We asked for your stories about receiving horrible gifts for Christmas, and they turned out to be even worse (or is that better?) than we ever expected. Here are some of our favorites, and the well-deserved winner.

The President and Hillary Clinton topped Gallup's "most admired" man and woman polls this year, as they do every damn year.

Who's ready for some more animated madness from Karl Pilkington? Hopefully you will be, because January 14th will be the premiere of Season 2 of HBO's the Ricky Gervais Show, which promises new frontiers in Monkey News and insanity.

Republicans will only control one chamber of Congress next year, giving them little means of dismantling the "Obama Agenda." But after wading through Congress' history of old rules, they may have discovered a way to stifle the executive branch's power.

Another benchmark in MTV's reality programming devolving into a nightmare episode of Cops: Prosecutors formally charged Teen Mom star Amber Portwood with three felonies for physically attacking the father of her child. [TMZ, Radar, MSNBC]

And now, the year in wins. Successful feats captured on tape. The diamonds found in the internet rough of fail.

Last night on Sarah Palin's Alaska, the Palins decided that middle daughter and noted homophobe Willow should try driving. So they threw her behind the wheel of a stock car and made her race with Todd. Inevitably, she crashed.

If you're anything like us, you watch a lot of television, and if you're anything like us you have serious opinions about the things you've watched on TV. Here are the ones we loved (and a couple we hated).

[Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia DeGeneres—née de Rossi—stroll Saint Barthélemy. Image via Bauer-Griffin.]

These are the Russian X Games. No helmets, and no fanfare. Just pure sport: getting thrown off dilapidated Soviet-era high rises and hoping that a few cords in knots will save you. This is more dangerous than Action Park.

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown's surprising January special election victory made him an instant Tea Party hero and threatened the survival of health care reform. But it passed anyway, and then Brown voted for every other Democratic bill. Will he survive?

In your stranded Monday media column: an AP vs. NYT journo-feud, Jon Stewart is slobbered over again, business cable news networks are finally making the big bucks, and Nick Kristof loves China so much.

This is Ross and he is very serious about you getting rid of your Facebook page, for your own sake. But he's not judging you, unlike all the people you are "friends" with. He might have a point there.

Mass transit will never be safe from terrorism, so it's not worth worrying about. You can't keep bombs off trains, buses, and subways and still expect them to function properly. It's best not to even contemplate the following statistics.

"We're becoming a nation of wussies." —Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, on postponing the Eagles-Vikings game for snow.

Natalie Portman will never be your girlfriend because she is engaged to ballet dancer Benjamin Millepied (who she met on Black Swan) and having his baby. Wow, this is really going to mess up her choices for an Oscar Dress.

A sketch from the show The One Ronnie on BBC that features our favorite hand-held, fruit-named devices; the Blackberry and Apple. The question is, how many puns can they fit inside?

Radically transparent man of mystery Julian Assange says one of his sexual assault accusers took a "trophy photo" of him lying naked next to her in bed. He says this means she's lying about being raped. Which rape, you ask?

Tea Party Rep.-elect Joe Walsh is so not hypocritical that he'll turn down his "cushy" government health insurance next year. This sucks for his wife, who "has a pre-existing medical condition and is now forced to hunt for a plan."

The new must-have "ultimate accessory," for ladies: fruity booze, disguised as perfume. "Our point is not drink a lot to be glamorous - it's drink responsibly and in moderation and just be glamorous over all." Ohh, okay. [NYT]