Stephen Tuttle | Author
Congressional Dysfunction
Oct. 21, 2023
There was a time when we could reasonably rely on Democrats behaving like a dysfunctional family. There were southern Democrats who were overtly racist and opposed to any semblance of civil rights legislation versus the Democrats proposing that very legislation. There were the Vietnam War...
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Just Ask Siri
Oct. 14, 2023
Those who believe artificial intelligence (AI) is a genie still struggling to get out of the bottle are sadly, perhaps even dangerously, wrong. AI is loose and already both helping and looking for trouble.
Let’s back up a bit. Just what is artificial intelligence? According ...
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The Oldest Bigotry
Oct. 7, 2023
Abraham, a busy fellow, is credited with creating the foundations of all three major monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Judaism came first, almost two millennia before Christ arrived and longer still before Mohammad.
It didn’t take long for the multith...
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Tilting at Budget Windmills
Sept. 30, 2023
By the time this column goes to print, the federal government could be shut down. Or, more rational voices within the Republican party will have been heard and at least some sort of stopgap budget deal will have been made to keep the government running.
This trip to the edge of an...
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A Non-campaign Campaign
Sept. 23, 2023
You might have noticed the pregame activities for Traverse City’s TIF 97 extension campaign have already begun.
TIF 97 has been rebranded as the Moving Downtown Forward TIF, adding some pizzazz to it. And the third parking deck, touted for years as crucial, is not a parking ...
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Safe, Secure, and Fair
Sept. 16, 2023
Republican loyalists have their reasons for continuing to support Donald Trump.
Some simply can’t stand Democrats or Joe Biden and would vote for a lamppost if it was identified as a Republican. (Plenty of Democrats are just as blindly partisan.) Others claim they liked his ...
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Back to School...For Most
Sept. 9, 2023
Is there a dramatic teacher shortage in our country? Let’s see.
The country’s K-12 students have now returned to class, all 55.4 million of them being taught by just more than 4 million teachers. Most will be in traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms
Here...
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Bank Accounts Instead of Scoreboards
Sept. 2, 2023
The college football season has begun in earnest, and almost everything about it, and college sports in general, is wildly different than it was just a decade ago. The goal of the game is essentially the same, but everything surrounding the game and college athletes has changed.
C...
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Lessons of Lahaina
Aug. 26, 2023
It’s not as if they didn’t see it coming.
As early as 2016, Hawaiian Electric’s own internal documents highlight a growing risk of
failure of above ground transmission lines in storm and high wind conditions. They added that such failures could result in fi...
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Children at Risk
Aug. 19, 2023
Missing children, including those being exploited for sex and labor, have been much in the news lately. The numbers are staggering, but most children categorized as missing are not being trafficked.
We should also point out, though we shouldn’t have to, children are not miss...
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The Whataboutism Epidemic
Aug. 12, 2023
“Whataboutism” is a real word—at least according to Merriam-Webster—but so far, it hasn’t been officially recognized by any organization of psychologists, psychiatrists, or other mental health counselors. It is, however, a condition that afflicts more and mor...
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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 ver...
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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 gene...
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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 Engagem...
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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 ar...
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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 ...
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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 hist...
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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 m...
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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 adulter...
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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.&rdq... Read More >>