And here we thought it would be frogs:

An estimated one million fish turned up dead Tuesday in a Southern California marina, creating a floating feast for pelicans, gulls and other sea life and a stinky mess for harbor authorities.

The sardines apparently depleted the water of oxygen and suffocated after getting lost in the marina, officials said.

But here’s our favorite part:

“All indications are it’s a naturally occurring event,” said Andrew Hughan, a California Fish and Game spokesman at the scene.

Yes, because here in California, a million dead fish wash ashore all the time.

Mass Fish Death Fouls California Marina [ABC]

“The FBI has made an arrest in connection with the attempted bombing along the route of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in downtown Spokane. An FBI source in Washington, D.C., said one man was arrested Wednesday outside a home near Colville, Stevens County… The suspect is believed to be affiliated with white supremacists, the source said.” [Seattle Times]

David Broder dies; Pulitzer-winning Washington Post political columnist [WaPo]

If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the I.R.A. for it.

–GOP Rep. Peter King

NY Representative Peter King is holding hearings on the “radicalization” of American Muslims, using fabricated statistics to create the impression that American Muslims are on the whole supportive of terrorist violence against US interests. Yet his own past support for IRA terror campaigns against the British, including the above quote explicitly absolving of the IRA of responsibility for civilians killed in IRA terror bombings campaigns drives home the extent to which Republican posturing on the “war on terror” is little more than a hypocritical exercise in bigotry and demagoguery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVhuGCVIf3g

So we’re reading a backgrounder on Tosh.0, a program we happen to enjoy, only to discover we’re fucking up the demo:

“There are a million videos where someone gets kicked in the groin; this is the type of comedy that resonates well with young men,” said Brent Poer, managing director of ad-buying agency MediaVest.

Honestly, Tosh doesn’t run that many crotch shots — last night’s main segment featured the Screaming Candidate for Ohio county treasurer, whose junk remained blessedly unviolated.

Even during our own High-Testosterone Years, our taste in comedy ran more along the lines of Manhattan, Network, Airplane — but definitely not Animal House. Whacking Material, sure, but no crotch shots in the bunch.

But mainly it’s yet another Dreadfully Slow News Day, and we only need the slightest excuse to run the best kicked-in-the-groin video ever.

‘Tosh.0’ turns Internet videos into laughs, cash for Comedy Central [LAT]

“Passive news reporting that doesn’t attempt to resolve factual disputes in politics may have detrimental effects on readers, new research suggests. The [Ohio State] study found that people are more likely to doubt their own ability to determine the truth in politics after reading an article that simply lists competing claims without offering any idea of which side is right.” [EurekAlert, via PourMeCoffee]

[CNN]