He's not dead yet, but the spirit of Ronald Reagan is omnipresent these days, and nowhere is it more damnably profane than in politicians' relentless invocations of the Almighty.

We are entering, techno-boosters breathlessly proclaim, a "third industrial revolution," that of the "knowledge-based" or "new" economy.

Anyone who has led a discussion on the economy or trade or globalization
in this country has faced the question, Should I buy American? Sounds
simple enough.

Every Wednesday since January 1992, an indefatigable group of
halmonis (Korean for "grandmothers") in their 70s and 80s have
led a rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.

After successfully attacking jaywalkers with curbside barriers and adult-oriented businesses with zoning curbs, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is now waging war on two fronts at once, to stamp o

For more information about Positive Force, or to send donations to the Arthur S. Flemming Center, write to Positive Force, 3510 North 8th Street, Arlington, VA 22201. Checks should be made payable to Emmaus Services for the Aging.

Sagesse (meaning "wisdom") LaBasse, the narrator of Claire Messud's second novel, The Last Life, is French-Algerian on her father's side and American on her mother's.

Karen Rosenberg has taught Russian literary history in the United States and Austria.

In 1980, amid debates about "cleaning up" Times Square, New York City Mayor Ed Koch warned, "New York cannot and should not become Disneyland.

To die for art: No one takes the idea seriously anymore, and yet people do it every day.