para-para-parrotdies

You just posted a picture in an Occupy Wall Street thread without giving any context or explanation where it came from. If someone was just browsing through the thread, then they would think your picture is representative of what's going on in Oakland and other cities. Just take a look at chuck kottke's initial response to see how misleading your post was: "It's gone to that level, has it..." But hey, if you just want to attack my academic degree, then go right ahead. Stay classy.

100% support this statement :thumbsup:

Which Katy Perry song would you say is better?

So Occupy Wall Street protestors dressed up as "heroes and villains" for Halloween. Take a look for yourself: Wow, nice to see all the OWS donations being put to great use. :facepalm: The lack of leadership and direction is becoming more transparent as the days go by. It's just embarrassing.

Lady Gaga has Bad Romance. That song alone is better than anything from Katy Perry's discography.

Wow, this is one of the most misleading pictures ever.... as it was taken from a protest in Quebec.... in 2007..... in a protest unrelated to Occupy Wall Street.... If you really want to convince people that the police were the ones throwing rocks in Oakland and other places, then at the very least, make sure your post is relevant. It's dishonest to post a picture from a separate event under different conditions and insinuate that must be the case here. And there's no point trying as several OWS protestors admitted to being the ones provoking the police.

Chris Martin on Radiohead:

This has nothing to do with being "intellectually trendy." I've often noted my appreciation for "mainstream" pop songs like Umbrella, Crazy in Love or Toxic. Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F) is just a..... bad song.

I love pop music - about half of my SOTY selections can be classified as "pop" or "indie pop." That being said, I do have concerns that they're listening to Katy Perry. At the risk of sounding elitist, "Last Friday Night" should not be in any sentence with "Karma Police." Also, I don't think Thom Yorke has ever spewed "smug bullshit" by saying stuff like "pop music is bad."

That's what happens when you don't have strong leadership, someone to pull in the reins and keep the protestors from doing anything stupid. None of the names you mentioned are charismatic, articulate or influential enough to fill that void. Nor do they have the necessary experience in community organizing. Ironically enough, someone who would be perfect is the Barack Obama of '08, someone with actual community organizing experience and eloquent enough to articulate the movement's goals. Now I'm not saying Wall Street should be completely absolved of their involvement in the financial crisis of 08. I'm just pointing out that the large majority of problems the protestors keep raising against the bankers (health care, college costs, etc) have nothing to do with these investment banks. And I think it's completely unfair to demonize these bankers for things they were not involved with. Having worked on Wall Street, I know investment banking analysts work a minimum of 90+ hours a week and take maybe 3 days of vacation. These people worked hard to get where they are and they shouldn't be vilified for that. This has been my point from the very beginning. Let's just assume for one second that OWS is 100% correct on all their claims, that the bankers/1% are really the cause of all the problems. So what? Unlike politicians, bankers are not elected people so at the end of the day, they could care less that some people don't have jobs. However, if you translate that anger to the polls and let the incumbents know of the discontent, then you have some hope for change.

Here's an excerpt: You can read more here: http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/8699-chris-martin/

Oh, I don't doubt that at all. In fact, I would be shocked if there were no police plants. But I sincerely hope you're not suggesting that these plants are the ones defecating on police cars, or urinating on homeowners' properties, raping female protestors under the guise of "sharing" their tents, singing songs like "F*ck the USA," irritating locals by playing drums well into the night, making anti-semitic remarks and tweets, stealing from small business owners, or throwing rocks/bottles at their colleagues (among other lewd activities I could post). Wow, why am I not surprised these people are unemployed?

The difference is the Civil Rights protestors didn't throw rocks, bottles, chemicals and other things at the police, even when they were being beaten to the point of death - that was the whole point of the nonviolent resistance (at least until Stokely Carmichael started the whole "Black Power" Black Panther movement). The Civil Rights movement also had strong leaders who were able to articulate their goals and explain why change was urgent - the obvious example is MLK, but also leaders like Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette, James Bevel, John Lewis, etc. Finally, the Civil Rights movement had public support on their side and as any Poli Sci 101 professor will tell you, you can't have change without the support of the public. Occupy Wall Street is just a mess. Still no leaders who can step up and articulate their views. Even when liberal networks like MSNBC try to help out the protestors, they have a hard time picking someone who doesn't appear ignorant. They're hurting small business owners with their antics (and that's putting it lightly), the very 99% they claim to represent. Public support in cities is drastically going down the longer these protests go on without achieving anything substantial. I flew in to St. Louis the other weekend to visit my friend at Wash U Med School and I was shocked to see the majority of the liberal Wash U community against OWS. Same thing with the small business owners in St. Louis. Again, to all the protestors claiming that the "banks" represent "corporate greed" and are the reason why they don't have jobs - have one of you even worked at an investment bank? Do you understand what investment banks do? Do you know how to use the Bloomberg terminal? Because I do - after I graduated from Yale, I worked as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley for 3 years. From my experience, I can tell you that the protestors' claims (ironically enough, 99%) are not the faults of investment banks. Banks aren't the reason why there's no universal health care. Banks aren't the reason why colleges are so expensive. Banks aren't the reason why there are no guaranteed living wages, even if you are unemployed. Banks aren't the reason why marijuana is not legal (wait what? why is this even a "demand" at these protests?) As much as I despise the Tea Party and what they stand for, at least they had the right idea - if you actually want change, you go through elected legislators. Start voter registration drives, hold town hall meetings/panel discussions, bring in famous speakers to educate locals, etc. Let the incumbents know their seat is in danger unless they start doing what the people want. Pretty much anything at this point is better than what OWS protestors are actually doing. But hey, if you want to keep pounding away in your little drum circles for hours, thinking it will actually bring change, go right ahead.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHlHiNEZ1wA]Occupy Oakland Protester admits bottles were thrown at Police BEFORE police responded - YouTube[/ame] Local reaction in the San Francisco Bay Area is quickly souring against the protestors, similar to the situations in New York City, Boston, Chicago, Denver, and St. Louis (I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple of Occupy protests but the ones I listed are the ones that's definitely seen a substantial decline in public support). http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/29/MN951LNTGB.DTL

Is The Beach Boys: The Smile Sessions eligible? If so, then this is easily my pick for AOTY.

I'm guessing by this statement that you've never been on the other side of riot prevention control situations, how terrifying and nerve-wrecking it gets despite the "helmets and bulletproof vests" (I also like how you blatantly ignore that the protestors also threw firecrackers + chemicals among other things). It's one thing to be sitting behind the comforts of your computer, making anonymous snarky comments and it's another to have experienced real riots and understand the atmosphere of violence and intimidation often manufactured by the protestors (obviously not limited to OWS). In fact, I have to start questioning how many protests you've even been to, considering the majority of your posts are simply derivative of Ron Paul talking points and pure ideological blindness that is impractical in the real world.

Have you read the accounts of why the police used tear gas and batons in the first place? The protestors were acting as agitators, throwing bottles, rocks and firecrackers (along with other potentially dangerous objects) at the police. This went on several times before the police finally responded. I'm not saying police should be absolved from any blame - personally I do think the use of tear gas was a bit extreme, despite the conditions turning hostile. But let's not pretend the protestors are simply the victims in all of this.

Good stuff - I actually listed it as my #25 album of the year a while back. The highlights for me are Blue Clouds, Shipwreck, Berlin and This.

I think Teco is Brazilian. Is that Oriental? :awesome:

The "feud": :dazzled:

:awesome:

This album is basically a better version of Mylo Xyloto.

:awesome:

While Pitchfork isn't as influential as it once was, its reviews still hold considerable weight in the critical reception of an album- hence the 3 separate threads all on this review alone. :P