Search most any national capital and you will eventually find a statue of some foreigner whose connection to the city or country is not immediately apparent. In London, Lincoln glares across parliament square at Big Ben (glaring, perhaps, as he remembers Britain's pro-Confederacy tilt during our Civil War). Latin American liberator Simón Bolivar is honored with a large bust smack in the center of Cairo -- it is almost as incongruous as the statue of Martin Luther on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C.... Read more

The Middle East: It's hard to imagine a place more frequently in the news and less understood by most Americans. Yet the fate of that troubled region is inextricably linked with our own, and not only because of the war in Iraq. So if you find a couple of experts in your neighborhood, why not put them together, eavesdrop on their conversation, and learn something?... Read more

This should not have been particularly surprising. During the seven years I lived in Cairo, trips home inevitably prompted at least one question about how well I spoke Egyptian. Years ago, in a Washington, D.C., post office, the guy behind the counter asked which Austria my letter was bound for. Apparently, without the word "Europe" written in big letters across the bottom of the envelope, there was a good chance it would end up in Australia. More recently, a college professor I know told her students to write a paper on the "developing country" of their choice.... Read more

Remember "Piss Christ"? In case you've forgotten, that was Andres Serrano's 1987 photo of a crucifix submerged in a glass of his own urine. Two years after the photo was taken, it set off a firestorm of public controversy, particularly because Serrano was the recipient of a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Alfonse D'Amato (R-New York) called it "a deplorable, despicable display of vulgarity," and tore up a copy of "Piss Christ" on the Senate floor.... Read more