Richard Jones' Log: Bob Harris compares Sydney to America

Sydney: like a Prisoner episode, but better by Bob Harris:

It's an amazing thing to suddenly sit in open air, free of the assumption of guilt.
...
The next morning, the TV in my hotel showed Tom Ridge clenching his face into a smile and reassuring all of America that a) they were about to blow up, and b) they should go about their business.

Bob's travel journal is a fun read, if you have some spare moments.

Update: Later in the day I read another article comparing Australian and American lifestyles, more on the issue of terror. They are afraid, very afraid by Olga Lorenzo:

Children don't play outside after school as they once did; while we were there, the sounds on our block came from my Australian teenagers. "Why must they be outside?" my mother lamented. "Why not?" I asked. She admitted there was no real reason to keep them in.
...
Going by "terror alerts" emitted by the Government and seized by the media, it would seem that terrorists have succeeded in frightening a nation.

I'm so glad I don't live in America.