well, Ringer, I truly suspect that there are just many people who operate at a barely functional level of literacy. Some cannot see the differences, and some do not care, and will stubbornly resist being told that anything they do is inappropriate.

These folks seem to think it an imposition on them to have two words, 'affect' and 'effect' for two different concepts. If you tell them that they are used in different situations, they will growl and tell you that "..you know what I mean".

There are similar examples in spelling, punctuation, pronunciation and grammar.

(One of MY pet peeves is is radio & TV 'journalists' who, in these time of global communications, will NOT learn to pronounce the names of countries, persons, companies....etc., anywhere near the norm for the country. After MONTHS, Al Qaida is still pronounced Al KAYda by many. Many British reporters do not seem to believe that there is such a thing as a long 'a' and say things like "O-'sam'-a bin Laden" ...an earlier example was the Central American country "Nick-uh-RAG-you-uh"...lordy! It is not necessary to learn to roll your Rs like a native in order to avoid butchering it!

ok...rant off for now.....