Free Republic

The first thing you notice about America’s 42nd president when he walks out on stage is how much skinnier he is today than he was 30 years ago, when he staged a shocking upset of a sitting president who only a year earlier had a 90 per cent approval rating. Bill Clinton doesn’t really walk out on stage. He sort of ambles out slowly with a huge grin on his face, surveying the audience. On this day, it immediately offers a standing ovation even before he enters from the wings. And why not? Toronto has always loved Clinton, as evidenced...

Pit bulls are still outlaws in Miami-Dade County. Voters overwhelming opted to keep a 1989 ban on American Staffordshire terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers and high-content mixes of both. “The fight does not end here,’’ said Debi Day, an activist with No Kill Nation. “Plans B, C and D will go into effect immediately. We will not let the pit bulls and their owners be forever victim to this discriminatory law.’’

Great leaders get there partly by telling great tales."The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms," wrote the poet and social activist Muriel Rukeyser. To the schooled and scientific mind, that may sound sacrilegious, yet we know there is some truth in it. Our lives are a series of stories woven together--our own stories and the stories of those around us. Great leaders--religious, political or business--realize this and are good storytellers. Jesus spoke in parables. Krishna and Rama came to life through the stories they told. The Torah, Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious text, the first five books...