The King James Version of the Bible: Why Quote it?

The King James version of the Bible has thousands of mistranslations. Some of the mistranslations are corrected by later versions, although many were not and neither can they be: for a true translation of the Greek would upset much of modern mainstream theological thinking, most of which is quite perverse. Nearly all - if not all - of the various translations of the Bible which are available were created under the auspices of one religious sect or another, and therefore each has its particular quirks reflecting various beliefs. This is apparent in my own translations of the New Testament, however I hope to have limited them to my treatment of the terms usually translated in other versions as "God" and "Lord". So, why quote the King James Version? The following explanation is from a recent email response to a friend:

You are wholly correct about the King James - and I myself am guilty of quoting it often. I think of it like this: Imagine living in New York City. The water stinks, it is loaded with chlorine, fluoride, and is not any good for you or your health. But everybody has it and it is the same everywhere that you go in the city. So it is terrible, but it is usually consistent: it is reliably terrible, and when you are thirsty, you drink it. That is the King James! It stinks, but we all have a copy, and we are all familiar with it. Yes, Yahshua compared the Word of Yahweh to living water. The King James is water downstream from someone who just urinated. Okay, maybe my tongue is planted a little too far into my cheek.

- 10th April, 2009