Please Research BEFORE Forwarding

It called Snopes, and YOU TOO can find it at www.snopes.com It's the "Urban Legends Reference Pages" and you would do us ALL a favor if you would check out your e-mail story here BEFORE forwarding it to anybody else. If it says "pass it along" "forward it" or some similar thing, chances are somebody is laughing at the ignorance of the person who passed the message along to you. I'm not that nice...when you forward it to me, I don't laugh!

So below is just the latest in the old, rerun urban legend/Internet hoax I've been sent via e-mail. Unlike the kind folks who sent me the info, I've checked it out on Snopes. It ain't so!

FYI, not only can you check out specific stories before passing them on, but you can read {just to expand your mind} about the 25 most common Internet hoaxes at the time so when you get one, you'll know.

Here's the link that exposes the GAS WAR story.

GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work

This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It 's worth your consideration.

Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.

BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us! By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace..... not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out at this point.... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people.

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to at least ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =3D 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all. (If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am, so trust me on this one.)

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!

I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you?

Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.

THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

For those of you who are not familiar with researching Internet hoaxes/urban legends, here's just a few of the give-aways in this story.

• The effort to make it sound legitimate...retired Coca Cola executives and his engineering buddy
• The request to "pass it on". Think about it. 5 paragraphs of this thing is devoted to trying to get you to pass it on. This is one of the biggest tip-offs.

If they want you to "pass it on", at least take the time to check it out before you annoy your "friends" with it. Then I'll laugh with you...when you stop the 'cycle of ignorance'.

Now all you need to do is pass this along to 10 people and we can get the word out!

- Rob