Stephen Tuttle | Author

Old-fashioned Term Limits

June 14, 2025

According to Pew Research, Ballotpedia, and pretty much all other public opinion research companies, the approval rating for Congress hovers right around 30 percent. So seven out of 10 adult Americans think Congress is doing a crummy job of which they disapprove. One suspects if more people… Read More >>

Selective Humanitarianism

June 7, 2025

A word first coined by a Polish author in 1944, “genocide” is defined by Amnesty International as the killing or destruction of specific ethnic, racial, national, or religious groups or nationalities with the intent of fully destroying them.

Sadly, these kinds of horrors… Read More >>

Nothing Is Better than a Tree

May 31, 2025

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

So begins Joyce Kilmer’s classic ode to our leafy friends. He’d likely be displeased if he was still alive and lived around here these days; we’ve found plenty of reasons to remove plent… Read More >>

The Lie That Won’t Die

May 24, 2025

Be thankful your children don’t attend public schools in Oklahoma. Superintendent Ryan Walters has interesting ideas on what schools should be teaching and how they should teach it.

Walters has proposed, unsuccessfully, mandatory teaching from the Bible and required that every… Read More >>

Climate Changes, We Don't

May 17, 2025

As summer approaches, it is time for a quick climate review while information is still available from reliable sources. More than 1,000 employees have been laid off at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including from the National Weather Service (NWS) from which we… Read More >>

A Formula Playing Out

May 10, 2025

First, we have to tear things down, demonizing both people and institutions.

Human enemies are easy enough to define—we’ll call people here illegally rapists, murderers, released prisoners, and mental patients. We’ll describe Muslims, and most anybody from a Muslim… Read More >>

Watching, Counting, Turning

May 3, 2025

As always, there is plenty of activity in Traverse City. Issues pop up like trilliums this time of year. Some are old and reliably and perpetually unsolved, like affordable housing or what to do with the homeless population, and some show up uninvited, like how to make up for cuts in federa… Read More >>

Follow the Rules

April 26, 2025

There is not a section, paragraph, sentence, or word in the United States Constitution that says the Legislative and Judicial branches of the government are subservient to the Executive branch. Not one. The Founders conceived of three equal branches of government checking and balancing each… Read More >>

DEI Overreactions

April 19, 2025

Most people consider equality to be a good thing; equal opportunities, equal pay, equal consideration. We also like the idea of being included, and diversification is almost always a recommendation for investments and collections of all sorts. That’s why DEI (diversity, equality, incl… Read More >>

Big Protests, Bad Bets

April 12, 2025

The Hands Off! protests of a couple weeks ago were impressive in their size and scope. According to various media reports, gatherings took place in some 1,400 American communities with nearly 600,000 people signing up in advance (per CNN), and even more participating.

Locally in Tra… Read More >>

Irrational Decisions

April 5, 2025

The irrational decisions now happen with such dizzying frequency that it’s almost impossible to keep track. If it was something we valued, there is a pretty good chance Donald Trump and Elon Musk will destroy it.

Let’s start with the arts, in which the current administra… Read More >>

Environmental Destruction Agency

March 22, 2025

In an essay in The Wall Street Journal, he said he wants to “... drive a dagger through the heart of climate change religion and usher in America’s Golden Age...”

Of course, that was a CEO of a fossil fuel or petrochemical conglomerate, right? No, that was… Read More >>

A Bridge Too Far

March 15, 2025

Michigan has always been a bit of a mecca for campers; put up a tent, build a fire, head out on a hike or to the beach, and enjoy all that Michigan nature has to offer. We’ve provided plenty of opportunities for our adventuresome residents and visitors.

Michigan has 103 state … Read More >>

Our New Friends

March 8, 2025

The United States has been a beacon of hope for much of the world for eight decades. It took Donald Trump a month to turn off that light.

This becomes obvious as we betray Ukraine, turn our backs on our NATO allies, and inflict punitive tariffs on our best trading partners. The inte… Read More >>

Vigilantes, and Other Issues

March 1, 2025

So many issues have arisen as the new administration lays waste to chunks of the federal government that are pretty valuable in a pinch. We’ll have to try and sort all that out another time; other issues occupy today’s space.

Let’s start today in New York City, whe… Read More >>

Hardly Fair

Feb. 22, 2025

College athletics has become fully professionalized. Amateurism and education are no longer front and center; pay-to-play is the new order of the day.

Many would argue this is only fair. College athletics is not some minor-league enterprise, it’s a full-blown industry with ful… Read More >>

Proving We Need It

Feb. 15, 2025

Black History Month is not quite dead. President Trump signed a declaration announcing it and he mentioned several Black people from our history, perhaps the only such folks whose names he knows.

But the Trump ban on all things DEI (diversity, equality, inclusion) was more important… Read More >>

Progress, but Not Enough

Feb. 8, 2025

It isn’t clear how much longer the current government will be producing data regarding climate, as they are already in the process of removing references to climate change online and in printed informational material.

The operative philosophy seems to be if we don’t talk… Read More >>

Pardon Us

Feb. 1, 2025

Presidents have near absolute power to issue pardons or commutations for those convicted of federal crimes. Actually, they can issue such clemency for those already convicted of crimes, those currently on trial, or even preemptively for future crimes.

Article II, Section 2, Clause 1… Read More >>

Constitution at Risk?

Jan. 25, 2025

It would seem our Constitution is somewhat at risk as our new president, and at least some of his supporters, don’t care for parts they find inconvenient. The president has actually said he believes he can find ways to circumvent some sections through Executive Orders and other parts … Read More >>