At the Twilight's Last Gleaming: And the award for the most reader-hostile major conservative web site goes to…

August 5, 2009

And the award for the most reader-hostile major conservative web site goes to…

I’m sure there are others, but I normally have cause to visit Townhall.com every day, and in my opinion, few news/opinion websites are as difficult to read as that one. Here’s a random screenshot taken today:

Click the image to view it full-sized, or go to the page itself to get the full effect.

Visually, the page is a riot of images and color. An unreasonable amount of time is required to find the text that the page was created for. Once reading, the reader’s eyes are continually hijacked by the oversized animated ads surrounding the text.

I found one flaw in Townhall’s evil design scheme: As soon as I arrive at the desired page, I can immediately go to the print view, which is far less cluttered and far more readable.

Townhall has one of the best daily collections of conservative opinion; that’s the only reason I go through the trouble to visit at all.

What do you think? Are any other high-profile conservative websites worthy of inclusion in the Web Design Hall of Shame?

1 comment:

Dale Courtney said...: Have you tried an RSS reader out there?; 8/09/2009 6:42 PM

What Happened to C-Pol?

For over a decade, this blog was called "C-POL: Constitutionalist, Conservative Politics". Over time, my deep-thought ponderings have been moving away from the rough-and-tumble of everyday political wrangling and toward the larger philosophical, ideological, and cultural currents of our age.

I've changed the title of the blog to highlight my conviction that the "fundamental transformation" (to adapt President Obama's phrase) of the United States that's currently underway is, in the long run, bad not only for this country but for the world in general.

Scoff if you must; I'm okay with that. I aim to make my case as time goes on. I'm okay with being on the "wrong side of history" if I'm actually right.

Why our country is where it is

As I have traveled across the country, I have been astounded just how many of our fellow citizens feel strongly about their constitutional rights but have no idea what they are, or for that matter, what the Constitution says. I am not suggesting that they become Constitutional scholars -- whatever that means. I am suggesting, however, that if one feels strongly about his or her rights, it does make sense to know generally what the Constitution says about them. It is at least as easy to understand as a cell phone contract -- and vastly more important.

-- Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, October 16, 2008 speech

The U.S. is not a democracy!

Q. If we are not a democracy, why are our officials elected by a majority of the people, and why are our laws passed by a majority of the lawmakers?

A. We are not a democracy because both the people and the lawmakers are limited by the fundamental law of the land, our written Constitution. Election by the people is not a grant of power beyond the constitutional limits of the office. A representative government limited by law is a republic, not a democracy. In a republic a majority of the people cannot vote away their own rights, or the rights of others -- unless ... unless they step outside the Constitution.

-- Preserve The Constitution, By Don Fotheringham (October, 1995)

The Cancer of Democracy

Bread and Circuses is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader--the barbarians enter Rome.

— Lazarus Long, in Robert Heinlein's To Sail Beyond the Sunset

At the Twilight's Last Gleaming

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August 5, 2009

And the award for the most reader-hostile major conservative web site goes to…

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