Waeguk on the culture of eating dog:

Koreans should eat what they wish, and let the west take care of their own backyard. I believe my suggestion to Koreans was to say "Kiss our hairy asses!". My primary problem [with the good professor's essay] lies in the politicizing of the issue, something that not only annoys the hell out of me, but happens constantly in Korea, for complicated historical reasons.

It may well be because I have heard things like this about "Korea's magnificent culture" so many times that each further repetition becomes an annoyance. When people tell me (as they do, all the damn time) that Korea is unique in that it has four seasons, I nod sagely. When I'm told that kimchi (which I love) is the greatest health food ever invented, I smile in wonderment. When someone insists that Hangul (the Korean alphabet, which may truly be one of Korea's greatest achievements, I admit) is the greatest alphabet ever created, I agree that that may be possible. When a colleague insists that Cheju island is more beautiful than Hawaii and Tahiti combined, I murmur my amazement quietly to myself.

He goes on to point out that eating dog per se isn’t what gets in the nerves of people from the West but the cruelty to which the dogs are subjected to before they are cooked. The dogs are beaten because it is believed that the adrenaline forced into the bloodstream actually makes the meat more tender. Then there is the issue of politicizing the idea of eating dog as a product of historical and cultural enslavement. I would want to say more, but I feel like I’d make more of a hodgepodge than actually making a point out of all this. So just go read Waeguk’s take on this.