• Heirs to Fortuyn? by Bruce Bawer, City Journal Spring 2009

  Article by Bruce Bawer, on why stalwarts of the Left in Europe, gays in particular, are abandoning social-democratic multicultural politics. …But, while things may be ok in Denmark, there are other countries where the backlash is creepy:
  QUOTE
  The situation in Spain is a reminder that not all “right turns” are created equal. If the Danes have affirmed individual liberty, human rights, sexual equality, the rule of law, and freedom of speech and religion, some Western Europeans have reacted to the mindless multiculturalism of their socialist leaders by embracing alternatives that seem uncomfortably close to fascism. Consider Austria’s recently deceased Jörg Haider, who belittled the Holocaust, honored Waffen-SS veterans, and found things to praise about Nazism. In 2000, his Freedom Party became part of a coalition government, leading the rest of the EU to isolate Austria diplomatically for a time, and last September, his new party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria, won 11 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections. Or take Jean-Marie Le Pen, who has called the Holocaust “a detail in the history of World War II” and advocated the forced quarantining of people who test HIV-positive—and whose far-right National Front came out on top in the first round of voting for the French presidency in 2002. The British National Party (BNP), which has a whites-only membership policy and has flatly denied the Holocaust, won more than 5 percent of the vote in London’s last mayoral election. Then there’s Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest), formerly Vlaams Bloc, whose leaders have a regrettable tendency to be caught on film singing Nazi songs and buying Nazi books. In 2007, it won five out of 40 seats in the Belgian Senate.
  UNQUOTE

  tags: bruce_bawer, city_journal, immigration, multiculturalism, islam, feminism, europe

• Welcome to Vancouver 2.0 :: Photo Essay :: thetyee.ca

  It starts as a photo-essay, but this being the Tyee, the comments muscle their way in to center stage, too. (An aside: I’m getting fed up with all the negative commentary that craps all over all newspaper – including Tyee and my local paper, Times-Colonist – articles that allude to anything creative, innovative, or full of change. It brings out all the usual suspects, who waste no time burying a good idea under cyncism and negativity. Ugh.)

  tags: thetyee, vancouver, eco_density, architecture, green_buildings, futurismo

• A List Apart: Articles: In Defense of Eye Candy

  From the article’s “snapshot”:
  QUOTE
  Research proves attractive things work better. How we think cannot be separated from how we feel. The next time a boss, client, or co-worker scoffs at the notion that beauty is an important aspect of interface design, point their peepers here.
  UNQUOTE

  tags: design, aesthetics, beauty, affect, psychology, usability, userinterface

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Posted: 04|26|09 at 1:52 pm. Filed under: links.

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