No evidence gay marriage leads to polygamy
Re: “Let’s give polygamy a chance,” June 7
Gregory Kane argues that polygamy is the inevitable consequence of the legalization of gay marriage: “I’m sure proponents of gay marriage will cry foul, as they usually do when opponents of gay marriage bring up the dreaded ‘p’ word. But this is the one 800-pound gorilla in the room that can’t be ignored,” he writes.
Kane’s argument is a classic example of the slippery slope fallacy. He wrongly assumes that merely permitting gay marriage will inevitably lead to legal recognition of polygamy, and he does so without bothering to provide any reasons or evidence to support his argument.
Craig Taylor
Alexandria
Ethics board nominee is well-respected public servant
Re; “D.C. ethics panel’s big job,” June 6
Wow! A Jonetta Rose Barras column I can agree with. While she still makes some wrong assumptions — such as most people remembering Robert Spagnoletti for handling a nuisance case for Vince Gray rather than his great work as corporation counsel, the name of the position before it became attorney general — I agree that he is a great pick to chair the city’s new ethics board.
Spagnoletti is a very smart, honest and hard-working guy. His experience in government will stand him in good stead in this new position. His own ethics are beyond reproach, and his ability to look at things both from a global perspective and at the ground level will come in handy in this new job.
Mayor Gray should be congratulated for all his choices for the new board. I only hope that taking on this role won’t stand in the way should Spagnoletti be persuaded to run for the position of attorney general when it becomes an elected position in 2014. He would be a perfect candidate, as he is the kind of well-respected public servant that makes people proud of government.
Peter D. Rosenstein
Washington
Bad analysis is bad for business
Re: “District earns D+ for friendliness to small businesses,” June 4
This Examiner article references a survey from Thumbtack.com that notes: “If you’re planning to start a small business in the District, you may also want to consider some anger management classes.”
That’s hard to square with the fact that, in the same survey, District of Columbia business owners ranked the health of their businesses No. 2 nationwide, higher than almost any city in the country.Or the fact that the District is at the center of the top region in the country for fastest-growing private companies, the ninth city in the U.S. for young professionals, and 24th in the world for startups.
These rankings are in addition to the five A+s, 2 As and one B- the District received from the 24 survey respondents, and the exciting initiatives and programs in place to support District companies.
There is no question that there are improvements to be made in the regulatory process for small businesses in D.C., which is why the mayor created a task force to examine how to streamline the process of doing business in the city.However, The Examiner failed to show much balance in this piece, leaving out much of the positive findings in this survey and focusing on the negative.
Examiner readers should also know that the founder of Thumbtack.com contacted [us] to “congratulate you on some great news that we have just released to a number of news outlets throughout Washington, D.C.”
Making the District the world-class business environment residents deserve is hard work. But demonstrably selective analysis discourages entrepreneurs and investors from considering D.C. That’s why valuable surveys like Thumbtack.com’s deserve more thoughtful analysis.
Brendon Miller
Director of public affairs,
D.C. Department of Small and Local Business Development
