the rivalry between korea and japan is probably one of the longest and deepest felt between any two nations. as the child of korean parents who grew up during the war time. and especially my dad, who experienced the horrific treatment of koreans by the japanese first hand and fought in the war to defend his country. it is hard not to be embedded with that bitterness and sense of rivalry myself.

this world baseball classics had become more than just a tournament, but a “war” in sense. especially after the statement made by ichiro…

“I want to win in such a fashion that they [the Koreans] won’t think they can beat us for 30 years”

of course his hatred towards our country and demeaning attitude towards our people is no secret. back in 1997, ichiro, a member of the orix blue wave at the time, visited korea for friendly baseball games against korean pro teams. when asked what his first impression of korea was, he replied, “it smells like garlic.�

tonights game was one of the hardest i’ve EVER had to watch. but after all is said and done, i am proud of our boys in blue. they have performed outstandingly… no errors during the whole tournament and undefeated until tonight. it took japan 3 attempts before beating us. you guys did a great job and we all know who the true champtions are. (personally, i think the advancement rules for this tourney are ridiculous)

and finally, big kudos to seo jae weong on making such a bold statement at the end of the last game…

for the rest of the world, this pic shows a proud korean team celebrating a victory by staking his nation’s flag into the pitching mound. to the more weary it is a clear statement…

“DOKDO NUHN OOHREE DDANG!!”

over lunch, i happened the grab the times and stumbled upon this article…

(source) you can view images of the display via the link cuz i’m not going to post them here…

now, i could say a lot of things about this guy (most of them involving 4 letters), but i chose to keep those things for myself and point out just a few things…

- i find it such a shame that this guy is so quick to excercise his 1st amendment right, yet he doesn’t understand that such freedoms come with a price.

- 1st amendment right or no 1st amendment right, this is a suburban neighborhood… does he really feel ok with neighborhood kids passing by this horrific image every day?

- it turns out that this guy and his wife don’t even live in this house most of the time!!! WHAT A PANSY! they have a house in berkeley that they stay in during the week and only use this house on weekend as a political stage. so i guess, as strong as he feels about his cause, he’s not willing to deal with the consequences of it and instead chooses to slip away to his plush home far away from the front line. executed like a true liberal!

- the hyprocracy doesn’t end there… it states in the article that he had anti-SUV signs on his house a while back… later in the article is states that he drives a PORSCHE!! yeah… um… cuz those get GREAT mileage, right?!? last time i checked, porsche didn’t have a hybrid model yet…

there were a few other things… but i’d rather you read the article and decided for yourself.