"Few comics could get away with such an irreverent act, but [Sarah] Silverman pulls it off with her disconnected style that blends vulgarity and vulnerability," is how Chicago Sun-Times critic Lori Rackl described the recent HBO comedy special Sarah Silverman: We Are Miracles. The two-minute-or-so joke above, finds Silverman at her risky best. She's been telling variations of this exaggerated joke on the road for over a year to acclaim. Her depiction of the guilty rape survivor will hit too close to home for some (which could describe virtually all of her jokes), but in a year featuring multiple public arguments about rape jokes, this seems almost impossibly funny. It's about as good (if much lighter) of a bookend as Patricia Lockwood's poem "The Rape Joke."

We all love liberal Pope Francis! But beneath that love-everyone-even-the-godless-and-gay exterior, is he el papa del comunismo? Judging from his just-released 84-page exposition on the evils of consumerism and modern economics, he may start wearing a lot more red:

We hear a lot about how valuable our personal information in the age of social networking. There are all these tools to help us calculate how much our Twitter account is "worth" and movements to get Facebook to pay for our data. But, it turns out, our personal information is just worth pennies to the largest data-collection companies.

A Florida school believes it has found the perfect solution to the problem of a black student being bullied over her natural hair: Kick her out.

The United States challenged China's newly-declared defense zone over a disputed set of Pacific islands by flying two Air Force B-52 bombers over it Monday night, an official told WSJ. The official added: "The flight was without incident." But that doesn't mean a larger dispute couldn't spill over into the holiday.

[Pole dancer Florencia Murga of Argentina performs in the Miss Pole Dance South America 2013 and Pole Dance Argentina 2013 competitions in Buenos Aires. Photo by Victor R. Caivano via AP]

Sad news out of East Lampeter Township in Pennsylvania: A horse pulling an Amish buggy was killed Monday night in a drive-by shooting.

Reports of Brian Griffin's death appear to have been unsurprisingly exaggerated as the appearance of a countdown site suggests the resurrection of Family Guy's family dog could be just a few days away.

A District Court judge has ordered that a terminally ill woman be issued a marriage license immediately so she can marry her same-sex partner.

In the rare instance that she is made to say her name in public these days, Rihanna pronounces it, "Ree-anna." This is unlike the rest of the world, which pronounces it "Ree-ah-na." This has been a longstanding pet peve of mine (especially because I say it the way she does). It doesn't make sense that people such as her Roc-a-fella boss Jay Z, or her on-again-off-again parasite of a boyfriend, Chris Brown, say it the popular way (have they even listened to her)? Shit went haywire Sunday night during the American Music Awards, when her own mother, Monica Braithwaite, pronounced it onstage with the "ah." After all, Braithwaite had a hand in giving her daughter the name (it's actually her middle name—full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty).

According to a report in the Associated Press, the CIA converted prisoners at Guantanamo Bay into double agents trained to help the U.S. assassinate terrorists in the prisoner's home country. In exchange, the double agents received millions of dollars paid from the agency's secret accounts. The program, which took place in a previously undisclosed, relatively luxurious compound separate from Gitmo's prison, began in early 2003 and ended in 2006, and drew personal interest from President George W. Bush.

It's true: People still use Chatroulette. Which is excellent news, because it means Chatroulette Troll Extraordinaire Steve Kardynal still has a place to play.

The Washington Post has done a poll that shows lower-income workers are terrified they will lose their awful jobs. Then it interviewed one of those workers, who commutes three hours a day for $5.25 an hour:

Looks like Santa is going on his own naughty list this year.

Two weeks ago, the story of a gay waitress who said she was refused a tip by a New Jersey couple went viral. But now, as with so many other viral stories, the account appears too good—or, in this case, awful—to be true: The couple has come forward with their copy of the receipt and their credit card statement as proof that the whole thing was a hoax.

A Los Angeles County judge and former police commission president who was handcuffed, locked in a UCLA police cruiser, and detained for resisting arrest this weekend has turned around and sued the UCLA police force for using excessive force.

A Michigan cage fighter who faked his own death after he was unable to pay back an $80,000 debt to his drug dealer is now facing 40 years in prison after he was arrested for robbing a gun store with a hammer less than two weeks after his "death".

Elections in Honduras have just gone dark: the electoral count came to an abrupt stop about sixty percent of the way through, the candidates have disappeared from public view, and election officials have been totally silent. Elections observers, who the AP says initially called the election "clean," now have no comment.

Jay Leggett, an "In Living Color" comedian who also produced a documentary about the joys of deer hunting randomly dropped dead next to his ATV after a successful day of deer hunting in Wisconsin. Authorities say a deer that Leggett had bagged that very day was strung up on the ATV next to him.

[Thai anti-government protestors ride a truck through Bangkok on their way to the Finance and Foreign ministries in a bid to oust the current government of Yingluck Shinawatra. Security guards and riot police were unable to ward off the protestors, who quickly took control of the building without violence. Image by Paula Bronstein via Getty.]