[guest post by JVW]

Just saw an article on the Fox News website titled “German Mayor Condemns New Year Sex Assaults as ‘Intolerable.'”

Hey, reader, don’t jump to conclusions, you nasty Islamophobe.

Anyway, the article reports that on New Year’s Eve a number of women reported being sexually assaulted and robbed near the Cologne train station. There were a total of 90 incidents of assault, at least one of which was said to be a rape. Similar reports, though perhaps not to the same extent, come from Hamburg. Mayors from both cities are asking the public for help in identifying the perpetrators.

Stop that! I know what you are thinking here, and it is not helpful for you to suggest that they look for newly-arrived young men with beards.

Back to the article: “According to police, witnesses described the assaults as being committed by men of ‘Arab or North African origin’ who had gathered in large numbers near the train station.”

Well damn.

Naturally leftwing German politicians are rushing to demand that people don’t jump to conclusions:

Green Party lawmaker Claudia Roth warned against blaming refugees for the assaults. German Justice Minister Heiko Maas, who condemned the attacks in Cologne as “cowardly and vile,” also warned against hasty conclusions about the perpetrators.

“In criminal law what’s important is proving a crime, and everyone is equal before the law,” Maas said. “It doesn’t matter where someone comes from, it matters what they did and that we can prove it.”

In other words, let’s not revisit the whole idea that our moral preening about opening the floodgates to “refugees” “from Syria” could possibly have any negative effects on the German public. Instead, let’s go through the usual legal process and just treat this as an occurrence where somehow a bunch of guys with certain key traits in common just happened to all commit similar crimes at the same location at the same time. Nothing to see here folks. Even more banal was the statement from Cologne mayor Henriette Reker, in addressing the potential for more problems during the annual Winter Carnival festivities next month: “We will also have to explain our carnival better to people from other cultures, so that there’s no confusion about the cheerful behavior in Cologne that has nothing to do with candor, especially candid sexuality.”

Is it just me, or did Mayor Reker just suggest that Muslim immigrants need to be taught not to rape German women just because they have a few drinks, wear tight clothing, and hug and kiss their male companions? The left is wetting itself over the idea that anti-immigrant parties in Europe seem to be gaining popularity. Heaven forbid that European political parties prioritize the safety of their citizens, rather than grandstand for the sake of the media/academic/cultural elite that has bolloxed up things so thoroughly thus far.

But at least Frau Merkel will always be invited to all of the important banquets hosted by Time Magazine.

[UPDATE 2:21 pm] – Powerline also has a post up on this topic. They quote the BBC which reports that some of the men detained for these crimes are — are you ready for it? — “asylum seekers, carrying copies of their residence certificates.”

– JVW

[guest post by Dana]

I wanted to post two new campaign ads released this week by the two front running Republican candidates, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

While Trump still holds a solid lead in the RCP average of national polls with Cruz in second place, Cruz currently leads in Iowa. I won’t say much about the ads as they speak for themselves and you can make your own assessment of effectiveness.

Here is Trump’s first television ad which began airing this week in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. It’s exactly the sort of ad I would expect from him:

Here is Cruz’s ad which began airing in New Hampshire today. You will recognize Cruz’s own comments from the last Republican GOP debate being used in this clever ad:

What’s your take?

–Dana