I hear the phrase "begging the question" frequently on the radio, television, and in miscellaneous conversations around me. It seems that I only rarely hear it used correctly (in its logical sense). Do other areas of the US and other countries also have people using this phrase literally, as in:

Radio announcer talking about senseless violence on civilians in foreign land: The atrocities of war beg the question of whether it is all worth it. Are the dying children worth the egotistic pride shown by the state's Parliament?


BTW, here's a logical definition (from one of my favorite dictionaries, next to Ambrose Bierce's Devil's):

http://skepdic.com/begging.html