Just when you think you have plumbed the darkest depths of the nation's moral decline, someone comes up with something like this. I weep for my country.

Well, I'm not sure that it's really unethical to not break up the pieces, but it certainly seems to miss the point, unless your only goal is simply to complete the puzzle as quickly as possible. And I've never seen a puzzle that was really worth the end result. With a jigsaw puzzle, isn't the journey the destination?

There's a third alternative: You could return to the puzzle to the manufacture with a note indicating it's defective because all the pieces are not fully separated.

Or sue them, if you're a lawyer. Or demand a government product recall and an immediate tax increase, if you're a Democrat. ;-)

Of course, if you buy this puzzle, a few stuck pieces might not matter:

http://www.puzzbuffs.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=188

At my home, the rules from SWMBO include:
- all pieces disassembled, mixed in the box.
- all pieces laid out on the table, face up.
- you must do the outer frame first.
- assembly of pieces that do not connect to the already assembled pieces is not allowed. It is frowned upon but allowed to place them near each other.

I have an idea that the "weep for my country" is a jab at Hillary. However, I have a hard time accepting a lessons in morals from someone that endorsed Ron Paul.

I doubt that it's a jab at anyone, or anything, specific. I'm sure it's just a sardonic comment about the general state of the world.