UN General Assembly votes 'yes' on Ukraine unity

In a surprisingly strong rebuke of Moscow, the UN General Assembly has affirmed Ukraine's territorial integrity and deemed the referendum that led to Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula illegal.

Watch: IMF, US support for Ukraine


The vote on the Ukraine-sponsored resolution in the 193-member world body was 100 countries in favor, 11 opposed and 58 abstentions. Twenty-four countries did not vote.

While Ukraine has a lot of sympathy among UN member states, Russia has a lot of clout. Both sides lobbied hard ahead of the vote, and diplomats had predicted a significant number of abstentions and a maximum 80 to 90 countries supporting the resolution.


So the high number of "yes" votes, representing more than half the 193 UN member states, was a sign of international anger at Moscow's slow-motion military invasion of Crimea.

"This support has come from all corners of the world which shows that this (is) not only a regional matter but a global one," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia told reporters after the vote.

"It's the message that the world is united and Russia is isolated," Deshchytsia said later in an interview with The Associated Press.

Credit to Nzherald

Communism at WalMart

The following article was published at NC Renegade (by Tom P., the apparent author of this story) and News with Views by Kelleigh Nelson. It is a “must read.” Readers, things are taking place at a pace faster than many have expected- Doug Hagmann

March 27, 2014: The following is a true story about a recent experience I had while shopping at the local WalMart. I hope you find it as eye opening as I did. (comment by original author).

One recent, busy afternoon at WalMart, I finished shopping and headed for the checkout lanes to complete my visit. The lines were quite long so I found myself wishing that I had started with a shopping cart because my arms were already getting tired from the heavy load. Most of the people ahead of me had full carts so I figured that I was in for a long, tedious wait. Suddenly a little bearded man appeared behind me, and then quickly stepped into the line next to me as he surveyed the other lanes looking for the shortest wait. His unique appearance caught my attention. He looked like a person one might imagine seeing at a foreign market.



He wore a tight fitting green tweed sport coat, a little hat, and had a long pointed beard. His cheeks were darkly tanned and deeply wrinkled. His eyes looked intelligent, the best I could tell. As he darted between lines evaluating his options I said to him, “You can’t win.” He smiled and fell into line behind me. “Now perhaps I could speak to him,” I thought to myself, but before I was able to do so another younger man fell into line behind him and the two started speaking in a language I was not familiar with. Now, I can identify a half dozen or more languages, but this one was completely unfamiliar to me, so I seized the opportunity and blurted out, “Now that’s a language I am not familiar with.” The younger, more western looking man replied, “We are speaking Romanian,” rolling his “R’s” as you would imagine. Finally this conversation was off and running and we would have plenty of time because of the long line, if only my arms would hold out!

“You are both from Romania?” I asked. “Yes,” the younger man replied. Being curious about the older gentleman who had first caught my attention, I nodded in his direction and asked, “Does he speak English too?” The younger man’s reply was, “My father does speak English, but when I am around he prefers for me to do the speaking.” “So this is your father?” I asked. The son smiled and nodded in the affirmative. “Were you born here?” I asked the son. “No, I was born in Romania. I was 14 when we immigrated to the United States in 1982.” With a little quick math in my head I had the son pegged at around 43 years old, which corresponded with his appearance. That would place his father at perhaps somewhere around 70. Wanting to make this conversation count, I asked “Wasn’t Romania a communist country for most of your lives?” “Yes, Romania was put under Russian communist control in 1947,” the son replied.

“What was it like living under communism?” I asked. “There were good things and bad things about it,” he said. Surprised that there could have been anything good about it I asked, “What was good about it?!” “Well, the government controlled the currency so there was no inflation and there were no taxes.” “No taxes?” I asked. “Yes, the government owns everything to start with so they don’t have to tax you, they just give you what they want to give you. My father is a farmer. They took his land away from him and made him work on a government collective farm.”

“Do you think America will fall to communism eventually?” I asked, hoping they wouldn’t mind such a far-flung, probing question. “It’s already started here and it’s moving fast. It will be worse here,” he said. What a time for the cashier to be asking me, “Will that be all, sir,” when I was just getting started with two Romanians who had fled communism after being forced to live under it. From here on, it was going to be a matter of following these two living legends out of the WalMart store and across the parking lot so I could hear the rest of the story.

As we turned to go out the doors, I said confidently, “There is a difference here in America, you know. Americans are armed. They will not allow such a takeover.” He replied, “It doesn’t matter. The Romanian people believed very strongly that Romania would never submit to communism, but it happened quickly. The Romanian people were armed, but it didn’t matter. Communists use informants. They get neighbors to report on their neighbors who have guns, then the authorities come and seize them. They use torture to get compliance. Many Romanian men were burned alive for not turning over their guns, and some didn’t even have guns, but the authorities burned them anyway just to strike fear in the rest. You have to understand that communists use a lot of torture.”

My heart quickened as I listened to these live witnesses tell me the inside story about a communist takeover. I tried one more time, “You don’t understand, Americans are armed with a lot more guns and a lot more ammunition than other countries.” He repeated, “It doesn’t matter. They have more soldiers than you have bullets, besides in this country they have sophisticated means. Americans will not stand a chance against this government any more than we did. Your guns will be good for one thing – looters. When things get bad enough you will need your guns to keep looters away from what you have. In Katrina there were a lot of people killed by looters because they did not have guns to defend themselves. For a while you will need guns to protect yourself from other Americans. Eventually the government will confiscate all of them.”

By now we had walked to their car, a nice midsized sedan and I stood there feeling kind of glum. This was a whole lot more than I came to WalMart for. On a lighter note I said, “You weren’t here in America back then, but this was really a great country back in the 50’s and 60’s and even the 70’s and 80’s.” He said, “Oh, I know! It was a great country in 1982 when my parents sacrificed everything they had in the world to bring us here. We were even required to permanently denounce our Romanian citizenship in order to be allowed to leave Romania. I know many other international people. Five years ago they would still sacrifice everything to come here, but now it is different. Now they ask, ‘What is going on in America?’ It has changed and people are not making the sacrifice as much because what they are fleeing from is coming here now.”

He pointed to his father, the curious-looking little man who was the genesis of our whole conversation, who had dutifully stood alongside and listened to this entire conversation without saying a word, and the son said, “My father spent 5 years in a Romanian communist prison because of his faith.” “Because of his faith?” I asked. The son said, “My father was drafted into the Romanian army by the communists in 1950 and required to take an oath to kill any enemy of the government. Because of his faith he refused to take the oath so he was sent to prison from 1950 until 1955. And when I say ‘prison,’ it was not like what we have here, with four walls and 3 meals. It was outdoors, like a Nazi concentration camp. When someone would die they would just bury him in the mud.” I stood there on the pavement staring into the father’s eyes as the son told me about his father’s incarceration. It was obvious that the father understood every word that we were saying and that it brought back painful memories. He stared back at me for the longest time. It was like there was a fiber optic cable running between us with much being said without words. I stepped toward the father and extended my hand and he shook it. I didn’t know what else to say at the moment, so I thanked him for telling me his story. He smiled, nodded yes, and got into the car.

I asked the son if he had any suggestions and he said, “Yes. When it happens, don’t fight it. If you go along with them and make the best of it you can do quite well. If you resist you will be tormented, tortured, or hunted down and killed.”

I thanked the son for sharing his story as he got into the car. They drove off and left me standing in the parking lot stunned by the experience. I checked both directions before crossing traffic and walked straight back into WalMart and bought another box of bullets. It’s an American thing.

This story rings very true. If you do not understand what happened in Romania, and what communists are really like, I urge you to purchase the small book, Marx and Satan, by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand. He spent 13 years being tortured by Romanian Marxists because of his faith.

Credit to The Hagmann and Hagmann

Russia Moves to Scrap Black Sea Fleet Agreements with Ukraine

Russia Moves to Scrap Black Sea Fleet Agreements with Ukraine

 

MOSCOW, March 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has begun preparations for terminating bilateral agreements with Ukraine related to the status and operation of the Black Sea Fleet, a Kremlin spokesman said Friday.

The decision was made at a meeting of the country's Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin.

According to spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the measures to be scrapped include a 1997 agreement on the conditions of the fleet's stay in Crimea, which was extended by 25 years in a 2010 deal by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

In exchange, Ukraine received a discount of $100 on each 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas imported from Russia, which was provided for by cutting export duties on the gas, money that would have gone into the Russian state budget.

A bill to void the agreements was submitted to the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, on Friday afternoon.

The Russian Black Sea fleet is headquartered in Sevastopol, a city with special status within Crimea, which became Russian territory last week after 60 years as part of Ukraine.

The Kremlin said earlier this month that as the base is no longer located in Ukraine, there were no legal grounds for the discount to be continued.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said last Friday that Moscow would seek a reimbursement of the $11 billion Russia lost while the discount was in place.

Credit to RIA Novosti

US Air Force fires nine in nuclear missile cheating scandal

The US Air Force said Thursday it sacked nine nuclear missile officers and will discipline dozens of others over an exam cheating scandal that has sparked concerns about lax ethics.

The officers, including chiefs of four squadrons, were all working at Malmstrom Air Force base in Montana, which has been rocked by cheating allegations that implicated up to 100 airmen.

"Nine officers in leadership positions at Malmstrom were recommended for removal," Air Force Secretary Deborah James told a news conference.

An internal investigation had found that the commanders had not engaged in any test cheating but had "failed to provide adequate oversight of their crew force," James said.

A tenth officer had submitted his resignation over the case, she said.

A top general overseeing nuclear forces said the cheating stemmed in part from a stifling atmosphere created by commanders who over-emphasized perfect test scores for the missile launch officers.

"Although the required test score is 90 percent, crew members felt pressure to score 100 percent on each and every test," Lieutenant General Stephen Wilson said at the same news conference.

"They felt compelled to cheat to get a perfect score," he said.

The "zero-defect" approach was unrealistic and unnecessary, as the rules for managing the ballistic missiles had redundancies and other automatic safeguards, Wilson said.

"Leaders lost sight of the fact that execution in the field is more important than what happens in the class room," he said.

The cheating was first uncovered in January during an unrelated investigation into illegal drugs. The outcome of that drug probe is still pending.

Out of 100 officers potentially linked to the cheating, nine have since been cleared in an investigation, James said.

Another nine cases were being examined separately by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Of those, eight could involve criminal charges related to mishandling classified information -- possibly the exam materials.

About 30 to 40 officers will be retrained and allowed to return to duty to the missile force, while the remainder will face disciplinary action that could include being discharged from the military, officials said.

Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel has expressed deep disappointment over the cheating and voiced a wider concern over unethical conduct across the armed forces, after a spate of embarrassing scandals.

Hagel this week appointed a senior naval officer, Rear Admiral Margaret Klein, to serve as a special adviser looking at ethics and "character" issues.

Credit to Space Daily

Is College A Waste Of Time And Money?

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,

Are you thinking of going to college?  If so, please consider that decision very carefully.  You probably have lots of people telling you that an "education" is the key to your future and that you will never be able to get a "good job" unless you go to college.  And it is true that those that go to college do earn more on average than those that do not.  However, there is also a downside. 

At most U.S. colleges, the quality of the education that you will receive is a joke, the goal of most colleges is to extract as much money from you and your parents as they possibly can, and there is a very good chance that there will not be a "good job" waiting for you once you graduate.  And unless you have someone that is willing to pay your tuition bills, you will probably be facing a lifetime of crippling student loan debt payments once you get out into the real world.  So is college a waste of time and money?  In the end, it really pays to listen to both sides of the debate.

Personally, I spent eight years at U.S. public universities, and I really enjoyed those times.

But would I trade my degrees today for the time and money that I spent to get them?

Absolutely.

Right now, Americans owe more than a trillion dollars on their student loans, and more than 124 billion dollars of that total is more than 90 days delinquent.

It is a student loan debt bubble unlike anything that we have ever seen before, and now even those that make their living from this system are urging reform.  For example, consider what a law professor at the University of Tennesseerecently wrote for the Wall Street Journal...

In the field of higher education, reality is outrunning parody. A recent feature on the satire website the Onion proclaimed, "30-Year-Old Has Earned $11 More Than He Would Have Without College Education." Allowing for tuition, interest on student loans, and four years of foregone income while in school, the fictional student "Patrick Moorhouse" wasn't much better off. His years of stress and study, the article japed, "have been more or less a financial wash."

"Patrick" shouldn't feel too bad. Many college graduates would be happy to be $11 ahead instead of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, behind. The credit-driven higher education bubble of the past several decades has left legions of students deep in debt without improving their job prospects. To make college a good value again, today's parents and students need to be skeptical, frugal and demanding.

When a lot of young Americans graduate from college and can't find a decent job, they are told that if they really want to "be successful" that what they really need is a graduate degree.

That means more years of education, and in most cases, even more debt.

But by the time many of these young achievers get through college and graduate school, the debt loads can be absolutely overwhelming...

The typical debt load of borrowers leaving school with a master's, medical, law or doctoral degree jumped an inflation-adjusted 43% between 2004 and 2012, according to a new report by the New America Foundation, a left-leaning Washington think tank. That translated into a median debt load—the point at which half of borrowers owed more and half owed less—of $57,600 in 2012.

The increases were sharper for those pursuing advanced degrees in the social sciences and humanities, versus professional degrees such as M.B.A.s or medical degrees that tend to yield greater long-term returns. The typical debt load of those earning a master's in education showed some of the largest increases, rising 66% to $50,879. It climbed 54% to $58,539 for those earning a master of arts.

In particular, many are questioning the value of a law school education these days.  Law schools are aggressively recruiting students even though they know that there are way, way too many lawyers already.  There is no way that the legal field can produce enough jobs for the huge flood of new law school graduates that are hitting the streets each year.

The criticism has become so harsh that even mainstream news outlets are writing about this.  For instance, the following comes from a recent CNN article...

For the past three years, the media has picked up the attacks with relish. The New York Times, in an article on a graduate with $250,000 in loans, put it this way: "Is Law School a Losing Game?" Referring to the graduate, the Times wrote, "His secret, if that's the right word, is to pretty much ignore all the calls and letters that he receives every day from the dozen or so creditors now hounding him for cash," writes the author.  Or consider this blunt headline from a recent Business Insider article: "'I Consider Law School A Waste Of My Life And An Extraordinary Waste Of Money.'" Even though the graduate profiled in the piece had a degree from a Top 20 law school, he's now bitterly mired in debt. "Because I went to law school, I don't see myself having a family, earning a comfortable wage, or having an enjoyable lifestyle," he writes. "I wouldn't wish my law school experience on my enemy."

In America today, approximately two-thirds of all college students graduate with student loan debt, and the average debt level has been steadily rising.  In fact, one study found that "70 percent of the class of 2013 is graduating with college-related debt – averaging $35,200 – including federal, state and private loans, as well as debt owed to family and accumulated through credit cards."

That would be bad enough if most of these students were getting decent jobs that enabled them to service that debt.

But unfortunately, that is often not the case.  It has been estimated that about half of all recent college graduates are working jobs that do not even require a college degree.

Could you imagine that?

Could you imagine investing four or five years and tens of thousands of dollars in a college degree and then working a job that does not even require a degree?

And the really sick thing is that the quality of the education that most college students are receiving is quite pathetic.

Recently, a film crew went down to American University and asked students some really basic questions about our country.  The results were absolutely stunning...

When asked if they could name a SINGLE U.S. senator, the students blanked. Also, very few knew that each state has two senators. The guesses were all over the map, with some crediting each state with twelve, thirteen, and five senators.

I have posted the YouTube video below.  How in the world is it possible that college students in America cannot name a single U.S. senator?...

These are the leaders of tomorrow?

That is a frightening thought.

If parents only knew what their children were being taught at college, in most instances they would be absolutely horrified.

The following is a list of actual college courses that have been taught at U.S. colleges in recent years...

-"What If Harry Potter Is Real?"

-"Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame"

-"Philosophy And Star Trek"

-"Invented Languages: Klingon and Beyond"

-"Learning From YouTube"

-"How To Watch Television"

-"Sport For The Spectator"

-"Oh, Look, a Chicken!"

That last one is my favorite.

The truth is that many of these colleges don't really care if  your sons and daughters learn much at all.  They just want the money to keep rolling in.

And our college students are discovering that when they do graduate that they are woefully unprepared for life on the outside.  In fact, one survey found that70% of all college graduates wish that they had spent more time preparing for the "real world" while they were still in college.

In America today, there are more than 300,000 waitresses that have college degrees, and close to three out of every ten adults in the United States under the age of 35 are still living at home with Mom and Dad.

Our system of higher education is not working, and it is crippling an entire generation of Americans.

So what do you think?

Do you believe that college is a waste of time and money?

Credit to Zero Hedge

Why World War III Will Begin In Syria

It is possible to make a reasonable prediction about where World War III will break out based upon historical Russian military strategy. Putin is following a very predictable pattern that dates back to over a 100 years of Russian military history coupled with the present set of events.

The Present Situation

Russia is bleeding the Petrodollar dry by leading the BRIC nations in the purchase of Iranian oil for gold. The same situation is emerging in Europe as Russia is on the verge, either by invasion or by proxy control of Ukraine, of controlling a good portion of energy needs to Europe and being able to bypass the Petrodollar as a means of payment for Russian energy shipments into Europe. Further, Russia has just completed a deal which brings China into the Russian energy sphere of influence. This will eventually culminate in the weakening of NATO and the isolation of the United States both economically and militarily. What does Russia want and what will be its eventual goal? Some believe that Russia wants to occupy the United States and perhaps Putin eventually does, but it is not practical at this particular point of time. Economic attrition and military isolation are Putin’s best friends at this time. After all, the US is in possession of over 2,000 nuclear weapons and 72 nuclear armed submarines which are virtually undetectable. Despite the presence of these American deterrents, do not be lulled into a false sense of security, this cold war will soon turn hot.

Putin’s Military Strategy

Putin is pursuing a military strategy that most Americans have never heard of and even fewer understand and it has to do with Russia’s geographic makeup and this holds the key to Russian military strategy Although Russia possesses one of the largest land masses in the world, they possess an abhorrent lack of useable coastline. Historically, Russian economic growth has been severely impeded because of the lack of usable ports. Russia rues the day that they sold Alaska to the United States. It also helps to explain why Syria has jumped to the forefront of world affairs. Russia is sitting on vast energy deposits and they are threatening to expand their energy based and mineral world dominance by exploiting the newly discovered riches at the North Pole and they have invested significant resources in beefing up their Arctic fighting forces towards this end. Russia may be able to acquire vast mineral resources, but without significant ports from which to trade, the Russian economy will always run in second gear. One does not need to have access to Putin’s war plans to understand what is going on, one needs to only be a student of history in order to predict where this coming conflict is headed.

The Heartland Theory

British geographer and military historian, Sir Halford MacKinder, in 1904, wrote an article that changed how politicians and military men viewed the world. The theory that had so influenced nearly five generations of strategists was called simply, the Heartland Theory. Basically, Mackinder’s Heartland Theory views geo-political military history as a struggle between land-based and sea-based powers. Mackinder believed the world had become a “closed” system, with virtually no new lands left for the Europeans powers to discover, to conquer, and to fight over without creating chaos elsewhere. According to the theory, the common denominator for world conflict has been reduced to sea powers vs. land-based powers which would subsequently struggle for dominance of the world, and the ultimate victor would be in a position to set up a world empire. The determining factor in this struggle was physical geography; “Man and not nature initiates, but nature in large measure controls”.

From Mackinder’s perspective, Soviet Russia had to be contained within the heartland. Mackinder’s believed that whosoever controlled Eurasia, controlled the world, so long as the controller had access to useable ports. The problem for Russia is that they have so few usable ports thus impacting commerce and the movement of men and material in a time of war. So long as Russia could be prevented from being a major sea power, the forces of the United States and Western Europe were safe. However, if Russia should become a sea power in conjunction with its massive land-based power, Russia could rule the world. And now, through the release of Russian secret documents we are finding out that Stalin was willing to fight a war with the US over obtaining Alaska seaports as predicted by the Heartland Theory.

Stalin’s Secret Plans to Invade Alaska In 1951

In 1999, at a conference held at Yale University, previously-secret Russian documents revealed that Russian Dictator Joseph Stalin had undergone extensive planning in preparation to invade North America as early as 1951. The event was one of a series of programs sponsored by the Washington D.C.-based Cold War International History Project (CWIHP), which monitors new documents pertaining to the Cold War. The Yale conference centered on Stalin’s relationship with the United States. These documents, from the Cold War, revealed that Stalin had a definitive plan to attack Alaska in 1951-52 and had undergone major military preparations in anticipation of the invasion. Russia has always considered itself to be landlocked and this served as the major motivation for Russia’s planned incursion which would have given Russia access to good sea ports. Stalin subsequently died and the plans were abandoned, at least temporarily, mostly due to American dominance in nuclear weapons. In 2014, we see the importance of Heartland Theory in guiding Russian foreign policy with regard to Syria and to some degree, China. The Chinese-Russian energy deal allows Russia access to Chinese ports. Russia is steadfast in its protection of Syria because of the Russian need to use the ports of Tartus and Aleppo. And it is highly likely that once the energy pipelines in Ukraine are secured by Putin, Europe will soon be making seaport concessions to Russia in exchange for Russian based energy shipments. At the beginning of the crisis in Crimea, the first objective of the Russian military was to secure the naval base in Sevastopol. The Russians desire the fleet to grow in support a new Mediterranean task force created by Russia last year as move to counter an increase US naval presence in the Mediterranean. If Ukraine had been allowed to be wooed by Western banksters to join the European Union, Russia’s most important naval force would have been effectively neutered because of the potential loss of Sevastopol as a naval base. The G7 nations may view Putin’s actions in Crimea as being offensive, Putin, no doubt, views the action as a matter of military survival. Again, the Heartland Theory comes into play. The Heartland Theory also came into play during last year’s Syrian crisis as Putin threatened to nuke the United States if it invaded Syria in violation of international law. Syria is critical to the Russians on a number of fronts including the prevalence of Syria’s warm water ports. Syria’s importance to Russia can be condensed to five essential factors: 1. Russia has a naval installation in Syria. The base is vitally important because it is Russia’s last foreign military base outside of the former Soviet Union. Putin is playing a bit of a slight of hand approach by stating they are closing the facility. However, the Russians are maintaining navy technicians and to service their permanent flotilla in the area. 2. Russia utilizes the port at Aleppo and Tartus to facilitate is sea trade. 3. Fortifying Syria provides protection for Iran who is undermining the Petrodollar by selling its oil for gold. This allows Putin to be engaged in an economic war against the dollar the Federal Reserve. 4. Syria is a military satellite of Russia as Assad continues to buy a high quantity of  Russian military exports, which aids the Russian economy.

America’s Options

Control of Ukraine and its gas shipments through the country are the key to swinging the balance of power on the planet. If Ukraine comes under the complete control of the Russians, energy blackmail and the eventual disintegration of NATO will occur. If Russia moves to take over Ukraine, what options does the United States have? It is not likely that at this point in time that NATO has the ability to keep Russia out of Ukraine. Where is Russia most vulnerable? The clear answer is in Syria. Syria has both economic and military significance to Russia. If Syria were to fall to the United States, the military and economic loss would be catastrophic, not the least, would be the loss of Syrian ports. Russia’s prudent course of action would be to continue to erode the US economy by its relentless attacks upon the Federal Reserve and the Petrodollar. However I do not foresee the Federal Reserve banksters are going to continue to let this happen as the dollar erodes. Subsequently, when Ukraine falls, Syria and possibly Iran will be attacked by the United States. The provocation will likely be a false flag event within the United States in which the Syrians are falsely implicated. Remember the Heartland Theory, it also predict the second front of the coming World War III. Along these lines, Putin will attack Alaska if the United States attacks Syria. This is how a cold war can turn hot in a hurry. If you do not believe me, just ask the Polish as they have begun mobilizing for war. DHS just began a martial law lock down drill yesterday which will last for nearly a month. Ask yourself, what do these people know that you do not? Again, I want to caution people to stock up on supplies. If a false flag event does occur, your ability to resupply could be seriously imperiled.
Credit to Common Sense

What Happens When Teachers, Delivery People And Fast Food Workers Don’t Care Anymore…

One of the big problems in America today is that a lot of people simply do not seem to care about what they are doing anymore.  The level of sloth, laziness and apathy that we are witnessing in this country is absolutely mind-numbing.  Of course this is not true of everyone.  There are still many Americans that are extremely hard working.  But overall, it really appears that people are not taking as much pride in their work as they once did.  Some of the examples that I am about to show you are quite funny.  Others are more than just a little bit disturbing.  But they all have a common theme.  Americans from all walks of life are simply giving up.  Whether they are teachers, delivery people or fast food workers, the truth is that there are a whole lot of people out there that seem to have mentally checked out.

For example, take a close look at the midterm exam posted below.  Does anything stand out to you?...

If you can't read the writing in the red box, this is what it says...

"In all honesty, I am already bored with this topic. It is far less interesting than I had hoped and I really don't want to finish this essay. I'm fairly sure you don't really read these so I'm just going to put enough words down to make it seem like I wrote a lot while I kill time. Wanna hear some words that rhyme with time? Crime, dime, mime, (haha mimes are funny), chime, lime. Aw dude you know what has lime in it? Sprite, it like lemon lime. I could really go for one of those about now, but not sierra mist, that just isn't the same. It tries too hard to be sprite but it just cant pull it off. It should just try to be itself and stop trying to measure up to other sodas."

To be fair, there is a tremendous amount of debate about this photo on the Internet.  Some people insist that no teacher would ever be so careless and that this picture must have been photoshopped.  Others that have studied this photo insist that there is no sign of alteration and that it is 100% authentic.

I will let you come to your own conclusion.

What is undeniable, on the other hand, is that there are a lot of delivery people out there that simply do not seem to care anymore.

For example, in the YouTube video that I have posted below, you can watch a postal worker drive her truck on to someone's lawn.  She is so lazy that she doesn't even have the energy to take a few steps and place the package at the customer's door...

And in this next YouTube video, another postal worker does not even get out of his truck.  He just carelessly tosses a package (which could contain something very expensive) toward the customer's home...

What would cause someone to act like that?

What has caused so many Americans to no longer take any pride in their work?

Another place where this can be seen frequently is at fast food restaurants.

For instance, the photo that I have posted below of a Wendy's employee gulping down soft serve ice cream with his mouth under the Frosty dispenser went viral on the Internet a while back...

I don't know about you, but to me that is absolutely disgusting.  Needless to say, that worker quickly lost his job.

And of course there is no shortage of other fast food horror stories out there.

The following is one of my favorite examples...

Tony Hill, a pastor in Baltimore, Maryland, once got a deep-fried mouse along with his chicken at Popeye's. The old "I found a rat in my fried chicken!" urban legend is decades old - this particular story was given a little credence, however, by the fact that local health authorities confirmed that the Popeye's in question had a rodent problem.

These days even the criminals are getting lazy.

The following story is very tragic.  Violent crime in America is on the rise, and as the economy continues to get worse people are going to steal just about anything that is not bolted down.

In the little town of Denison, Iowa, a couple of thugs recently shot and killed an elderly couple while they were attempting to steal some scrap metal...

A Denison man told investigators that he and another man shot two people, then set fire to a trailer with the victims inside, according to court documents.

Jayden Chapman said he and Michael D. Schenk shot Marvin Huelsing, 80, and Alice Huisenga, 81, on Monday, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit filed in Crawford County District Court.

This is the kind of thing that we are going to see a lot more frequently in the years ahead.

Those thugs thought that they would get away with murder by burning the victims inside their own trailer, but they foolishly left behind a receipt from the Wal-Mart where they had just been shopping at the scene of the crime...

A pickup truck more than 200 yards north of the trailer also was burned. Near it, investigators found on the ground a receipt from the Denison Walmart with a debit-card number from a food-stamp card. Authorities determined the card was assigned to Schenck.

In this case, justice was served by the slothfulness of the American people, and I hope that those murderers are given the highest penalty allowed by law.

But in general, slothfulness is a terrible thing.  And it isn't just a few people that are being slothful.  This is a national disease.  I like how Jim Quinn put it in his recent article...

The government controlled public education system has flourished beyond all expectations of your owners. We’ve become a nation of techno-narcissistic, math challenged, reality TV distracted, welfare entitled, materialistic, gluttonous, indebted consumers of Chinese slave labor produced crap.

But even though so many of us are aware of what is happening to us, we just can't seem to break out of it as a nation.

It really does seem like most people are walking around in a fog these days.

Maybe the fact that 70 million Americans are on mind-altering drugs has something to do with it.

I don't know.

But unless Americans start taking more pride in their work again and start living their lives with meaning and purpose, it is going to be very difficult to envision a positive future for this country.

Credit to Economic Collapse

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