Re: your subject line
As I said 2-3 years ago: The USA are the Taliban of the West
Generally, when one refers to the "United States of America", they mean the single entity that is the country made up of 50 individual states, so you should have used "is" in your statement. However, because the phrase "United States of America" can also mean the 50 individual states, and thus using "are" because of the plurality of your subject, is also acceptable.
I believe that it would have been better to use "is".
lincoln
"Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Never apply a Star Trek solution to a Babylon 5 problem.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the United States.
[link|mailto:bconnors@ev1.net|contact me]
Edited by
lincoln
March 5, 2006, 05:10:20 PM EST