It is so funny, devilishly so, when those who perpetrate the worst inhumanities suddenly find themselves at the receiving end of a dose of their own medicine. When the powerful find themselves powerless – without the trappings of their rule they have grown accustomed to – they now demand protection, cry with all their might for democracy and the rights it would afford them.

They who could, would (and did) kill anyone not to their liking; they who readily dispatched of the powerless, those who were too weak to protect themselves — they are now crying out for official relief, for protection, for equal treatment, and are quoting lines from the Constitution to protect their murderous skin.

And though our collective outrage and sense of justified retribution are prompting us to give it to them in the same manner that they had given it to those they raped and pillaged, our fidelity to humanity and due process keeps us from doing so. There is nothing, however, that should and could prevent us from hoping that our much abused and often unobserved legal system would work this time, and put those monsters masquerading as humans to jail, where they should spend the rest of their miserable lives and lifetimes.

The iPhone has finally received the go signal to cast its spell on the Korean mobile phone market. After setting the smartphone gold standard in almost all the markets it has previously entered, Steve Jobs’ universally coveted handset is set to do battle with home-grown giants, LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics.

Would the iPhone come and conquer like it did in the other markets? And how would the iPhone’s coming affect the Korean dynamic duo?

Korean consumers are generally much more jaded than those from the other markets. They have been used to getting and using the most technology advanced gadgets and devices. The fastest Internet connections, wired and unwired; handsets with the longest and widest lineups of features; ultrafast computers; and the best and most capable electronic tools and toys — they have been there and done that.

Also, Koreans’ sense of nationalism might prompt most of them to keep on patronizing their own. Home-grown smartphones are quite likely to keep most of their market shares in the country. Not that they need to solely rely on their consumers’ patriotism to do well in the market. Korean mobile phones, after all, are some of the world’s best.

Recent events are making it hard for some of us to get into the “proper” Christmas mood. After all, how can we be jolly and on our merrymaking ways when people are being massacred, kidnapped, or beheaded? These days, those who disregard the law have occupied almost every nook and cranny of our land. They are found among the highest posts of our society and down among our hinterlands, sucking the life and morale out of us and our souls. They roam our city streets, our mountains, and our seas and rivers.