I Would Have Taken The Long Way Around, But.....

Does this bridge look safe to you? 

OK. You have a great big pickup truck, you've got a couple kayaks strapped to the roof and you're towing a boat

And you have to get across a wide river in Brazil.  

Do you take the bridge this guy's going to take? It's made of some saggimg planks, supported by some iffy, thin, rusty metal work.

It IS the shortest way across the river, but, frankly, I would have taken the long way around. As the verbiage on this YouTube video indicates, I would have been afraid to walk across it.

This guy in tbe truck with boats apparently wasn't afraid.

Watch how it ends. I won't spoil it for you.

Plumber Sues Auto Dealer Because His Truck/Logo Ended Up With Terrorists.

Mark-1 Plumbing's old truck ended up in the hands of
terrorists, and now the owner of the business
is suing the dealership that failed to remove the logo.

Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas got some unwanted free advertising about a year ago.

One of the company's old pickup trucks was sold, but then reappeared in the media, complete with its Mark-1 Plumbing logo, being used by Islamic terrorists in Syria.

It should be obvious that Mark-1 Plumbing's owner, Mark Oberholtzer is not a terrorist or a terrorist sympathizer. He's a fine American, a reputable businessman, and certainly no threat to anything, except maybe a leaky pipe.  

We should have all laughed off the fact Oberholtzer's truck somehow ended up in Syria, even if the people using the truck are certainly no laughing matter.

However, this is America, land of a substantial subset of dumb people.

A segment about the Mark-1 Plumbing truck appeared on the widely watched final episode of the Colbert Report.

It was a joke, but some dumb people didn't take it as such.

According to the New York Times, Olberhotzer and his employees faced this, according to the plumber's attorney, Craig Eisland:

".......there were thousands of harassing and threatening phone calls to Mr Oberholtzer's office and other phone numbers with accusations that he supported terrorists. His staff and family members were also subject to threatening calls, Mr. Eisland said.

Mr. Oberholtzer said his business has suffered. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents met with him and advised him to protect himself, the lawsuit said. He started carrying a handgun."

Note the clip from the New York Times mentions a lawsuit. That's because Oberholtzer is suing AutoNation Ford Gulf Freeway in Houston, Texas for $1 million.

Oberholtzer said he traded in his old truck at the dealership and they failed to remove the Mark-1 Plumbing logo from it before re-selling it on the open market, and it ended up going on the black market, to end up in the hands of terrorists.

The lawsuit seems frivolous at first, but then you have to remember the dumb people. The dumb people who somehow thought Oberholtzer was a terrorist or ISIS sympathizer because his truck ended up with terrorists, even though he clearly had nothing to do with getting his truck to Syria.

Because people could not follow the very clear point in media reports about that the truck ended up in Syria through no fault of Oberholtzer.

So he's suing, due to the fear, the lost business, the inconvenience, the damage to his reputation.

Too bad Oberholtzer can's sue all the stupid people who made those threatening calls to him, who threatened him and his business.  Hell, I'd like to sue 'em.

I wonder if we can make being stupid a crime, too. Maybe we can send the stupid people to Syria to join the Mark-1 Plumbing pickup truck. It's one sure way to defeat ISIL: Just infiltrate all our stupid people into their ranks, and watch them crumble.

Truck Driver Doesn't Like The Road Sign, Apparently

Truck bed up, and a road sign don't mix
in Saudi Arabia.  

Some guy named Mohaed Qutteneh was driving down the highway in Saudi Arabia spotted the truck in front of him with its truck bed raised up.

Not quite sure why, but things did not work out well for the truck driver or the road sign he encountered.

I also don't know why the person in the white pickup truck seemed to accelerate toward what would obviously become a soon-to-be mess.

See for yourself:

Texas Plumber NOT A Terrorist, But Terrorists Using His Old Truck

A Texas plumber discovered an old truck he'd traded
in is now being used by Islamic terrorists in Syria.  

Let's be clear: Mark Oberholtzer is a fine, upstanding Texan. By all accounts a proud American.

He's owned Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas City, Texas for 32 years. People like him and his work in the plumbing and contracting business. Lots of five star reviews of Mark-1 Plumbing out there.

A few people, idiots, actually, now think Oberholtzer is sympathetic to those horrible ISIS Islamic militants in Syria.

Why? Because there's a photo that originated on Twitter floating around out there of one of his trucks, with the Mark-1 Plumbing logo clearly displayed, being used by the militants with an anti-aircraft gun in the truck's bed.

Don't worry, Oberholtzer is not giving material support to the terrorists. He, and everybody who knows him wants to make clear he did not give or sell his truck to terrorists.

Somehow, after he traded in the truck three years ago to an AutoNation dealership, the vehicle ended up in the hands of terrorists. 

Oberholtzer says that usually, when he trades in one of his old work trucks, he removes the logo from the vehicles. This time he didn't because he assumed AutoNation would. But they didn't.

So now, in Syria, unfortunate victims of ISIS terrorists can see an advertisement for Mark-1 Plumbing before they are hurt or killed by the violent morons.

Nobody knows how the truck ended up in Syria, but it was auctioned off after Oberholtzer traded it in, and it probably went through a few owners before winding up in Syria.

Oberholtzer says he's gotten thousands of calls about the truck in Syria. He says some people have threatened him because they think he's supporting the terrorists with this truck.

Of course the people criticizing or threatening Oberholtzer are some of the world's biggest idiots.

He told television station KHOU:

"We have a secretary here, she's scared to death. We all have families. We don't want no problems."

 Luckily, there's a major backlash against the people unfairly targeting Oberholtzer and his business. You can see that nice, welcome backlash on the Mark-1 Plumbing Facebook page. 

In a way, it's free advertising, because some people are saying they want to have Mark 1 Plumbing fix their leaking pipes or whatever. Just to support the guy.

Hell, I'd have him do my plumbing, too. But I don't think Oberholtzer wants to travel from Texas to Vermont to look at the drip, drip in my basement.

An Overturned Cement Truck is NOT What You Want To See Coming At Your Windshield

Dr. Guan Zhu a veterinary professor at Texas A&M, was driving around in his Toyota Sienna the other day in College Station, Texas with the dash cam running.

Not what you want to see through
your car windshield. 

He got to an intersection and Uh-oh. A cement truck ran a red light, overturned and came straight at him, says television station KBTX.

Had to have been awfully scary! Luckily his airbags deployed and he received just minor injuries.

Zhu said he doesn't really remember most of the details, other than the truck heading toward him.

So, we give you the CBS report, below, to show you the thing you probably would least like to see coming at you when you're out driving: