Stephen Tuttle

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Making History... for Better or Worse


Egypt is on the brink. President Hosni Mubarak has already declared he
won’t seek reelection. By the time you read this the country may have
fallen into complete chaos or the military and police may have
ruthlessly cracked down on the demonstrators or some sort of
middle-ground sanity might have started to prevail.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Only One 1/31/11

You might have noticed the early preening, posturing and positioning
for the 2012 Republican presidential primary races. The field of
likely, probable, possible and potential candidates has already grown
into quite a throng.
There’s Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former New York City Mayor
Rudolf Giuliani, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former
Vice Presidential candidate and Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin,
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, former Massachusetts
Governor Mitt Romney, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, former Senator
from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum, former Virginia Senator George Allen,
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and former Arkansas Governor Mike
Huckabee.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle The Sorry State of Our States 1/24/11
It’s the time of year for State of the State addresses. If they are
honest, governors old and new will offer the same stark message –
states are in deep trouble.
Despite all the talk of the federal deficit, and it’s plenty bad, many
states are now facing calamitous deficits. Unlike the Feds, states
are confronted with constitutional requirements to balance their
budgets and they can’t just borrow from China or print more money.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Gunfire in Tucson 1/17/11
Another inexplicable massacre of innocents followed by another
outpouring of grief followed by another round of finger pointing
followed by another extended period of hand wringing followed by...
pretty much nothing. We’re getting good at this.
Who’s to blame? Everyone? No one? We always have a line-up of
suspects at the ready.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Grading the President
The trouble with grading a politician is the grade is pretty much
dependent on how we feel about the person being graded. Many Democrats
would have given George W. Bush an F regardless of what he did. And many
Republicans would similarly grade Barack Obama regardless of what he does.
Obama finds himself in the unenviable position of being forced to piss off
both the right and the left and move toward the middle in order to govern.
It’s a lesson quickly learned by every president but, for some reason,
never learned by either opponents or supporters.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Deserving the Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights has, more or less, been under attack from the
second it was ratified as the first 10 amendments to the Constitution
in 1791. Introduced by James Madison, all 10 were created as a way to
protect the rights of individuals and serve as a brake against the
government.
It’s taken a real beating for the last half century or so.
The Fourth Amendment, which protects us against unreasonable searches
and seizures, was stomped on pretty good at the beginning of the
modern war on drugs.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Questions
Ah, yes, a new year. Time for noisemakers and funny hats and
predictions and resolutions.
Predictions for 2011 are just downright foolish. Nobody seems to have
a clue. Even corporations big and small are playing wait-and-see,
delaying expansion and hiring plans and stockpiling cash. At least the
big corporations have been stockpiling cash.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Naughty & Nice
In addition to good little boys and girls, there are all kinds of
people out there who have been nice this year.
There are teachers, fire fighters, nurses, doctors, law enforcement
officers and military personnel.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Donning our gay apparel
Traverse City has become the latest Michigan city to approve an
ordinance that prohibits discrimination against people based on their
sexual orientation. And just like in many of those other cities, a
group opposed to the ordinance is attempting to put the matter before
voters.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Trouble in North Korea
The crazy people who run North Korea, or more to the point, the crazy
family, is at it again, lobbing artillery shells on a South Korean
island.
The Korean War, the Forgotten War, has become the Longest War, now in
its 60th year. Most of us don’t remember how or why it started and
almost no one understands what the hell is going on there now.
From 1910 until 1945, the Korean Peninsula was under the control of
the Japanese. They weren’t especially kind overseers.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Elections are a beautiful thing
Thank God that’s over.
Our windstorms of a couple weeks ago were little more than light
breezes compared to the hot air spewed by politicians of all stripes
the last six months. Their television and radio ad barrages have
both insulted our intelligence and tried our patience.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle The paycheck problem
As the campaigns finally, and mercifully, come to an end (and let’s
take a moment here to bow our heads in reverential thanksgiving for
whoever that blessed soul was who invented the “Mute” button on our
remote controls), there is a fairly startling issue politicians of all
stripes chose to ignore.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Please Don‘t Vote
Please don’t vote. No, seriously. Why bother?
Let’s face it – all the candidates for every office are either
worthless or no better than the other guy or gal. We know this
because we’ve been told that for months now. One party is pretty much
just like the other and neither side seems to have more than an ounce
or two of common sense. Many of you are now counting on some tea party
candidate, or sympathizer, to really stir things up, restore the
Constitution, cut spending reduce taxes, blah, blah, blah. Or you
want some liberal to maintain or expand social services, tax the rich,
end the war, blah, blah, blah.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle My Opponent is a Bum
All right. We get it.
All the candidates currently advertising on television are bums. We
know this because their opponents have told us over and over and over
again ad nauseam.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Reforming the education reformers
Education reform is suddenly all the rage. It seems our public schools
are failing. This is apparently some kind of revelation for the
reporters and politicians, though our schools have been on a downward
slide for about three decades.