Connotation isn't a bad thing - it's part of what makes us vertebrate, after all.

Can you explain this? You're not saying that it makes us metaphorically vertebrate (i.e. we have "backbone"), are you?

I liked this post, and agree that it's important to remember that we can't deny (even in ourselves) emotional/associative thinking.

I don't agree that people who never perform denotationally strict reasoning are in any way more correct or consistent than those who choose to (presumably in high-impact situations only, since it's impossible to only and always think in that mode), except in the surface sense that they're consistent in never exercising any formal discipline of thought.