"Begging the Question" and Other Annoyances

If I had readers, this post would probably make me enemies, but I don't think it's something I actually need to worry about. :-/ Today I want to follow in the footsteps of John August's recent post about "wherefore". (Spoiler alert: It doesn't mean "where"!) and talk about really common grammatical and linguistic mistakes that are far too prevalent in society. Here are the ones that really annoy me:

1. "Begs the question" - John mentions this in his post as an example of misuses that don't bother him but I feel very strongly about it due to my philosophy studies. Most people use it when they mean "raises the question" but it actually refers to a circular form of argument in which the conclusion is presupposed in the question. This is something worth being able to talk about clearly and using it incorrectly basically ensures that it is confusing if you try to use it properly. Furthermore, it's no easier than "raises the question"; it just sounds more "intellectual".

2. "If I was..." - Don't ask me to tell you the official grammar term for this. I wanna say it's the perfect conditional or something, but I really have no idea. I just know it's wrong. It should be "If I were..." The thing that pisses me off about it is that as far as I can tell, the biggest culprit of spreading misinformation about this grammatical structure is television. I guess they think "If I were" sounds snobby, but it only sounds snobby because "If I was" is so overused. It's like a swear word on TV. I wonder if the FCC has any rules about it. If not, let's fight the power and use correct grammar. It's only snobby because lazy writers want to make us feel bad for their mistakes.