Speaking hopefully

Well, the discussion was about changes to the English language and whether or not they are Good Things.
Of course, the language changes. I can still remember, back in the day, the first time I heard access used as a verb. It's not a bad thing. It's a useful expression.
Hopefully on the other hand, used at the beginning of an expression to distance the speaker from all responsibility engendered in the phrase "I hope", is an abomination and should be stricken from the book of acceptable phrases. Unfortunately, it has become thoroughly embedded and probably will never go away. It's right up there with momentarily the way the TV announcer uses it. "We will be back momentarily." If only it were true. But he means "in a moment", not "for a moment", as one might expect.
One of my pet peeves is the confusion between quantity and number as illustrated by the folks who say "less" when they mean "fewer", as in "Less people came to the game." Unless we're measuring them by the pound. . .
Someone will surely ask, why do you care? The answer is, because every one of these small confusions makes the language less capable of subtle distinctions and therefore poorer than it was.
Of course, not every one agrees. See http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/