All,
There is a lot of confused thinking about this (mine and the Bad Astronomer!) and all this quoting is making mine worse. Can we debate without constant references please? Put the point in your own words.

I say that the BA is confused/confusing because his explanation starts with the point that the earth is so big that the Moon's gravity diminishes across its the diameter. This is clearly so, but he bases his argument on this effect, when "Tides" are a universal effect. The size of the satellite is irrelevant. Small satellites are influenced, usually by being 'pulled' so that they lie with their long axis radial to their primary;massive stars suffer tides, when they are in a binary group. Moreover, the position of the CoM, inside or outside the primary and the rotation of the earth are also irrelevant.

Any argument for the origin of tides that depends on a special case - eg the Earth-Moon CoM lies within the Earth (Or vice versa for the Earth-Sun) or the earth is rotating - must be weak. Let's discuss the general case.

Eroica - you can do the maths (I can't!) What about the general case of two equally massive planets, in orbit around each other, their rotation locked? (A tidal effect, but one we can ignore to pare away distracting elements) Let's think about the tides on those.

John