Just for giggles and some real-world work requirements, I decided to take a gander at the latest F-250s. Here’s what popped up on one of the sponsored links:

Does that kind of crap still work? It does, or YourTexasFord.com wouldn’t be spending major bucks at the Google Ad Shoppe. Still, as a man who fancies himself a bit of a web guru, I’m just surprised that these folks want all your personal identification before you get past that screen. Me, I’m going to click it about 100 times so they have to pay Google. They probably have that figured out by now, but just in case they don’t, they’ll hopefully get the message that it doesn’t hurt, and might actually help, to have the customers look over the inventory without a passport.

The bottom line is that I’ll probably just go find a good-enough used one. I’m tired of paying new prices. This last F-150 turned me off…that prissy little Lariat is a girl’s truck with zero added value, and I’ll never get the full trade-in. Not only do I need the bigger payload and towing capacities, but I want a diesel that’ll last a few hundred thousand miles, and screw the fuel costs. They’re almost assuredly just as computered-up as the gas counterparts, but I love that iron.

Local News | Man scammed by Craigslist ad | Seattle Times Newspaper

JACKSONVILLE, Ore. — A pair of hoax ads on Craigslist cost an Oregon man much of what he owned.

The ads popped up Saturday afternoon, saying the owner of a Jacksonville home was forced to leave the area suddenly and his belongings, including a horse, were free for the taking, said Jackson County sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan.

But Robert Salisbury had no plans to leave. The independent contractor was at Emigrant Lake when he got a call from a woman who had stopped by his house to claim his horse.

On his way home he stopped a truck loaded down with his work ladders, lawn mower and weed eater.

“I informed them I was the owner, but they refused to give the stuff back,” Salisbury said. “They showed me the Craigslist printout and told me they had the right to do what they did.”

The driver sped away after rebuking Salisbury. On his way home he spotted other cars filled with his belongings.

Once home he was greeted by close to 30 people rummaging through his barn and front porch.

This is a regression into lunacy that I could not have predicted. It’s Idiocracy. I hope Salisbury finds the maggot who posted that and beats the ever-loving crap out of him with a tire iron. I hope the morons who were taking stuff out of the house feel appropriately foolish, but I suspect many of them actually do feel like they are owed whatever they stole from the guy.

Now, with this kind of idiocy there on the front pages, how long before the next one of these surf-by lootings happen? And, I ask with all seriousness, what would happen if Mr. Salisbury had been home and started shooting the thiefs? Because I can see that happening, very easily.

Art of Entrepreneurial Living | Each week we’ll present some morsels of how to succeed in life and business as an entrepreneur.

This week’s lesson is on taking time off from your business, and I am doing just that by going on a whale watching trip in Maui, Hawaii, with the Pacific Whale Foundation.

Thanks for the great advice. I’m off to Hawaii, yall.

I really can’t remember the last time I took off a full shut-down week. That’s severely unhealthy, I know. I’d end up screwing something up physically by trying to play too much golf or drinking like a fish. I don’t think I’d go watch no dumb whales, though.

They’re dead serious about that one whole tip per week, too. Prep your feed reader for the deluge.