{"id":58649,"date":"2015-03-09T11:12:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T15:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=58649"},"modified":"2015-03-09T11:12:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T15:12:35","slug":"university-of-california-irvine-and-fending-off-the-decline-of-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=58649","title":{"rendered":"University of California-Irvine and fending off the decline of society"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross posted from paying home.<\/p>\n

\"Honor\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m fairly certain that every generation from Adam and Eve down to today has thought the following generation was moronic, weak and less than industrious.  Lord knows there’s plenty lately to support that.  I’m not sure if it is the proliferation of new media just bringing more of it to light, or if people are actually getting dumber.  (If you haven’t seen “Idiocracy” the movie, you should.)<\/p>\n

Let’s start with a few recent examples.  This morning I awoke to this horrific story<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Two American tourists now have a criminal record in Italy after they were caught carving their names into Rome’s Colosseum, according to The Guardian.<\/p>\n

The visiting Californians snuck away from their tour group on Saturday and began scratching their initials into the amphitheater walls using a coin, The Guardian reported.<\/p>\n

Police caught the pair but not before they managed to carve a “J” and an “N” around 3 inches high into the Colosseum wall. The paper also reports that the women took a selfie with their carvings. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Carving your initials into a nearly 2000 year old building that has huge cultural significance is beyond stupid.  Taking a picture of it goes even further.  I’m not a judge in Italy, and it is a good thing, because I would have “SPQR<\/a>” tatooed on their foreheads and put them on the first plane out of the country.  (A Facebook friend suggested they be forced to fight lions in the now defaced building, but that might go too far.)<\/p>\n

This follows on the heels of two other morons visiting Cambodia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Two Arizona sisters received a kick in the pants after pulling theirs down in a Cambodian temple, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Leslie Adams, 20, and Lindsey Adams, 22, were sentenced Saturday to be deported after they took naked pictures of each other in Preah Khan Temple in Cambodia’s Angkor complex the day before, officials said.<\/p>\n

The sisters of Prescott, Ariz., were arrested after they were caught snapping pictures of each other mooning the camera inside the World Heritage site, AFP reported.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I’m guessing the Adams sisters weren’t finalists for Rhodes scholarships to begin with, but what could possess someone to think that naked selfies in a temple is a wise action?  It’s not that people who moon others are unlikely to succeed in life (as #1 on my Enemy’s List Peyton Manning has proven<\/a>) but there’s probably a time and a place for it, and standing in the middle of Angkor definitely falls in the “don’t be that stupid” category.  <\/p>\n

And revisiting an earlier story, there was the Lindsey Stone incident, which if you don’t recall was her thinking it was funny to stand next to the “Silence and Respect” sign at Arlington National Cemetery and fake she was shouting and gave the middle finger.  Then put it on Facebook.  Because being an idiot isn’t enough nowadays, one must advertise your lack of social grace.<\/p>\n

As my friend Jonn Lilyea noted a few weeks ago, Ms Stone has paid a horrible price for a Facebook Profile picture<\/a>.  Citing to the UK Daily Mail, Ms Stone had this to say:<\/p>\n

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After almost a year of sending resumes to employers and receiving no response for employment, Stone says she was hired to work with autistic children.<\/p>\n

\u2018But I\u2019m terrified\u2019 of her employers finding the photo, Stone said, and feels trapped because she can\u2019t simply ask whether they\u2019ve seen it and simply don\u2019t care.<\/p>\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\n

\u2018Since it happened, I haven\u2019t tried to date anybody. How much do you let a new person into your life? Do they already know?\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The price of being a moron is skyrocketing.  <\/p>\n

Now, don’t get me wrong, I was a bad kid, who did stupid things.  It’s absolutely astonishing I lived to be 20.  I was pretty much idiotic on a scale that should have been unprecedented.  But at some point responsibility has to kick in.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to two more stories from the past two days.  First, a Prom in Albuquerque, New Mexico:<\/p>\n