Taking A Look At The News

Catching up on a few stories from the past few days:

First, an update on the New Year's Eve attacks on German women in the city of Cologne "by gangs of men described by the authorities as having “a North African or Arabic” appearance."

It turns out there were earlier attacks, there were more victims, and there is a mounting backlash.

Earlier Attacks

FURY is growing in Germany over mounting evidence of ANOTHER cover-up of migrant sex crimes after it emerged a welcome party for refugees held two months before the Cologne rapes descended into a mass groping session.

Police and victims have furiously demanded to know why organisers did not warn them that refugees had committed abhorrent sexual harassment amid speculation such information could have helped avert the sickening attacks on New Year's Eve.

Young women had to flee the welcome event in terror after being groped by gangs of migrant men, even though organisers repeatedly interrupted the music with messages in Arabic urging them to stop their harassment.

Today the council official responsible for the integration of refugees in the Cologne region admitted organisers knew about the sex attacks at the event but did not want to make a fuss. (emphasis added)

"Did not want to make a fuss"?!? A bunch of foreign thugs assault your women and denigrate your culture, and you do not want to make a fuss? You have no business holding public office if your first priority is to protect those who would destroy your way of life, instead of protecting your country and its citizens.

The fallout from the Cologne attacks continued to hit Germany today, with officials in another city revealing they had to cancel a planned carnival because of fears of a Cologne-style attack on visitors.

Organisers of the Rose Monday carnival parade, in Rheinberg near Dortmund, said the event was being axed "for security reasons" linked to the horrific events on New Year's Eve.

More Victims

German prosecutors say more than 800 complaints have now been filed in connection with assaults and robberies in Cologne on New Year’s Eve that investigators have linked largely to foreigners.

Mounting Backlash

The controversy over what German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called the most complex challenge of her 10-year term has reached a near-boiling point after horrifying, mass New Year’s Eve attacks on women in the city of Cologne.

...there have been protests against Merkel’s open-door policies that have allowed more than 1 million migrants and refugees to flow into the country since last year.

Retaliatory violence against foreigners has also stemmed from the attacks...

Moral of the story: Be careful who you allow into your country.

Second moral: Political Correctness will be the end of us all.

Second, a recap of recent events surrounding Iran's capture of two U.S. patrol boats.

Navy Releases Timeline of Iran’s Capture of U.S. Sailors

...the Defense Department on Monday released a timeline of events surrounding the seizure, but the account was spare on new details and left several fundamental questions unanswered.

The timeline did not explain why the crews of two patrol boats — which the military said were supposed to remain in international waterways — deviated from their course and strayed into Iranian territorial waters. Nor did it explain why they allowed Iranian sailors to board their boats, or why the boats’ communications equipment apparently failed, cutting them off from their superiors.

In other words, it told us when, but left out what and why. No much of an update.

The capture was highly embarrassing for the Navy. It came just hours before President Obama’s last State of the Union address and while American and Iranian diplomats were in the final stages of negotiating a prisoner swap. The Iranian government was also taking its last measures to comply with the nuclear deal, which allowed economic sanctions against the country to be lifted on Saturday.

Speaking of that prisoner swap, it was another one-sided deal.

Iran’s release of several hostages is, of course, wonderful news for these Americans and their loved ones — but how Team Obama got it done is ugly indeed.

First: It’s a de facto prisoner exchange — of Americans who had done nothing wrong, for Iranians charged with or convicted of real crimes...

The State Department made noises about how the exchange set no precedent. Yet Tehran knows it can seize US citizens on trumped-up charges, and Washington will free Iranian agents to get the hostages back.

Second: The White House sprang the deal the day it was unlocking $100 billion in Iranian assets as per the nuclear accord.

That is: Team Obama timed this news to take the sting out of a wildly unpopular move — playing politics with a hostage release.

Third is that President Obama has given up so much to get here — the latest sanctions undone, and others set aside just to get Tehran to the table to start the nuke talks.

Obama & Co. insist the nuclear understanding will pave the way to better Iranian behavior, but none of our allies in the region — from the Israelis to the Saudis — buys it.

Instead, they’re figuring out what they have to do to guard their own security now that America no longer has their backs.

I don't know why anyone is surprised at all this. It's just another step in the ongoing transformation of the democrat party under obama.

Next, there was this interesting story from the world of crime.

Manual transmission foils Pittsburgh carjackers

 A stick shift stopped two would-be carjackers who robbed a man at gunpoint in Pittsburgh.

... the suspects took his cellphone and asked for the car keys — but lost interest in taking the car when he mentioned it's a stick-shift...

WardsAuto, which tracks car manufacturing data, says about 7 percent of vehicles sold in the United States in 2014 had manual transmissions. That's down from about 35 percent in 1980.

Finally, there's still hope for your New Year's resolutions.

The Best Way to Keep a New Year’s Resolution

Millions of people resolve at the beginning of each year to make themselves and their lives better, but many fail to reach those goals. One expert, Frank Farley, a professor of psychological studies in education at Philadelphia’s Temple University, ... offers some tips for making them more successful.

It's too late for me. Save yourself!