Stephen Tuttle

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Surviving Really Bad Neighbors

Much of the world is once again mad at Israel. When Israeli commandos
boarded an aid ship attempting to penetrate the ongoing blockade of
Gaza, they encountered club-wielding “activists” and fought back with
gunfire. The result was several injured Israelis and nine dead
activists.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle The War We Cannot Win
The White House has announced they are going to take a new approach to
the country’s endless battle against drugs and drug use, focusing their
efforts on a public health approach – education and rehabilitation –
instead of continuing the futility of a criminal justice approach. Maybe
this is a good idea given that we’ve been getting our asses kicked in the
half century long “war on drugs”.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle No score at the end of the first quarter
And we’re off. The first wave of 2010 elections are over. Depending on
who you listen to, the results were a shocking repudiation of Barack
Obama or a complete rejection of all incumbents, or the first signs of
a tsunami of conservatism, or the beginning of the tea party era in
American politics. Or none of the above.
The messages were so mixed it’s impossible to draw broad conclusions
no matter what the experts say.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Many of us assumed that oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico had to meet
stringent government safety regulations and included layers of fail-safe
devices to prevent a massive oil spill. Now we know we were wrong.
It is increasingly clear that government oversight of BP’s Deep Horizon
drilling rig was fatally lax. It is also clear that BP cut corners and
sacrificed safety in favor of speed.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Veering left or right and going nowhere
Are you a conservative or liberal? Can you even define the terms?
Modern politics and media seem to require that we all be labeled left
or right. The middle, where moderates used to reside, continues to
shrink, a tiny sliver of common sense between warring extremes.
Dictionaries define conservatives as those who favor the status quo
and liberals as those who favor change. Things were so much simpler
when those definitions actually meant something.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Arizona has passed an anti-illegal immigration bill and all hell has
broken loose. Protests have been held, boycotts planned, the usual
suspects have crawled out from under their rocks, and Shakira has spoken
out. Shakira? Sure. Arizona was desperate for advice from a native of
that bastion of freedom and democracy, Colombia.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle An open letter to my Tea Party friends
Dear Friends:
First, congratulations! You’ve gotten involved. This is a very good
thing. Much of your movement is in the best traditions of robust
protest. This is at least one way actual change begins. You should be
pleased with your initial efforts.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle The Biomistake: slanted survey & bad research are behind a bad idea
And so it has come to pass that Traverse City Light & Power (TCLP) has
decided to build a biomass plant and burn our forests to produce
electricity.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Originally Unconstitutional
We are about to be inundated with “expert” opinions about the U.S.
Constitution. With the announced retirement of Supreme Court Justice John
Paul Stevens and the inevitable fight over whoever President Obama
nominates to replace him, terms like “activist judge” and “strict
constructionist” will be in the news.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle To Be or Not to Be Governor
And they’re off. Sort of.
The state of Michigan is in deep economic doo-doo. Very deep.
Unemployment continues to hover around 15% and in some areas,
including Northern Michigan, it has reached 20% or more. The state
budget is $1.5 billion in the red and the legislature continues to
fiddle as the state slowly burns.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle The Healthcare Victory
After months of venomous debate, Congress has passed Barack Obama’s
healthcare reform package.
Whether you hate President Obama or love him, whether you loathe the
healthcare bill as a harbinger of doom for the country or love it as
the greatest thing since the Bill of Rights, it is undeniably an
accomplishment of historic proportions for the president and Speaker
of the House Nancy Pelosi. And you have to admit the president is one
tenacious son-of-a-gun. Undeterred when the bill was declared dead on
at least three occasions, he was resolute in his commitment.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Since it’s never too early to start a presidential race, let’s get
busy on the 2012 campaign before the 2010 mid-term elections overcome
us.
Sarah Palin is everywhere. She speaks at conservative gatherings, she
speaks to Tea Party gatherings. She’s on “Oprah” and Jay Leno. She’s
about to race to Arizona to campaign for John McCain’s senatorial
re-election campaign, an irony since McCain is suddenly anathema to
Palin’s natural base.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Reduce my taxes, cut your benefits
The so-called Tea Party tax protestors are suddenly all the rage. They had
a little rally in Washington, D.C. back on September 12. Police estimated
the crowd at about 70,000 while rally organizers said more than a million
showed up.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle The Enemy Within
Let’s review, shall we?
Slightly more than a year into Barack Obama’s presidency it is quite clear
all the problems we now face are his fault because he is a radical
left-wing ultra-liberal socialist Democrat who has surrounded himself with
a Chicago mafia of incompetent czars hell-bent on destroying our
Constitution and our country. And he probably isn’t even an American
citizen and might be a Muslim terrorist. Not to mention all of his liberal
pals.

Other Opinions Stephen Tuttle Performance-based silliness
Children are our future. We know this not just because it’s so painfully
obvious but because political candidates tell us this every election
cycle. In fact, it’s one of the campaign clichés on which we can count,
election after election after election.