At least 29 protesters have been arrested in South Korea after a rally against a US beef import deal ended in clashes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7420875.stm

talk about overreacting

So, do the protesters want more US beef or less US beef?

lol, they don't want any of it. The Corean media are playing on Corean xenophobia and racism do protest against USA beef. They say you can develop mad cow disease from USA beef.

why are people so afraid of mad cow disease, anyway?
the chance of contracting it is lower then the chance of getting stomach cancer from bacon consumption

These are the same people that believe that an electric fan (just running, not dropped in a bathtub or anything) can kill you.

<丶｀∀´> It's true!

I really do admire this.
Know:

• It's part of a larger anti-"free trade"* movement in Korea
• They've been protesting more or less nonstop for weeks (and in the scheme of things they've been protesting nonstop since the 50s, at least)
• Many of the protesters are young women
• Everyone involved is ballsy as fuck: http://wikileaks.info/leak/korea-candlelight-protest-photos-2008-5-31/index.html

*I'm not the sort of person to use scare quotes, but the term free trade really does coopt the meaning of the two words put together. The weaker country has to abandon every protectionist measure it has while the stronger country can continue to do whatever it wants (see: US Farm Bill).

>>3
wtf is "C"orea? lol

>>8
some dumb Koreans believe Japan, around the time of the Japanese occupation, intentionally standardized the spelling on "Korea," so that "Japan" would appear first alphabetically.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Korea