In his final New Rule of the night, Bill Maher disputed the idea thrown out by some that atheism is a religion. It’s a refrain you hear from people who can’t stand both groups and believe that dogma is dogma, plain and simple, but Maher argued that treating atheism like a religion would be like saying “abstinence is a sex position.” After all, when was the last time a non-believer ever claimed to see the silhouette of Christopher Hitchens on the side of a tree?

You can’t get much more controversial in the world of American politics when you bring up the link between personal philosophies, intelligence, and prejudice. But that’s exactly what happened earlier this week when a study found that low intelligence is connected to prejudice and social conservatism. On his show tonight, Bill Maher read the findings of the study and did not make any kind of strong editorial opinion on the subject, stating that he was “agnostic” about the results.

Bill Maher tried to capture what he saw as the Republican reaction to President Obama’s State of the Union address this week with words, calling Republicans “sourpusses” and describing their reaction as “unprecedented.” But he only truly captured what he was trying to say by making this face– at once childish and elderly– as his panel descended into disarray, with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher trying to explain his party’s attitude and Kennedy making the point that parties don’t matter, while a mum Martin Bashir looked on.

One of Newt Gingrich‘s most bizarre lines of attack against liberals and President Obama is that they’re basically working from the playbook of Saul Alinsky. This has been a rally cry of his for months now. Most of us who aren’t that aware of early 20th century political activists have no idea who the hell Saul Alinsky is, but luckily, Bill Maher gave everyone a primer on who this insidious man is on his show tonight. And what he discovered is that it’s not just Newt Gingrich, but also Glenn Beck, who has turned Alinsky into the latest liberal boogeyman.

The media has been abuzz for the past two days over the allegedly confrontational conversation between Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and President Obama. Some analysts saw dark racial undertones in the way Brewer challenged the president, and on his show tonight, Bill Maher waded into this controversy and got into a loud argument with the panel over whether Brewer was being “disrespectful” towards Obama.

Isn’t domestic violence hilarious? I didn’t think so, either. Apparently, Real Time host Bill Maher does, at least when it happens to women who are part of a breakaway Mormon sect. In an appearance on AC360, Maher told host Anderson Cooper that he believes former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will win the Republican nomination, and that “Obama is going to beat him like a runaway sister wife.”

Bill Maher took a break from his regular hosting duties on HBO today to stop by Anderson Cooper 360º and review the State of the Union address. He didn’t have too much negative to say about President Obama, and surprisingly little mean to say about at least one Republican candidate– Rep. Ron Paul, who he called “crazy” but praised for his courage.

During an ill-informed rant about SOPA on Friday night’s Real Time, host Bill Maher dropped in one of the more appallingly casual racist remarks I’ve heard in a long time. Speaking about the “moral dimension” to the online piracy debate, Maher said, “I call it ‘Caucasian looting,’ to laughs from panelist Buddy Roemer, and shocked silence from former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. It’s just the latest example of Maher’s affection for racial stereotypes.

It has been a bizarre Republican primary campaign, to say the least, and Bill Maher has finally taken understanding Republican voters into his own hands– scientifically, anyway. The Real Time host partnered up with Public Policy Polling to understand just what make Republican primary voters tick, and found a few surprising details: for one, Mitt Romney does best with virgins, and Rep. Ron Paul fans prefer Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow to Romney.

Mitt Romney’s capitalist ventures have been the subject of much scrutiny of late, and in his final New Rule of the night, Bill Maher piled on, explaining such criticism was not anti-capitalist, but was more of a reaction to how Romney attained his wealth. He compared old photos of Henry Ford, Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs with their early creations to the infamous picture of Romney and his business partners with money pouring out of their suits. Maher joked they appeared to be part of a production of “Snow White and the Seven F**k-Faces.”

In perhaps what was the biggest surprise of his show tonight, Bill Maher defended the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, even as the bill has been temporarily shelved, arguing that “there is a moral dimension” to online piracy and dismissed concerns that the bill would harm internet freedom as a “red herring.” He jokingly called online piracy “caucasian looting” and insisted that even if pirates are ‘just because you’re sitting at your computer in your pajama bottoms doesn’t mean you’re not stealing.”

On Saturday’s CNN Newsroom, host Don Lemon spoke with political analyst Goldie Taylor about the controversy surrounding the four US Marines who videotaped themselves urinating on the corpses of alleged Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Taylor, a former Marine, took the opportunity to call out CNN contributor Dana Loesch, calling Loesch’s remarks “disgusting,” adding “to say you would ‘drop trou’ and do the same thing, I question someone’s integrity who would say something like that.”

Chalk this one up to a case of “opposites attract,” or perhaps things can be so vastly different that they circle back around to being near identical. Bill Maher had former Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain on his program last night, and not only did the candidate not say “999″ or quote Pokémon (that we know of), the two laughed and chatted like old friends. Maybe the world won’t end in 2012 after all.

Politics is a name game. It is about who you know– at least in the sense that knowing who the players are in this elaborate dance that defines how we govern ourselves as a nation is critical to successful analysis. And then there are anomalies like Tim Tebow, black holes of cable news time and energy that, through no fault of their own, become fault lines along our political geography.

It’s no secret that Republican candidate Ron Paul is a favorite among liberal talk show hosts, but tonight Bill Maher vigorously defended the libertarian’s foreign policy positions and admitted they were more aligned with his own rather than President Obama. Maher fought with not just the panelists, but his own audience on this issue, dismissing most of them as “brainwashed liberals” unwilling to give Paul credit for taking a more progressive position on foreign issues than the president.

The blogosphere has been ablaze today over a video that has emerged of several U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters. It has been both condemned and defended, but on Real Time tonight, Bill Maher partially defended what the Marines did. While he dubbed the scandal “Urinationgate” and joked that peeing should only take place “in the privacy of R. Kelly’s home,” he thought the outrage was disproportional.

One of the most frequent (and amusing) guests Bill Maher has ever hosted on Real Time was Christopher Hitchens. The late writer made many appearances on the HBO show over the years, arguing his support of the Iraq War and his strident opposition to religion, even being so bold as to flip off the entire audience in the middle of a show. And frequent Real Time watchers might remember when Hitchens showed up, armed with only his wit and a drink in his hand. Agree with Hitch or not, he was a clever debater.

HBO’s Bill Maher paid a little visit to E!’s Chelsea Lately, where he revisited a certain pesky little story that has been following him around for nearly a year now. Maher told host Chelsea Handler that his February 2011 joke involving The View‘s Elisabeth Hasselbeck and CBS’ Lara Logan had not been in reference to the sexual violence Logan endured while covering the uprising in Egypt. Maher, for those who don’t remember, joked that the U.S. should trade Hasselbeck for Logan, who had been captured the day before.

If you have turned on Fox News during any hour of the day in the past several months, you know who Eric Bolling is. The host of Fox Business’s Follow the Money and co-host of The Five can be seen on nearly every program– from Fox & Friends to filling in on The O’Reilly Factor, and his swing-for-the-fences opinions have made him as popular as he is controversial on the network. Bolling opens up to Mediaite about how he ended up in the cable news business, his favorite television moments, and what plans may be in store for the future.

After successfully baiting conservatives with his profane Christmas Eve tweet, comedian and Real Time host Bill Maher continued his Twitter mockery of Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, including sending Twitpics of himself “Tebowing” in front of a Kim Jong-Il lookalike, and striking the iconic pose in a tree, or “Treebowing.”

Earlier in the day, the cast of The Five made a fairly convincing case for caring about Bill Maher tweeting gross things about Tim Tebow and his religion over the weekend. On tonight’s Hannity, Andy Levy (typically of Red Eye) providing a fairly weighty counterpoint on the same issue: Maher, he suggested was “not a politician, he’s not running for office… who cares?”

Yesterday on The Five, Eric Bolling ran out of time for a segment on the single thing that angered him most over the weekend: Bill Maher‘s “joke” about footballer Tim Tebow being forsaken by Jesus over the weekend (it was a little more explicit than that). Bolling reacted to the disgusting display predictably, and was joined by the crew– including a particularly vocal Bob Beckel– in tearing Maher apart.

Stand-up comic and quasi-political commentator Bill Maher flexed some of his favorite comedic muscles in a Christmas Eve tweet that had it all: profanity, shock value, and Maher’s trademark blasphemy. Referring to the Denver Broncos’ crushing loss to the Buffalo Bills, Maher tweeted, “Wow, Jesus just f**ked #TimTebow bad! And on Xmas Eve! Somewhere in hell Satan is tebowing, saying to Hitler ‘Hey, Buffalo’s killing them’”

While he has the backing of the Republican establishment, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has so far been unable to cast a spell over GOP primary voters. All of that may change, however, now that he has secured the endorsement of former witchcraft-dabbler and losing US Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell.

The Romney campaign announced the O’Donnell endorsement in an email to reporters relatively late last night, but well short of the witching hour.

He doesn’t believe “Palestinian” is a real ethnic group. He has proposed a child janitor and inner-city Apprentice program to help underprivileged youth. He wants Rep. Barney Frank arrested and thinks same-sex marriage is a “temporary aberration.” And yet it appears many in the media are willing to dismiss some of Newt Gingrich‘s wildest ideas, focusing instead on his personal shortcomings and general unpleasantness, letting Gingrich-backing Republicans get away with the bizarre meme that Gingrich deserves to be considered a member of the Republican “smart set.”