If everyone uses a phrase to mean something
then that's what it means.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 18:09, 2 replies)

No it doesn't.
It might be what they mean, but that doesn't mean it's what it does mean.

Anyway that hardly excuses anyone from meaning something that makes no damn sense.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 18:11, closed)

This is true of course
but that's not the problem. The masses have yet another general way to say "which leads us to ask..." ; the English language has lost a unique and precise phrase that means "assuming that which you set out to prove". A perfectly good and useful phrase yet againg ruined by ill-educated fuckwits.
(scep, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 18:50, closed)