” since it’s been condemned by both Muslims and Christians. And the fact that it might lose a lot of studio money, he joked, “may put it in hot water with the Jews too.”

Reality TV is about to get hot and heavy. The Post reports that WE tv has ordered a one-hour pilot of Sex Box, a reality show where couples will do the deed inside a soundproof box. Based on the U.K. show of the same name, the format takes real couples whose relationships are on the rocks, has them fornicate in the box, and then immediately address their issues with a panel of experts. The ‘in the moment’ approach “fosters conversations about intimacy that are completely filterless and emotionally honest,” according to the network’s pilot description.

The Mongol warlord built the world's largest land-based empire. But he couldn't have done it without a change in climate. The difference was Genghis Khan, the warlord who united the tribes and launched them on their wave of unstoppable conquest. But the Mongol Empire wasn’t solely the product of Genghis’s will. As a fascinating new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) demonstrates, the rise of the Mongols may have owed just as much to beneficial changes in the climate that made the grasslands of the Mongol steppes green and verdant, fueling the horses that were...

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer sent cheers rippling through a group of protesters gathered outside the state capitol on Wednesday evening when she vetoed a controversial bill that would have protected business owners who cited their religious views in denying service to gays. Ohio spiked a similar measure on Wednesday. Kansas lawmakers created the same kind of firestorm earlier this month when the House passed a bill allowing private and public employees to refuse to serve same-sex couples (the state Senate later killed that measure). And this could still be just the beginning. These two high-profile legislative debates are just part...

The anti-balaka have outgrown their name. These militias in the Central African Republic, once united under a moniker meaning “anti-machete” in the local Sango language, are exacting their own vicious revenge upon the mainly Muslim rebels who overthrew the government last March and waged months of terror against the Christian population. They are now accused of atrocities far worse than what first prompted them to take up arms. An Amnesty International report on Feb. 12 said attacks on Muslims in January by anti-balaka militias, made up of Christians and animists, had amounted to “ethnic cleansing.” Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor at...

Is communism making a comeback? On its face, the question seems more than a little absurd. The Berlin Wall came down over 24 years ago. We are more than 22 years removed from the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. All that remains are the Stalinist museum pieces of North Korea and Cuba, the former an isolated country known mainly for its absurd dictator and starving population, the latter a beautiful island stuck in a 1950s time warp due to backwards economic and social policies. Even China, the one major power still ruled by...

or the first time in 50 years, the educational balance among married couples has tipped towards women. Wives are more likely to be the better educated partner than the other way around. The trend is particularly sharp among newlyweds; in 2012 almost 40% of college educated women were married to a guy without a degree. This is a big reversal from the 30 year trend between 1960 and 1990, when it was the men who were marrying down, educationally speaking. The difference is not yet huge; Pew researchers, using data from the American Community Survey and the Decennial Census, found...

Taking a swipe at conservatives on gun control, liberal comic Bill Maher joked that a mass shooting should take place at the Country Music Awards. “Now that liberals have forwarded their agenda by inserting a mass gay wedding into the Grammys, conservatives must match them tit-for-tat by having a mass shooting at the Country Music Awards,”

If you have a chance, I recommend each of you carve out the evening of Dec 20, from 7-9pm, to watch CNN. The show is called After Jesus: The First Christians, and it is an excellent and stimulating presentation of the first four centuries of the Christian faith. CNN kindly sent me an advanced copy and I have watched it in its entirety. Dec 21, in the morning, I would like to begin a conversation on this blog with those who watched it the evening before. (It will also be replayed Friday Dec 22 at 10pm and 1am; Saturday Dec...

(CNN) – The Robertson family of "Duck Dynasty" fame has rallied around its patriarch, saying his controversial comments on homosexuality are "grounded in the teachings of the Bible." But Scripture is fiercely contested ground, and some experts say Phil Robertson misinterprets a key Bible verse. A&E, the network that broadcasts the hugely popular "Duck Dynasty" show, suspended Robertson for a now infamous interview with GQ magazine. In the article, Robertson, who became a born-again Christian in the 1970s after a prodigal youth, is asked to define "sin." Here's what Robertson says: “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from...

Obama's statement will be judged by the same standard: Did it help the country, or did he say it just to save his bacon? Obama apologized for saying people could keep their insurance if they like it. But some Americans who buy policies on the private market recently received cancellation notices because their plans don't meet Obamacare requirements for more comprehensive care. Americans may forgive Obama if Obamacare improves their lives, says Christopher J. Galdieri, who teaches a course on the U.S. presidency at Saint Anslem College in New Hampshire. Why we need a president who lies... "We want a...

"There's a mental health problem in Congress," says actor and liberal activist Sean Penn. The president could solve the problem "by committing them by executive order," Penn told CNN's Piers Morgan Monday night.Asked if Penn would have "people like Ted Cruz" committed, Penn said, "He is my American brother. I won't -- I think we should take care of him, he is in, he's the trouble.""Well, actually have him committed," Morgan followed up."Yeah, I think it's a good idea," Penn said.

Declines to Say Whether Network Is Getting Payment Al Jazeera America will become available to Time Warner Cable subscribers in the next few months, the companies said Thursday. -snip- Al Jazeera America will be available on the digital basic tier in Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks markets, including New York City, Los Angeles and Dallas over the next six months, the companies said in a joint statement. "We said in January that we would consider Al Jazeera America," said Melinda Witmer, exec VP-chief video and content officer, Time Warner Cable, in the statement. "Now that the channel is...

Did the shutdown do lasting damage to the Republican brand? A new poll from CNN shows some short-term damage, at least, in public perception of the party in reference to control of the House. For the first time since winning the majority in 2010, CNN’s polling shows a majority who disapprove of it, and more than 60% want John Boehner out as Speaker: Just more than half the public says that it’s bad for the country that the GOP controls the House of Representatives, according to a new national poll conducted after the end of the partial government shutdown.And the...

he premium cable network has optioned New York Times best-seller Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi, with Jerry Weintraub on board to executive produce. The telepic, much like the book by Fred Burton and Samuel M. Katz, will offer an inside account of the attack against U.S. diplomatic and intelligence outposts in Benghazi, Libya.

FBI Washington field office just confirmed gunman was NOT armed with AR15. Spokesperson says 1 shotgun and 2 pistols recovered— Pamela Brown (@PamelaBrownCNN) September 17, 2013

Tom and Jerry fans accuse Warner Brothers of censorship after episodes which show the cat and mouse 'blacked-up' are pulled from new collection • The Golden Collection Volume Two was supposed to be uncut • Two episodes have been taken out because they are deemed 'inappropriate' • Fans have accused Warner Brothers of omitting history Box-set was meant to go on sale two months ago but yet to reach shelves Fans of the classic cartoon Tom and Jerry are furious two episodes deemed 'inappropriate' because they feature the cat and mouse 'blacked-up' have been removed from a new collection. Warner...

Like many people, I've been riveted by the George Zimmerman trial. I call it "the George Zimmerman trial" because that's what it is, but the more I watch, the more I wonder: Should it be renamed "the Trayvon Martin trial?" I'm not just talking about some of the media's tabloid-like focus on Martin's background, his personal history, his school records and -- outside the courtroom -- the toxicology report. I'm talking about an aspect of the case that never comes up in the media coverage, one that I would argue is key. This murder trial, in and out of the...