Harriet Tubman was a bad-ass. She packed a pistol while personally leading dozens of slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad, risking capture and enslavement herself if things went wrong, and then when the war came volunteered for the Army and led multiple raids in South Carolina with armed Union soldiers behind her.
Meanwhile, Andrew Jackson was a grumpy ass old war veteran and slave owner who was perpetually dour because of pain from old war injuries, hated central banks, and thought paper money would destroy America. For some reason not documented anywhere the Republicans in 1928 decided to replace Grover Cleveland with Andrew Jackson on the $20. And Jackson probably rotated a few times in his grave.
So anyhow, thing is, Andrew Jackson, who hated paper money, was never really a good choice to be on a piece of paper money in the first place. Maybe if you put his face on a gold or silver coin. But not paper money. So anyhow, the $20 was overdue for a redesign, and at that point it became a question of, “let’s get this grumpy ass dude off the paper money he hated and put someone there who belongs.” So someone went back and looked at the first $20 bill, issued in 1861. It had Lady Liberty on it with a big-ass sword. Okay, so let’s put a bad-ass woman on this thing. At which point, the question becomes which bad-ass woman.
I have no idea how they narrowed it down to Harriet Tubman, but I approve. And wish they’d use the design above, even with the anachronistic six shooter :). (Tubman never owned a revolver, her pistol was a single-shot cap lock). And the tighty righties, as you’d expect, are in full-fledged melt down. “White men are being oppressed!” they whine. Despite the fact that every other face on every other bill is, well, a white man. I guess the notion is that if white men aren’t on *every* piece of money, why, it’s oppression. Wow. Dennis the Peasant seems downright sane by comparison.
— Badtux the Amused Penguin
Well, Ben Carson was feeling oppressed about the choice too. He suggested bumping Thomas Jefferson off the $2 instead, and keep Andrew Jackson on the $20. I’ve read some of the ‘oppressed’ ones whining about only Presidents being on the bills, and then having their noses rubbed in the fact that there are two non-Presidents on the current lineup. I’m pretty sure Obama didn’t have his hand in this, but I’m sure he fired up the popcorn popper when he was briefed on it….
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I admit to being guilty of a gleeful chuckle when someone whines about “Presidents only” and you ask them where alleged “President” Hamilton was in the time line up — they usually stutter and guess somewhere before John Quincey Adams. ‘Course, they don’t know what to say about Franklin…
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I didn’t really glom all that Dennis was on about the first time I saw “Holy Grail” at the theatre. Every time I rewatch that clip on YouTube, I find myself agreeing with him more and more. If only Dennis wasn’t so screechy about it…
And as far as Old Hick being on a piece of currency that spews from the sort of institution that he hated, it DOES seem like an epic bit of trolling by the Central Bankmaggots. I wonder whether banksters rub their hands together and chuckle silently every time the contemplate the $20 note. I didn’t know the bit of history about how the nod to Jackson was also a subtle “fcuk you” to Democrats, who were the Republikkkans of their time. It lends credence to the paranoid conspiracy belief framework that insiders with power are having a colossal jest at the expense of the rest of us Dennises.
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“Holy Grail” really doesn’t hold together as a movie (“Life Of Brian”, on the other hand, is pure brilliance from beginning to end), but sure had a lot of brilliant skits in it. Dennis was rather obnoxious about it, but he was certainly correct that some watery tart handing out swords was no justification for absolute power :).
And then Terry Gilliam did Brazil. Oh. My.
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My DVD of Holy Grail has an option to turn on subtitles from Shakespeare’s Henry IV. (Both parts, I think.) They work almost flawlessly, and totally rejuvenate the movie.
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I’ll have to check out the subtitles option next time I watch Holy Grail. LOL.
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I love that design. The anachronistic 6-shooter’s OK; a sword is just as anachronistic, in the opposite direction. I particularly love her reaching beyond the edge of the frame. Her body language reads; take my hand, come with me.
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