This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what political correctness gone amok looks like:

[pampango]

27. I don't think international law allows limiting refugee status based on gender or marital status.

Of the 30 people arrested for the Cologne attacks on New Years Eve, 27 were from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, 2 were German citizens and 1 was an American. None were from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan.

Ship the young adult single males - who are the undeniable cause of these outrages - out now. It really doesn't matter where

All of them or just those guilty of the committing the outrages? (If the latter, I agree. If the former, not so much.) Whether they are genuine refugees or asylum seekers of not? That's sounds like something that Mr. Trump or the German far-right could get behind. (Admittedly they would follow that up with deporting the rest of the families, women and children. Maybe that is where liberals draw the line.)

Merkel shit the bed by letting in everyone who showed up.

Perhaps but if Merkel had done nothing the "shit in the bed" would have been in Greece. Out of sight. Out of mind. Some might think that Germany is better to handle the 'shit in the bed' (what a term for war refugees) than Greece is capable of.

And if the left doesn't address the hard right will make more hay than can be imagined from it.

Undoubtedly true. The hard right will make hay from any liberal policy. The more poorly administered the policy, the more hay they will make from it. The hard right has been making hay about Muslim immigrants for many years. This just makes it worse.

In general I prefer that liberal governments act liberally, not out of fear of the reaction of the hard right, but a smart liberal is always aware of how the hard right is likely to react and to govern liberally and effectively.

The German government's first duty is to German citizens ...

Quite true, but not just in a RW law-and-order sense of idea. If liberal German citizens want to welcome refugees, the government has a duty to act accordingly. If 'hard right' carries the day eventually and German citizens want the refugees gone, the government will have a duty to act accordingly.