[WAYYY OT] Begs the question

[Joe Zeff]

On 03/21/2011 05:49 PM, Tom Horsley wrote:
> Apparently Nero Wolfe is willing to make contact with
> the expression "begs the question" :-).

If you read it carefully, you'll see that he's not misusing it; he's 
pointing out that whoever Whipple is referring to as "they" are assuming 
that "it has a basis" without evidence.  If he were misusing it, he'd 
have said, "That begs the question, why do they think it has a basis?"