Direction of Fedora desktop manager Gnome, related to complaints in OT morons thread

[Christopher A. Williams]

On Mon, 2011-03-21 at 22:04 +0000, Marko Vojinovic wrote: 
> On Monday 21 March 2011 21:19:16 Vaclav Mocek wrote:
> > On 03/21/2011 06:19 PM, Joe Zeff wrote:
> > > On 03/21/2011 10:16 AM, stan wrote:
> > >> And it
> > >> begs the question of*why*  people might be deserting Fedora.
> > > 
> > > No it doesn't; it *ASKS* the question.  "Begging the question" is a
> > > logical fallacy.  Please stop using that term like an illiterate moron,
> > > even if it is common usage.  Just because the common herd uses it
> > > doesn't make it right and to those of us who know what it means it makes
> > > you sound like an ID10T.
> > 
> >  From my Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (2008):
> > 
> > Idiom "beg the question"
> > 
> > 1. to make somebody want to ask a question that has not yet been answered
> >      "All of which begs the question as to who will fund the project."
> > 
> > 2. to talk about something as if it were definitely true, even though it
> > might not be
> >      "These assumptions beg the question that children learn languages
> > more easily than adults."
> > 
> > 
> > I am confused; it is an idiom, which is a part of Standard [British]
> > English and the previous usage seems to be correct.
> 
> No need to be confused :-) . The idiom is (as you found out) completely ok and 
> Stan used it properly.

If it helps (and admittedly it probably doesn't help much), the idiom is
also perfectly OK in U.S. English. From the Macmillan Dictionary and
Thesaurus, American English section:

"beg the question"

1. To make you want to know the answer to a particular question

2. Formal to discuss a problem, issue, or fact as if it definitely
exists, even though it may not exist

:-)

Chris