I'm not sure what the recommended alternative to this scenario would be based upon your comment: I like to check invariants at certain points in my code. Them

I'm not sure what the recommended alternative to this scenario would be based upon your comment: I like to check invariants at certain points in my code. Them not being correct is an obvious bug. I would prefer to fail in the most obvious fashion if they aren't correct, which for our production environment is an exception.