Pappy

I'm in an airline lounge at LAX 18 hours into a 25 hour trip back to Arkansas to see my grandfather before he dies. His name is Rufus Elton Cassidy, but we call him Pappy. He's 96 years old. He grew up in Arkansas before the depression. He told me once that all he remembered of his mother was that she "got the cancer" when he was 6 years old, and they took her away in mule-drawn wagon and he never saw her again. In 96 years on this earth he never had a credit card, never borrowed money, only took an airplane once, never drank coffee, tea, or alcohol. It wasn't a religious thing, there was just no money for that sort of thing when Pappy was young. He became a boilermaker and a union man during The War and he travelled all around the south putting the hearts in great buildings. I remember when I was a little boy he would come home in his hard hat. He must have been tired, but loved us so, it never showed. He went to the Hazel Street Baptist Church every Sunday. He never went to school, taught himself to read and write and do arithmatic and only ever read the Bible, his Sunday School lesson and the Arkansas Gazette. He was married to the same woman for 60 years, and he was never the same after she died. He gave up driving at the age of 83. Last Christmas, he could still lift my 8 year old son over his head, just like he used to do with me. Now he can't stand up. He's tired and he wants to be with my grandmother.


I love you Pappy.

Merry Christmas

That's right, Merry Christmas. None of that denatured Season's Greetings crap. On this Christmas Day, as we survey the terrain from Cold Mountain, we are appalled at the religious bigotry that has taken over swaths of my ancestral homeland. Quite so, you say, how beastly Americans are to those poor Muslims. WRONG. Wrong and stupid.

I'm talking about the subtle bigotry and outright discrimination against Christians in the United States. From shysters imposing anti-Christian litmus tests on potential jurors, to the Ten Commandments forcibly removed from a courthouse, to store clerks required to use the grotesque "Happy Holidays" as a greeting, to the disappearance of Nativity scenes from village commons and shopping malls, Christians in America today find themselves belittled and their beliefs treated with contempt. The cheap cynicism that passes for a world view in the salons of the left requires no wisdom, no reflection, no introspection; nothing more than a bit of low cunning and a college freshman's vocabulary. It's a poor substitute for either reason or faith. Can it be that the acid contempt the left show for Christians comes from the little peeks they take into their own empty souls in the dark night? Can it be that under the slick post-modern banter, they have measured themselves against a man like Pope John Paul and found themselves badly lacking? Can it be that I give them too much credit and that all their words are really just echoes of empty minds and empty hearts?

This Christmas let us think of the Pope, whose back is now bent with the literal weight of the world and remember that he once marshaled the moral authority of the Church and the reflected power of the risen Christ to smash the locks on the gates of Hell on earth. Let us also think of Ronald Reagan, whose unshakable faith in America's destiny brought down the walls as surely as did Joshua's horn. Let us pray that we see their like among us again soon.

And Now Will They Learn....

Islamist mass murder in Turkey, Iraq, and in the heart of the beast itself. Have any of the bleeding left done their math? al-Qaeda and the Baathist rump have killed a lot more Muslims this month than the Israeli military. Meanwhile people who can't spell globalisation (or with a "z" for our American friends) or find Baghdad on a map of Baghdad are demonstrating their seriousness of purpose by wearing funny costumes and milling about in the streets of London.

No one is immune, no one. Got that? The Islamofascists cannot be reasoned with, bribed, appeased, or appealed to as brothers in the faith or fellow human beings. They can only be defeated by force of arms. It must be done and it will be done.

Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhhh

They choked, they panicked, they fumbled, they flipped, they did everything but play rugby. Well, maybe it will at least bring the government down. The amount of crap I'll have to take from my Aussie colleagues is terrifying to contemplate.

Michael Howard

The NRO has an excellent little piece on the new Tory leader. Can the New Zealand centre right find someone like this. The cerebral Don Brash will need someone like Michael Howard to appeal to "middle New Zealand".

A Near Run Thing

Don't be fooled by the final score against Wales yesterday. The Welshmen were ferocious on the attack and defended the try lines like their lives depended on it. Only the All Blacks' better conditioning saved the day when the dragon began to tire in the second half. Look out, England.

Not to tell Brother Mitchell how to suck eggs, but if his men play that way against the yarpies, the Blacks are going down.

What a game.

Say Good Night, Ian..........

You read it here first. The Tory caucus has sent the hapless Ian Duncan Smith to the bench. The Guardian has the account.

And IDS goes the way of Bill English

It seems that the global centre right (AKA The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy) may finally be getting on top of its game. The smart money says that the British Tories will shortly show Ian Duncan Smith the door. This editorial in the Telegraph is an early epitaph if ever I saw one. These are early days, but some better generalship could make a real difference in the culture wars.

Here's a quote from the Telegraph that could just as easily apply to National:

"The need to mount an effective opposition to a government vulnerable on a host of fronts before the next election requires a leader with the unqualified backing of his party. The divisive and anonymous back-bench whining that has so characterised the past few weeks must not be allowed to hamper the Tory policy platform any longer."

Go to it.

"The Government is slowly destroying New Zealand....."

The above from Don Brash who finally has knocked the hapless Bill English off his bar stool. He's correct, of course, but a few specific examples would have been nice.

How about the deliberate and systematic alienation of New Zealanders from all authority other than Nanny State? The family, the schools, the Crown, the churches, the workplace...in Labour's view all mere impediments to self esteem. How about the expansion of no-questions-asked benefit payments, in reality just thinly disguised vote-buying as Labour seeks to create an underclass constituency permanently dependent on the largess of the state? How about the abandonment of 4,000 years of Western civilisation in favour of a dying Stone Age culture? How about the deliberate dilution of New Zealand's national character into some kind of fuzzy multi-cultural milieu?

Say Goodnight, Bill

As much as I'd like to sit down with Bill English over a pint or three, or have him as a next door neighbor, he was a miserable failure as party leader and should have stepped down after leading the Nats down to defeat in the last election.

If a leader is not to be judged by the size of his party's caucus, or at least by its standing in the polls, then how should he be judged? It's not at all certain that Don Brash will do any better, but Mr. English failed to present any kind of plausible strategy for returning his party to power.

On the face of it, Labour should be an easy target. The breathtaking arrogance, the profound and obvious contempt for democracy, the transparent attempts to divide the nation by race and class, Margaret Wilson's judicial coup d'etat, Michael Cullen's rapacious tax policies, and the cheap anti-Americanism all fly in the face of New Zealanders' common sense and decency. Why has National failed to take the verbal fight to Helen Clark every day, why has it allowed the hypocrisy of the left to go unanswered?

A leader must be found on the center-right who can stop the Red Green Axis in it's anti-democratic tracks. Before it's too late.....

Helen's Chinese Pal

Read the Herald's account of Labour kissing Chinese President Hu Jintao's arse over Taiwan and Tibet. Bet the PM didn't raise any human rights issues at all. When the "President" of a vicious totalitarian state tells the New Zealand government how to conduct its foreign policy, the entire Cabinet sits up and begs for more; when the President of the United States modestly suggests that a way might be found around differences between the US and New Zealand, the Red-Green axis gets all breathless about US "bullying".

A free trade agreement with China? On the economic issues alone, the idea is monumental in its idiocy. There isn't a single important NZ manufactured product that can't be made or counterfeited in China at half the price. Does anyone really think Chinese consumers have the disposable income to pay for clean, green New Zealand agricultural products? Add to that the bleeding obvious fact that a free trade agreement with a country that doesn't have a convertible currency is a contradiction in terms and one wonders where the stupidity ends. Where are the labour unions on this? Not a word, even though a free trade agreement with China would shut every factory in this country.

The End Logic of the Left

The problem with socialism, other than its utter and unrelenting failure to deliver anywhere or at any time, either freedom or prosperity, is that followed to its logical conclusion it leads inexorably to the kind of horrors described in the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea's report on Kim Jong-il's gulag. Read this and weep, literally.

Don't Know Much Geography........

"We won't be becoming the 53rd state."--Green MP Rod Donald

Today's Herald has the left spin on US Ambassador Swindells' attempt to exercise free speech at Victoria University. The Ambassador, while going about his lawful business, was shouted down by a mob of green shirt thought police. Green MP Rod Donald notes helpfully that New Zealand will not be succumbing to "US bullying". Hmmm, been shouted down in the States lately, Rod?

Arnold

The mystery of this is not how Davis was given the bum's rush or how Arnold managed to become governor-elect. All that is explainable by reference to conventional American politics and the money that fuels it. What is beyond me is how Californians, sophisticated suntanned denizens of the Left Coast --at least the ones who aren't living in their car--tolerated for so long a Democratic machine that could elevate Gray Davis to the governorship. This ill tempered, foul mouthed, deeply corrupt incompetent became governor just by hanging around long enough and by being marginally less a loser than Cruz Bustamante or Willie Brown.

Taking It Home

I was wondering when this would happen. The Israelis have finally gotten around to delivering the package to the right address. Boy Assad must be wondering why that damned Arab street still won't rise.

More Palestinian Barbarism

I suppose even the latest outrage of blowing up a busload of nursery school children and babies will not dent the support of the left for Arafat's barbarian hordes. At least they didn't kill any whales. Still pals with Yasser, Mr. Goff?

It's A Religion After All

As much as I admire the warrior scribe Andrew Sullivan, I think it's time for him to lay off the Catholic Church on the same-gender marriage issue. I have my own philosophical reasons for opposing same-gender marriage, but that's not the point here. As Andrew is well aware, Catholicism is a religion, not a political party or a social club. The Church (or any other religion for that matter) is not obligated to change what it considers fundamental and immutable principles to match the often loony perturbations of society. These principles, however medievel or reactionary, are supposed to be the word of God after all. If the believers cannot reconcile the principles of the religion with their own, then it's on the head of the person to change, go, shut-up, or start his own church. Down any other road lies schism and dissolution. There are all sorts of squashy religions out there that let you believe anything you want, but something tells me they don't provide much spiritual comfort.

Hemlock Jokes

This bit was over the top Europhilia even for the Guardian. The hemlock jokes came fast and furious and rightly so. Giscard as Socrates? The sleazy French fixer and international arms dealer? Andrew Sullivan has him pinned to the wall and dissected like a cockroach.

The Scott Ritter School of Weapons Inspection

One News has the story of Steve Allinson, a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq. Mr. Allinson can't quite decide what he thinks. He says he doubts whether Saddam "ever had a banned weapons program", except that we know that he did because he admitted that he did, and all of it that the Iraqis couldn't hide was destroyed under UN supervision. He also thinks his team should have been allowed to work on, looking for the weapons program he thinks was never there. I find it odd that the Allies are supposed to have uncovered it all by now, given that the same bleating skeptics were adamant a year ago that the UN be given as much time as required to search for WMDs. Would it be asking too much to expect One News to ask the occasional hard question? Come on, guys, you're journalists. If I can see the inconsistencies from up here on Cold Mountain, surely you can see them even better up close and personal.

If the latest incidents of Palestinian savagery aren't enough to dent the iron skulls of Arafat's fellow travellers, ahem, that would be you, Mr. Goff, then nothing ever will be. There will be nothing like peace until Arafat, the Fatah Gang, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are gone, disappeared, sharing cave space with what's left of bin Laden. Do not waste time trying to ride a non-existent "cycle of violence" along the roadmap. The cycle is trotted out by journalists and academics who are too lazy to think.

The stated goal of the Palestinian thugocracy is the murder of every single Jew in the Middle East, the sacred duty of the Israeli government is to prevent that by any means necessary. Why do politicans persist in wishing that it were otherwise? Why do people who believe everything else that the Arafat clique says or, for that matter, everything the Israelis say, refuse to take either of them at their word on this point?

There is no more a cycle of violence than there is between the United States and al-Qaeda, or between police and criminals anywhere. Repeat after me, Arafat does not want peace. He wants his state, he wants it from the river to the sea, and he wants it born in fire and blood, not in compromise. The Israelis for their part will take peace if they can get it and still keep breathing, but will fight if they cannot.

One News has more on Georgia McCarten's death by vehicular homicide. The court didn't even bother to tell Georgia's mother that Zhao was appealing his sentence. Just an oversight, mind you. Let Phil Goff know what you think.

A Monkeypox on Your House

If you've ever doubted the great wisdom of New Zealand's biosecurity regime, then read this story on the monkeypox outbreak in the U.S. What kind of an idiot would import a giant Gambian rat as a pet? If you see a MAF officer at the pub, buy them a drink. In fact, buy several.

Read Tim Blair. Everyday. Without fail. Even if you have to miss lunch. It's The Truth from Oz.

And another thing. What earthly good is a suspension of driving privileges? When Zhao killed that little girl, he was already driving without a license. Was that part of the sentence considered at all by either judge?

Today's NZ Herald has Claire Trevett's account of the outrageous blood money trial and appeal of "student" Zhao Ding Yan, who ran over and killed 4 year old Georgia McCarten-Graham while driving unlicensed at double the speed limit. The judge in the original trial had handed down an already incredibly lenient sentence of 2 years imprisonment and a five year driving disqualification. Zhao's family had offered to pay as "compensation" $40,000. Think about that....$40,000 for a child's life and a wrecked family. On appeal, Justice Randerson said the sentencing judge failed to take into account the offer of compensation, and then he cut Zhao's sentence in half and dropped his driving disqualification to three years. Right. Would you trade a child's life for $40,000? Could Zhao have avoided jail completely for $80,000? It's simple payment of blood money; just like in that other judicial paradise, China.

$40,000. About the price of a new car for Mr. Zhao when he gets out of jail.

Has anyone else noted the emergence of the psychologist school of foreign policy analysis? Today's International Herald Tribune (the overseas voice of that paragon of journalistic integrity, the New York Times) carries a story on North Korea's nuclear weapons program that states, apparently in all seriousness, that the desire to be able to incinerate Tokyo is just a cry for attention. Well, I know I feel better now.

Andrew Gimson writing on the German welfare state in the May 10 London Spectator:
"They (the 1968 'rebels") found their livelihood thanks to Bismarck. He was he who saw
that welfare payments could be used to suppress conflict and keep millions in quiescent
dependency on the state.....The will to work has been eroded, in many individual cases
beyond hope of recovery, by a welfare state which by British standards is amazingly munificent."

Recognise anyone you know?

Top of the morning. Regrettably I'm not writing this from New Zealand, but from Taiwan, in the midst of the Great SARS Epidemic. The Taiwan government's reponse will become a case study in corruption, mendacity, incompetence and sheer bloody-mindedness. We have legislators profiteering on surgical masks, presidential contenders playing media tag by pointing out little princes and princesses who who ought to be slaving away heroically on military bases and in hospitals instead cruising the streets in brand new Jaguars or just chilling out at home, doctors & nurses resigning en masse rather than care for SARS patients. Nor does this reflect well on the Taiwan public at large, their absolute and bloody minded refusal to cooperate with even the most minimal and reasonable restrictions on their activity ensures that the epidemc will rage long into the summer and perhaps the autumn. When the cyclone season brings its floods, the sewers will overflow as they always do, and the virus will be off and running again. Well, at least it's an island and easily quarantined.

Good morning New Zealand and anyone else who loves this beautiful and civilised country. I came here by long, strange road through America, Mexico and Asia, and I could have chosen to live in any of those places. On my first visit here, made after much arm-twisting by a Kiwi friend, I was overwhelmed both by the physical beauty of the place and by the good attitude that generally prevails. The "road to Damascus" moment came when my friend and I drove into Kaikoura on a stunning late October day, the afternoon sun fell on the snow-capped mountains that seemed to drop right into the sea. It had been a day of good wine and good food, a day when every bend in the road revealed another impossibly beautiful landscape, a day when I wished a thousand times for the artistic talent to capture even a fraction of what I saw. The only thought in my mind was "Why live anywhere else?" I call this blog Cold Mountain after the view that day and after the serenity of a Buddhist poet who went by that name.

I've been in New Zealand now long enough to love her, rough bits and all, and certainly long enough to call her home. I'll be recording my thoughts on events here and those elsewhere that seem interesting. I hope you'll drop in often.

"If you're looking for a place to rest,
Cold Mountain is good for a long stay.
The breeze blowing through the dark pines
Sounds better the closer you come.
Under the trees a white haired man
Mumbles over his Taoist scroll.
Ten years now he hasn't gone home;
He's even forgotten the road he came by.
Poems of Han Shan #50
translated by Burton Watson