strathspey@strathspey.org:44639

GOSS9@telefonica.net

Re: OT - singular or plural

March 12, 2006, 1 a.m. (Message 44639, in reply to message 44638)

Sorry to disagree on two points. Organizations are singular, as in the 
RSCDS is, though its branches and dancers are.

Second point, possibly political, for which I appologize. It is 
correct to say that the United States are because, when referring to 
the states, but it is also OK to say that the United States is when 
referring to it as a whole.

Part of this problem is political propaganda, in that by the common 
political science definition of a state, the U.S. is one, and its 
states, as those of Brazil, and Mexico, are really provinces no matter 
what they call themselves. This is because they all fail step three of 
a three step test.
1. Territory-yes, 2. population-yes. 3. sovereignty-no. Therefore the 
U.S. having all three is a state, and its states are not
In the UK, the UK is a state, which now has both provinces and nations 
within it. For a short time the UK was one state with nations that 
happened to be two kingdoms.  Not sure what the present status is but 
in the 70´s, Northern Ireland is not a nation, but is a province of the 
United Kingdom, but Wales has never been a state, but was a nation that 
became a province of England. 

Nations neither require territory nor sovereignty, just people. So 
there was a Jewish state, and a Jewish province, in the historical 
past, and there is one now, but between a.d. 67 and 1947, there was 
only a Jewish nation. Yugoslavia was a state that included several 
nations, now these nations sort of correspond to the borders of several 
states. The Soviet Union, like the U.S. pretended it was a union of 
states, but it was actually one state, containing many nations, some of 
which have become states in recent history. 

This confusion has created problems in U.S. History, and it took a 
civil war to decide it. It is still a problem when one party says they 
belive in states rights, unless of course gays want to marry or 
citizens want to smoke a joint. Sorry Republicans, I know you like to 
say things at your conventions such as "the soveriegn state of x casts 
its votes for y" but the very fact that you have to put both sovereign 
and state in the same sentence indicates that you are confused.