"애국심은 악한의 마지막 도피처이다" (aeguksim-eun akhan-ui majimak dopicheo-ida) => patriotism-[topic-marker] scoundrel-[possessive-marker] lastly hideout-[copula]. Does anyone recognize the immortal words of Samuel Johnson? "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
The idea also appears in a Bob Dylan song, and for a long time, I mistakenly believed he was the origin of the quote. Anyway, it's been on my mind lately, in light of the annoying progression of events in Tibet and China, and the constant posturing of ALL (yes, ALL) of our presidential candidates in the U.S. I'm sick of it!
The world will be a better, happier place when the last self-declared patriot (of any stripe) finally recants or passes away. "Patriotism" is almost always just a kindly euphemism for some brand of xenophobia or another: hating other countries and peoples, or at the least distrusting them and devaluing their common humanity. I know this is controversial, and it might get me in trouble to declare it so publicly, but on some things you must take a moral stand, right?
I made some curried pasta for dinner. Kind of a makeshift using various things I had left in my kitchen – curry powder, garlic, onion, tomato, some italian pasta, and yoghurt. It came out very delicious, and then I sat and watched the original Star Wars movie on KBS2 (dubbed into Korean) and ate my dinner, while running an upgrade to ubuntu 7.10 on my linux OS. It was a good evening.