10 November 2006

Re: Red Herring

Hello Charles Cherry,
Janet sent you this message from Meetup.com:
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You said:
[that I said:]
"But before I do so, let me quickly dispose of a potentially confusing side issue, which is the validity of the supposed "tax fairness" argument itself. Though I chose not say so in my letter to the editor, I reject this argument regardless of who advances it. It's a red herring."

With all due respect, you cannot throw out a statement like this and expect it to stand without scrutiny.

I wasn't trying to persuade you; I was just trying to make sure that you understood that even though I wasn't making this the central issue, that didn't mean that I agreed with you on it.

It actually is peripheral to what I'm going to say whether this argument alone is valid or not; I don't plan to use this as the basis for further discussion. Honest.

Janet