[geeks] Percentages & mail list

[hike]

On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 12:58 AM, Geoffrey S. Mendelson <gsm at mendelson.com>
wrote:

> On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 03:09:18PM -0500, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> > I'd argue that if that were true[0], I'm glad that 10% held such sway in
> the
> > colonies.
>
> You miss the point. When the "new world" was first settled, most of the
> land
> was owned by the king. Which king occasionally changed, but it was still
> the
> king. The king granted ownership of parcels of land based on his whim
> (often to pay off war debts) and whomever owned the that land owned the
> right to run things.
>
> For example, ALL of Pennsylvania was owned by William Penn (the younger),
> and it was given to him in payment of war debts of the king to his father
> Admiral William Penn. Penn the younger had strange religious beliefs and
> was imprisoned for them, giving him the land was a way of getting rid
> of both Penn, his "friends" (the name of his sect was the Religious Society
> of Friends) and the debt.
>
> Penn's land was probably the largest single parcel given to any one person
> and as long has he paid his taxes to the king, he could run it anyway he
> wanted.
>
> In practice, The "Friends" were a very strange religion in comparison to
> the
> CofE, they were egalitarian, and peaceful. Quite simply Penn did not need
> to sell of small parcels of land nor allow any form of representative
> government. He did because he believed in it.
>
> Technically Pennsylvania is not a state, it calls itself the Commonwealth
> of
> Pennsylvania. In practice I doubt that there is any difference between it
> and any other the 49 other states in the U.S., but the name remains.
>
>
>
>
> > I really like this group - I am constantly amazed at the breadth of
> knowledge
> > and variety of interests among the list members. It is also amazing that
> we
> > can discuss such topics and not fall into "Godwin's Law"[1] on a regular
> > basis.
>
> Mendelson's corollary to Godwin's Law:
>
> (replace "call someone a Nazi", with "quote the Wikipedia".
>
> Geoff.
> --
> Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
> _______________________________________________
> GEEKS:  http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/geeks
>


Currently, there is no functional difference between a state and a
commonwealth.  All states and commonwealths are called "states" in
political, governmental, and common speech.

Pennsylvania is not the only commonwealth.
Virginia is also a commonwealth and I believe there are other commonwealths
in the USA "state" makeup.  (The only commonwealths come out of the original
13 colonies.)