Stephen Tuttle | Author

Some Local Odds and Ends for August

Aug. 5, 2023

Now that it appears the 2024 presidential election will be between someone indicted for dozens of felonies and an incumbent with an allegedly misbehaving son…well, let's take a break and see what’s happening locally.

That Hartman-Hammond bypass is turning into one very … Read More >>

Where Facts Go to Die

July 29, 2023

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says Florida is “where woke goes to die.” He could have more accurately said Florida middle schools are where facts, history, and reality go to die.

Those Florida students will receive some interesting information about racism in genera… Read More >>

Inconsiderate Protesters, Intolerant Speech

July 22, 2023

Last month, there was a bit of a dust-up at North Central Michigan College (NCMC) in Petoskey. They have a regular, ticketed event called the Luncheon Lecture Series, and on June 22, the lecture didn’t go so well.

The invited speaker was Paul Meneghini, the Community Engagemen… Read More >>

Falling Farther Behind

July 15, 2023

Time for our semi-regular unofficial update on how the climate versus humans fight is progressing. We humans have thus far avoided a knockout blow, but we are way, way behind on points.

Let’s start with our normal advisory: Climate is weather patterns existing over a wide area… Read More >>

Zoning Changes Deserve Discussion

July 8, 2023

The Traverse City Planning Commission recently recommended several zoning changes designed, they say, to help alleviate our current housing shortage. Any debate should come into sharp relief when the proposals are next discussed by the City Commission.

Though you won’t find it… Read More >>

The Truth of Equality

July 1, 2023

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”

Thomas Jefferson’s self-evident truth of equality did not apply to all men and not at all to women. Today, we just pretend it did.

But let’s back up.

Many histor… Read More >>

The Crisis of Crises

June 24, 2023

We don’t just have problems to be solved these days—we have crises. There’s the mental health crisis, the housing crisis, and the opioid crisis, at a minimum.

Back in 1997, Michigan ordered the closing of all 16 state hospitals, a decision similar to that being mad… Read More >>

Mysterious Support from Evangelicals

June 17, 2023

This is a tale of two Republican presidential candidates who both need the support of those identifying as evangelical Christians. Actually, it’s not just a tale—it’s a mystery. We’ll call them Candidate #1 and Candidate #2.

Candidate #1 is a serial adulterer… Read More >>

Same Trump, New Campaign Lies

June 10, 2023

At least one presidential candidate is back to his old ways, his lie machine barely slowing down. Here’s a sampling.

According to the Associated Press, Trump claims he “inherited record high unemployment” and created the “lowest unemployment in history.&rdquo… Read More >>

More Heat, Less Water

June 3, 2023

Every agreement ever reached attempting to allocate Colorado River water has had the same problem—more water has been promised than actually exists.

In 1922, the seven states with a direct interest in the Colorado and its watershed came to an agreement called the Colorado Rive… Read More >>

Reparations Won’t Repair Much

May 27, 2023

Reparations for Black Americans is an idea as old as the Thirteenth Amendment ending slavery in 1865. General William Sherman wanted to appropriate 400,000 acres of former slave owners’ land and, with Field Order 15, provide former slave families with 40 acres of “tillable&rdquo… Read More >>

No More Battlefield Flowers

May 20, 2023

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row…

John McCrae, a Canadian soldier and doctor, wrote those words during World War I (WWI) from the perspective of young men recently killed in battle. It became a memorial for all fallen soldiers in every … Read More >>

An Ambitious Agenda

May 13, 2023

Traverse City’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) has created an ambitious agenda for themselves.

There is the third parking deck, the riverfront redevelopment, talk of expanding the area in which they operate, and perhaps even a third tax increment financing (TIF) district… Read More >>

A Job Without Rules

May 6, 2023

Being a federal judge is a pretty good job that lasts forever.

Article III, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution says federal judges “…shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour…” The practical result is that judges essentially hold those offices regardle… Read More >>

Leadership Ignoring Reality

April 29, 2023

The Michigan Republican Party is very close to losing its way, at least at the top. They seem to have no overriding philosophy or political ideology. Like the Democrat party, the GOP mostly begs for money they can use to attack the other party. But the Republicans have gone completely off t… Read More >>

National News Briefs: Satire Edition

April 22, 2023

(Waukesha, WI) – The Waukesha Public School Board today instituted lockdowns for all elementary schools when a passing thunderstorm generated a rainbow. A board spokesperson said, “Rainbows are a controversial symbol, and we don’t believe young children should be exposed t… Read More >>

On We Go

April 15, 2023

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas has been living large on someone else’s dime for a long time. Thanks to reporting in ProPublica, we now know just how large that life has been. Thomas disclosed none of it.

Thomas’s benefactor, billionaire Harlan C… Read More >>

Peripheral Targets

April 8, 2023

It isn’t clear what Republican office holders support other than guns and Donald Trump, but it is crystal clear what they don’t support. They seem to think their beloved base only responds to the negativity they produce in abundance.

Let’s start with businesses and… Read More >>

Discouraging to Be on the Back Burner

March 25, 2023

The realities of climate change seem to have moved to many back burners. It’s not as if the causes and effects have suddenly disappeared.

First, let’s take a moment to acknowledge not every weather anomaly is related to climate change. We’ve always had droughts, fl… Read More >>

The Stench of Slavery

March 18, 2023

California is about to approve the payment of reparations to people who can prove they are the descendants of slaves. This might be a good time to look at slavery’s ugly history.

As long as there has been recorded history, there have been references to slavery, starting with t… Read More >>