Patrician Passing
R.I.P., Daniel Patrick Moynihan. How did Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond out live you?

You Know Things Are Bad . . .
when Australia is in the Times. It would be nice to see some good news on this country in that paper. Always with the negative waves, Grey Lady. I would like to say, however, that while the peace protestors overall are right to demonstrate, pursuing a worthy goal, there are many people out there who are using the war to act out their personal frustrations, just as we’ve seen in the anti-globalization protests over the last few years. These are troubled, opportunistic individuals, and they blight democracy. Unfortunately, their activities are used as a pretext by the powers that be to ignore the voices that stay on topic and restrict or otherwise impair the civil liberties of all of us. These are the kinds of actions that make politicians seek to increase police power, and make police act out their own frustrations. I am appalled whenever I see water cannon being used against citizens, just the same.

The White Air
I feel a sense of expanse and peacefulness here in Sydney, and it is somewhat to do with the fact that wherever I am, I can see expanses of sky. The light here seems brighter, whiter than anywhere else I’ve been, but even those cities where the buildings are less tall and less crowded together than NYC have a different feeling than here, even oppressive sometimes. Los Angeles is wide open to the sky, yet it remains mired in traffic, earthbound. Chicago is greyer than you’d expect, even in summer, as is San Francisco, and, of course, London. Paris is so beige I may never understand why it’s called the City of Light. Or is that “Lights”? I was only ever in Berlin during the Cold War, so maybe it’s changed, but it was pretty gloomy. But even on the overcast, rainy days of early autumn, Sydney seems bright, it seems to spread out before you like a picnic blanket. Perhaps the proximity to the ocean and the harbor’s deep reach through the city has something to do with it.