Your Views and the Temple of Doom

While 'subtle' isn't normally a term I would use to describe the content of Your Views, I have noticed a subtle change in the sort of questions that are going up there. It used to be filled with issues that were ridiculous (for an online discussion forum, at least), yet weighty: "Are immigrants stealing all our jobs?" or "Will dropping the OCR by 0.5% achieve anything?"

If you look at the YV home page at the moment, however, it seems less like an meeting of New Zealand First, and more like a forum of the old and crotchety... oh, wait. The focus has moved to a more general complaining:

• "Are taxis too expensive in Auckland? What should be done?"
• "What annoys you most about supermarket shopping?" [Probably all the Gays.]
• "Where is the most boring place in New Zealand?"

Most boring place in New Zealand? Wait, do online discussion forums count?

By the way, if you were worried that this change would affect the 'quality' of the responses then you can breathe easy; just have a look at a couple of responses to the story of South African athlete/perverted cheat Caster Semenya. It's amazing - I never realised so many people in this country were passionate enough about women's athletics to be outraged at the injustice being done to... the other female athletes.

Paul Yorheddan (Kerikeri): Wow, if ever a point has been so universally missed this is surely it. Caster Semenya is not the issue. The issue is the tens of thousands of genuinely female athletes all across the planet having the right to compete knowing that the playing field is level enough that a combination of hard work mental and intestinal fortitude could carry the day.

Take away that and even lacing up your track shoes is a wasted effort. Lastly, for those people using sentimentality to sway their opinions on this matter, have a little think about all the "women" that have been pushing themselves to the limit for years to get on that track.

Look at the big brain on Paul! Yes, everyone else has missed the point, and the real problem is the "tens of thousands" of "genuinely female" athletes "all across the planet" being dispossessed by a rampaging army of insidious intergender sportspeople. What's the point of training at all when the losers are just taken out the back of the stadium and shot? (Also, Paul, for future reference: I don't think you needed the scare quotes around "women" there. It kinda ruins your point.)

Bill Wilson (Greenlane): Shes a cheat and she knows it. And surprise surprise, she is South African.
The South Africans are as bad as the East Germans in the 70's with their cheating.
Remember the 1995 world cup and the South Africans blatant food poisoning.

Hey, remember that single occasion 14 years ago when one person from a country of tens of millions allegedly, and with no real physical evidence, cheated?