Beg the question != Raise the question.

Sunnan: As much as my inner pedant reviles the notion, at this point the phrase’s usage has shifted enough that there is some serious debate on whether it’s now acceptable to use “beg the question” to mean “raise the question”.

why_: I personally wouldn’t use it though. “Beg the question” was originally a slightly funky translation of the Latin petitio principii, which referred to the questionable practice of making an argument that assumes the very thing you’re trying to prove.

Since it can now be taken either way, the term has become sort of an icky minefield of ambiguity.

The intended meaning might be clear enough from context in the comic above, but in general it’s not very safe as far as verbal Least Surprise goes.

Well, eh, does the use of the phrase AT LEAST project the ignorant pretention characteristic of the audience—the Least Surprised themselves?

I now see where I have been remiss: everything the audience says should be in Latin.

Emendatum.

Up until this episode I thought the bald guy with the mic was the sympathetic character in this drama. But now that he’s said he would killfile David Black… well… he’s starting to seem like a monster.

And then there’s the irony of it all. Here he is blathering on, always hogging the mic and he’s saying “There’s no reason to be so vocal”. A despot, that’s what he is. A tinpan dictator. His true colors are showing now.

why_: Well, ok. That works. I guess I’m too easily distracted by the little things. ^^;

Latin, though? I don’t know…

top poster: I think we saw the first rumblings of this back in #2, actually. Witness Mr. Malsky’s off-hand dismissal of Super Fjord.

No one has said anything about the shades of green. I even checked the archives and sure enough.

Shades of green? Who’s envious here?

I find the shades of green quite pleasing.

I thought you were just using them to rather expertly separate speakers—is there some additional significance attached to them?