Yes, "begs the question" is misused all the time.
"Now, that being said, it begs the question of <whatever>" -- the sentence was tongue-in-cheek. I was illustrating, in a mocking way, the style I don't like.
Sorry for the troll.
Now I see. I totally missed that...
"Prompts" sounds stilted, "raises" is an extra syllable.
I agree that "prompts" sounds stilted, but are you seriously advocating using something that's incorrect -- "begs" -- instead of "raises" just because it's slightly shorter?
http://begthequestion.info/