"It doesn't take an 'Act of Congress' - it just requires the Secretary of the Treasury to make the change...."
Obama seems to be getting kicked around a lot these days, so maybe he's looking for something inspiring to do, but I don't think he will. I told you why last month:
If one President fiddles with the [$20]... the next thing you know, Reagan will have the $10. And then where will Obama go, years from now, when his face becomes legally billable?IN THE COMMENTS: Freeman Hunt said...
If Obama sees the long game, and what he wants is to end up as one of the faces of U.S. currency, he should not put the woman on the 20, because if he does that, Reagan will follow on the 10, and then — even though the process of politicizing the bills will continue — he'll be stuck with the 50.... I think he'll see the best strategy is do nothing and leave the field clear for some future administration to honor him. He'll have the 20.
Stop pandering to us! It's so insulting. It makes me sick.
You don't say, "A woman needs to be on one of these," and then go picking out a woman. You wait until there's a woman who makes you say, "She needs to be on one of these!" and you put her on one. When she's dead.
Unless you can think of a woman who doesn't make it look like the women got a pity prize in the bill lineup, do not add a woman!
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A better idea would be to ditch the penny. That would save money.
Lizzie Borden would be cool.
The flaw in your "long game" line of thinking: Ending up on the 50 is a solid goal if you expect inflation from a devalued currency to make the $50 functionally the new $20.
Put Obama on a franklin mint commemorative coin made out of zinc.
Why would Obama want to be on a bill? He's obviously an atheist. To him, the world ends when he dies.
To reflect the spirit of our age, Monica Lewinsky should be featured, with a set of knee-pads or "that dress" on the reverse.
Let's see:
$1 -- President Washington
$5 -- President Lincoln
$10 -- President Jefferson
$20 -- President Jackson
$50 -- President Grant
$100 -- Benjamin Franklin, Printer
I'm all in favor of putting a woman on a bill who (a) served as President, and (b) is dead. If the first woman to qualify is Hillary!, then she should be on the $50, because her administration would undoubtedly have been at least as corrupt as Grant's.
You could put Obama on the three dollar bill.
Jefferson is on the 2, not the 10. Hamilton is on the 10, and was never president. Or female... as far as we know.
Lady Liberty. That should do it.
(But not for the America-hatin' progs.)
I'm all in favor of putting a woman on a bill who (a) served as President, and (b) is dead. If the first woman to qualify is Hillary!, then she should be on the $50, because her administration would undoubtedly have been at least as corrupt as Grant's.
Edith Wilson, the 29th President.
President Wilson suffered a severe stroke in October 1919. Edith Wilson began to screen all matters of state and decided which were important enough to bring to the bedridden president. In doing so, she functionally ran the Executive branch of the government for the remainder of the president's second term, until March 1921
Oprah on a $1,000,000,000 bill.
One would never see it unless you are O, B Gates, W Buffet, the Waltons.
because her administration would undoubtedly have been at least as corrupt as Grant's.
Grant actually had accomplishments...
I agree with Drill SGT (more PT!). Grant was not personally corrupt.
The most distinctive contribution of women as a group to our history was Prohibition. That glorious achievement could be honored by putting Carrie Nation on the $20.
The first woman who exceeds the accomplishments of the least accomplished man currently on the bills should replace him, once she is dead.
Will be a while.
Mae West, inventor of the life preserver.
Taking account the effect of inflation, the $50 bill would actually be a good deal, in terms of posterity. The penny is a suckers deal.
It is all irrelevant since we will eventually eliminate paper currency as part of our ongoing co-evolution with computers.
I sincerely doubt that these considerations affect Obama's thinking. Not because he could not be swayed by trivial considerations but because these particular speculations seem untied to any reasonable projection of the future.
What is the most underused U.S. coin?
The $1 coin currently the only American money featuring a woman.
However, for most of our country's history, our money only featured women and no men.
"we will eventually eliminate paper currency as part of our ongoing co-evolution with computers. ""
Right before the EMP wipes all the servers.
America needs a $3 bill with a woman on it.
Every two years we could put a different woman on the face. No repeats in less than 50 years.
Condi Rice should go first.
In her Green Jacket.
On the other side would be a bombed out church from Birmingham, with Democratic National Committee Member Bull Connor hidden like Waldo.
That should explode a few lefty heads.
Put women on a new $49.95 bill, so change is not needed so often.
Grace Hopper is interesting.
Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral.[1] She was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer in 1944,[2] and invented the first compiler for a computer programming language,[3][4][5][6][7] and the one of those who popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, one of the first high-level programming languages. She is credited with popularizing the term "debugging" for fixing computer glitches (inspired by an actual moth removed from the computer). Owing to her accomplishments and her naval rank, she is sometimes referred to as "Amazing Grace".[8][9] The U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Hopper (DDG-70) is named for her, as was the Cray XE6 "Hopper" supercomputer at NERSC.
If women only earn 78¢ on the dollar versus men, should it be the $15.60 bill and not the $20?
I vote for Hedy Lamarr, co-inventor of spread spectrum and signal hopping. Both of which were key technologies used during WWII for controlling torpedoes and are currently key components of modern telecommunications.
She should be in the $20.00 bill which is at least as ubiquitous as cellphones these days.
The monarchist Hamilton should be replaced by the inspiration of the Declaration of Independence and the motivator for the Bill of Rights - the greatest American ever, Col. George Mason.
Obama doesn't want to be on paper money, he wants to be on the EBT cards, then it truly will be Obama stash.
Hamilton is on the 10, and was never president. Or female... as far as we know.
A lot of the same people who are demanding a woman on the twenty also believe that there are women who are men biologically and vice versa. They think gender is strictly a matter of opinion. So why go to the bother and expense of a new twenty? Just decide Andrew Jackson was a tranny -- an unfulfilled transexual who lived long before the miracles of modern quackery. Jackson's not around to object, and his frustration of being a woman trapped in a man's body conveniently explains his famously explosive rages.
I like the idea of Hedy Lamarr. A brilliant woman who would be pretty to look at whenever you saw the bill.
The odds-on favorite, though, is of course Harriet Tubman. That's a real hero.
I could go for Grace Hopper or Susan B. Anthony. Women are so important to this nation , and I think they don't always claim the credit that they deserve.
That's Hedley!
Sally Ride.
She was an astronaut, lesbian and is dead. A three-fer!!
Frederick Douglass.
Hillary will be on the $20. Under her picture it will say "Ask me no questions and I will tell no lies."
Swimsuit Farrah and greenbacks remain the world's reserve currency for the next 1,000 years.
Put Obama on the penny, retire the penny, then Obama tours the country hawking the Obama penny, proceeds going to a permanent activism/lifestyle slush fund.
" That's HEADLEY..."
I think Obama should strike a deal with Hillary. If she drops out now, he'll put her on the $20. That might be the best deal for America.
Here's my deal. We put Hillary on the 20 if she completely withdraws her presidential bid.
Susan B. Anthony
Suzy has already been on a $1 coin that failed. (It was the one that was the size and color of a quarter)
She was replaced by Sacajawea when they changed the color. no one uses that $1 coin either.
Before the 20th Century, US money depicted Lady liberty, not real people. (On purpose, it was too much like royalty for our Founders)
So for most of our history, all American money featured women and no men.
A better idea would be to ditch the penny. That would save money.
It would save the government money, by not having to mint them anymore. However, it would cost the average citizen, as all prices would be rounded up.
The government has gotten smart recently however by deliberately minting money designed to be collected rather than circulated...which are pure profit for the government.
Reagan on the $100
Sorry LibertarianSG. Didn't see your comment before I posted. I was drunk on Flying Bitch beer.
Stop pandering to us! It's so insulting. It makes me sick.
You don't say, "A woman needs to be on one of these," and then go picking out a woman. You wait until there's a woman who makes you say, "She needs to be on one of these!" and you put her on one. When she's dead.
Unless you can think of a woman who doesn't make it look like the women got a pity prize in the bill lineup, do not add a woman!
There would be no more absurd pandering than adding a female scientist. I mean, really! One, we don't have scientists on our bills. Two, that's too faddish with the current push for girls in STEM. Three, if we're going to have a scientist on a bill, is there really a female scientist who would come close to qualifying as one of the greatest American scientists of all time? Any females in the top ten? I am skeptical.
The female scientist idea is horrible.
Freeman Hunt: AMEN. It is offensive and insulting any time people start counting genitals and saying "hey, we need a woman over here!" Revolting.
Jackson was a truly disagreeable guy. Mean as hell, Indian killer, slave owner, and totally wacked out in his war on the Bank. Nevertheless, you can make a darn good case that his crushing of Calhoun and the states rights nullification idea bought time for the North and West of the nation to develop and pull way ahead of the South, which it absolutely had to do in order to finally win (barely, even then) the Civil War and end slavery. It's irony and punishment enough for him to be on a Federal Reserve Note issued by our central bank - and even better that it is issued by a nation that finally fulfilled his anti-nullificationist nationalism guided by an even more powerful (and vastly nicer) president who ended the slave system Jackson sought to preserve. Leave him where he is. He deserves it.
One thing Jon left out...Jackson was the first president of the modern Democratic Party, and the reason the donkey is the symbol of the Democratic Party is because Jackson's political opponents called him a jackass. (Which was dangerous, because Jackson was a notorious and successful dueler)
If we are going to put a woman on the $20, I vote for either Abigail Adams or Dolly Madison.
I vote for Marilyn Monroe. What a woman.
She was a whip smart brunette who played a dumb blond to perfection. She snagged many fabulous Husbands and she ended her career servicing a handsome President and his Attorney General brother until the CIA decided she had to be assassinated for knowing too much.
You know, I think the idea of a "woman on the 20" campaign is awful.
But Harriet Tubman? That's actually pretty credible. Her feats were not as the "first woman X" nor in any other way, "pretty good, for a woman" -- unless, that is, there were plenty of other underground railroad conductors with the same track record, and she's the only famous one because she was a woman? But wasn't she famous long before we began elevating women?
Freeman Hunt said...
Unless you can think of a woman who doesn't make it look like the women got a pity prize in the bill lineup, do not add a woman!
Freeman Hunt on the $20!
Freeman Hunt said...
Stop pandering to us! It's so insulting.
Seems to me that the issue for these women is that no one is pandering. They want pandering.
Why does "Dear Mr. President," in relation to the Current Occupant make me think of that great old Blind Faith song, "Dear Mister Fantasy"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxVlN-LzIks
In the Netherlands they did away with the penny or whatever the Euro equivalent is. All prices are to the nearest 5 cents. They also have 1 Euro and 2 Euro coins as does the rest of the Eurozone. I thought it was neat that each country mints their own versions of the coins: Italy has the Leonardo human body picture (among others), the Greeks feature Greek mythology (get 'em while they last), and the Belgians have a picture of their king. He does not have a very good profile. The bills themselves are boring.
For the record, 1 Euro and 2 Euro coins are pretty easy to work with. The problem is you need to spend them at first opportunity, else you keep accumulating them and it eventually gets uncomfortable. Nothing like dragging around 50 coins to cause your pants to sag.
As for the $1 coins not sticking, it is the same reason the $2 bills never stick either. If you want people to actually use the things, as opposed to treat them like collectors' items, you need to flood the market and make it impossible to avoid them. Every time Congress goes along with another of these schemes it is always half-hearted and inevitably fails because no one really cares.
VICTORIA Jackson
Chuck@9:50, you linked to the song and still got the wrong band? ;)
you need to flood the market and make it impossible to avoid them.
In a way, they did. When they were unpopular here in the states, they shipped millions of them overseas to military bases in other countries, and for awhile, you'd get a handful of them in change when you shopped at the commissary or BX.
If you want people to actually use the things, as opposed to treat them like collectors' items,
Every coin or bill taken out of circulation and stuffed n a jar or a collector's album is pure profit to the government. That is why they started minting variant versions of the coins in order to make them collectible.
I'm all for it.
Scarlet Johansson is my #1 pick. I'd settle for one of Charlies Angels, or Taylor Swift.
Since I damn well feel like it and it is somewhat related, I am bringing video games into this topic; namely, the Civilization series.
One of the things that I have noticed in the Civilization series is a seeming attempt to get more female leaders in the game. It's difficult to do given that the politics of world history have been dominated by men, especially since many of them were military leaders for which there are very few female examples.
The first Civilization only had one female leader: Elizabeth I. Perhaps not the greatest English ruler of all time, but certainly in the argument. The other 14 are men.
Civilization II tries to finesse this by providing a male and female leader for each civilization, but it gets a bit weird. Some of the female leaders are actually fictional like Dido and others are minor historical figures. The Americans are led by Eleanor Roosevelt which is not especially inspiring.
Civilization III animated the leaders, so they couldn't do the one of each trick this time and had to choose. Out of the 31 choices, only 6 females and some of those were stretches:
Catherine the Great
Elizabeth I
Cleopatra
Isabella (of Spain)
Joan of Arc
Theodora
I dunno. Cleopatra led her country to ruin (though that may have been inevitable), Isabella seems like a second stringer though it is difficult to identify someone better, Joan was never technically leader of France and hard to defend when Napoleon and Charlemagne and Louis XIV are excluded, and Theodora while very important to the Eastern Roman Empire was never quite in charge.
Civilization IV allowed multiple leaders per civilization, which should have eased matters, but they somehow only ended up with 6 females again (Catherine, Elizabeth, Isabella, Boudica, Hatshepsut, Victoria), this time out of 52. However, the modder community was something fierce with this game and there were lots and lots (hundreds) of alternate leaders available for download, so if there was a female leader you wanted, it could be downloaded. Or you could have 10 different choices for the United States. Or Saddam Hussein. Or Vlad the Impaler. Or Idi Amin. You could have an all-star list of brutality if you wished.
Civilization V they got all fancy again with leaders speaking in their native tongues, so one leader per civilization. Females:
Maria Theresa
Theodora
Dido
Boudica
Wu Zetian
Elizabeth
Maria I (of Portugal)
Catherine
Isabella
So 9 out of 43. Some are especially uninspiring. (Maria the Mad? Really?)
It's not exactly money, but the same general idea.
As to the currency, pick your standard for inclusion. If you want political leaders, then none of these women is going to rate ahead of those already honored, nor several others who are not so honored. If the standard is historical importance in any way, then we get somewhere. Wouldn't mind if the currency faces were redesigned every 10 years or so to honor a different set with Washington and Lincoln on permanent display.
I think it'd be fantastic if this campaign was successful. And then, the President announces he will put a woman on the $20.00. The process will be simple, we the people, through Democrat means, will choose the woman we want on the $20.00.
Then Kim Kardashian gets put on the $20 after she gets 4 kajillion votes.
I'd laugh all the way to the bank to get my crisp new $20.00 bill.
Christina Hendricks. Beyond a doubt.
jr565 No. Zinc is a useful metal and doesn't deserve to be debased that way.
How about Margaret Sanger? People could use them to donate to Planned Parenthood clinics in black neighborhoods.
Put Charlie's Angels on the $3 bill.
And if we vote for Kim Kardashian, what will the art on the reverse of the bill be?
The butt of Kim Kardashian. Or whatever tiny percentage of her butt one bill could contain.
If Obama sees the long game, and what he wants is to end up as one of the faces of U.S. currency...
Obama does see the long game,and he is on track to get his visage on a note of currency, but it won't be U.S. currency.
OK.
Mr. President.
Put Lady Liberty on a 20.
Simpering progressive fools.
Oh, sure, they're all "let's replace Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman" now, but that'll die down real fast when they realize they're proposing to replace a Democrat with a Republican.
Perhaps we might reserve a $3 bill for THE WON.
Who is great enough to be on a bill? Let's think outside the box. I propose Maggie Thatcher. Or, if you want to put an American - Ayn Rand - which would be very symbolic.
Freeman Hunt, I agree with you. But, after the 20th century, with the segregation of the south, two nuclear bombs on civilians, 100,000 Japanese in concentration camps, 175,000 pacifists as political prisoners, etc., etc., I'm all for the "father of the modern Democratic party" being pulled off the $20 specifically for his war crimes, and being replaced by popular demand with a black, woman Republican.
The military used to put Playboy playmates on Military Payment Certificates issued in Vietnam. MPCs were funny money issued to combat the black market during the war.
Emmy Noether. Definitely Emmy Noether. There's a woman most people have never heard of who shaped the world we live in to a noticeable extent.
Regardless of your personal feelings about Andrew Jackson, he was the most significant president between Washington and Lincoln. He was a major innovator in the creation of political parties, the patronage system -- basically, American politics up until the Civil War.
Regarding women scientists, I don't think America has a compelling candidate.
Marie Curie is an interesting point of reference. If you didn't care about nationalities, she would definitely be first in line. But she's also a problem with this line of argument, because
1) It's hard to make a principled argument that you should choose Curie instead of contemporary equals or near equals such as Ernst Rutherford, Paul Dirac, Erwin Schroedinger, etc, or people even more significant such as Einstein or Bohr.
2) Curie is so superior to any American candidates that it would be a huge reach to choose any of them.
I found an interesting link about scientists appearing on money:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jbourj/money1.htm
Marie and Pierre Curie did in fact appear on a 500 franc note, and Marie appears alone on a 20,000 zloty note. The full lineup is mostly the usual suspects, plus more obscure scientists for smaller countries.
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