i've got dialup and am not going to wait to se that vid, do you mean something in that video is offensive to limeys or the song itself?

You mind if i ask why you dislike Andy J? Old Hickory is my kind of guy, personally, he had a few musketballs rattling around in him and fought several duels. Was responsible for the Trail of Ters (if memory serves) which was abhorrent but not an uncommon type of thing to do back in the day.

Andrew Jackson is probably the reason we still exist as a sovreign nation now. He was key in kicking the British invaders back into the sea.

I attended First Baptist Church of Garden Grove, today. The building is 120 years old... and the average parishioner is the same age. I was mobbed by grannies!

Then I RAN to my regular church in time for the member financial meeting, and voted.


I tired.

The video is footage of when the song was first performed on TV in the 50's, so there's nothing offensive there. I was joking about the lyrics.

Andrew Jackson...where do I start? I read Robert Remini's three-volume biography of the 7th President. Here's the stuff that I can remember.

The Trail of Tears was just not typical, it was archetypical, the second worst act in American-Indian relations (#1 was the smallpox epidemic, which wasn't exactly intentional). The Supreme Court sided with the Cherokee nation in 1832; Jackson is reported to have replied "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!"

In 1805, Jackson was allied with Aaron Burr, who was attempting to break the Southwest into an independent country with Burr as dictator. When this treason was discovered, Jackson switched sides and betrayed Burr to President Jefferson.

Andrew Jackson fought 103 duels during his life, most of them during his years in Tennessee politics. Even for that time and place, I find that number excessive. Jackson was a vengeful man who tended to demonize his political enemies.

The Battle of New Orleans (1815) happened after the peace treaty had been signed in London, although with the slowness of Atlantic crossings, nobody in America knew that yet. If the British had won, I doubt General Pakenham would have been able to continue onward to conquer more than the city, and with the war over, they would have been forced to give it back anyway.

During the War of 1812, the British and their Spanish allies in Florida had encouraged the Seminole tribe to raid nearby Georgia, at the same time promising to liberate any black slaves that managed to cross the border. With the clandestine support of the Madison administration, Jackson invaded Florida and basically annexed Florida to the United States. He captured the British ringleaders and turned them over to a military tribunal. When they were given prison sentences instead of execution, he killed them anyway.

When Jackson was elected president in 1824, he initiated the wholesale replacement of members of the Adams bureaucracy with loyal Democrats ("if there is a job that a Democrat can't do, then abolish the job"). One of these appointees stole $1 million in New York City taxes for his own personal use. Asked to justify these actions, a Jackson supporter stated "to the victor belongs the spoils of the enemy," which is where the term "spoils system" comes from.

In the Congressional battle over the renewal of the 2nd Bank of the United States, Jackson proved himself a tyrant who considered himself above the law. His premature withdrawal of funds before the bank charter had expired was directly responsible for the (financial) Panic of 1837.

Now there are certainly aspects of Jackson's life I'm thankful for. He was a great military commander and won the Battle of New Orleans fair and square. He was against succession until his dying day. He founded the Democratic Party and pushed for universal (White male) suffrage at a time when most states only allowed the middle and upper classes to vote. I like how Jackson handled the Nullification Crisis. I can find nothing to fault with Jackson's family life. Oh, and he may have been the source of "okay", one of the most useful words in the English language.

...and that concludes my hijacking of this thread.

can't argue with that. Yeah, he was a nasty guy, a good president, but a generally nasty dude.



which is why i love him ;D

You do have a valid point(s) though, and certainly Andy J should've been held accountable numerous times throughout his career.

I figured it was about time we all started complaining about school again, except you people who may be done with school already.
I will tell you my dirty little secret... I am the biggest procrastinator in the world. All year I've known that 20 hours of community service is due second week of may. Think I've done it? Nah. Course not. So now. I'm screwed. And finals are coming up really soon and I'm kinda worried about those. Plus I have play practices up the wazoo because we perform this week and NO ONE knows their lines...it's driving me nuts!

I have a 30 page report due in June.

thats Future Partyboy's problem 8-)

School is now at its worst, in terms of work, paperwork, student behavior, etc. Next week is the last week of Art classes for me, so this means that I have to get all my student projects evaluated and graded, average all those grades, and enter them into the computer for report cards, no later than next Friday, and I'm talking about 400 students, at two different schools. On top of that, I have to complete a teacher evaluation called a "GBE" that we have to do each year, AND one of the schools where I teach is undergoing an evaluation by the State Dept. of Education next week, so everyone is on edge about that. Starting May 7, for two full weeks, every public school in the state will be involved with the state's all-important standardized tests, which everyone hates except the legistlators, and I will have to either administer it, or serve as a proctor, during that time, so no more Art classes. This makes the regular classroom teachers hate me, since they firmly believe that the only reason I exist is to give them a free period by taking their students off their hands, and when I can't do that, I am subject to whatever hate they can fling my way. The students, meantime, know that they cannot be suspended or put out of school, no matter what they do, because the law requires them to take those tests, so their behavior gets more violent and obnoxious. They know that there's nothing anyone can do to them at this point. I'm exhausted,mentally, emotionally and physically. I've been having to go to bed around 9:30 just to have enough energy to get up the next morning, and I hate it. I want this school year to be over and done with SO BAD; it's been one of the worst, if not THE worst, since I've been teaching, and that's been for over 20 years.

pitbulllady

ooh. sorry there PBL!

Dang that sounds ruff...sorry to hear all the hard work there.

Well i hate my school. its poo! I've only got a year and a bit left until i get to college though :)

Everybody is awful. People just stay with their cliques (is that how you spell it? =/) and its awful.

Theres alot of reasons why i hate it but it would go on for ages and i don't want to bore you all.

Can't wait till college! woohoo!