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Pass this along to all your friends!

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published January 15, 2008

Recent events cause me to renew this futile plea to the world:

Stop passing on chain e-mails until you lift a finger to check them out yourself.

Please. For the love of humanity. Just stop. Or at the very least, please stop sending them to me.

Listen: Your cell phone is extremely unlikely to blow up your gas tank.

Starbucks (or Target, or insert name of retailer here) does not hate veterans.

A dying 7-year-old girl did not write a moving poem that will raise money for cancer.

The United States is not merging with Canada and Mexico in 2010.

And there is no "Life is Beautiful" computer virus.

Here are two topics that have filled my mailbox in recent days:

-The U.S. Mint is taking the words "In God We Trust" off its new series of presidential $1 coins.

-Barack Obama is a Muslim who took the oath of office on a Koran instead of a Bible. Yet at the same time, he belongs to a wacky African-centric Christian church.

The message about the "godless" $1 coin says, in part:

I received one from the Post Office as change and I asked for a dollar bill instead ... the lady just smiled and said "way to go" so she had read this e-mail ... our world is in enough trouble without this tool!

Then there's a photograph of the new coin, followed by the obligatory use of capitals:

You guessed it: 'IN GOD WE TRUST' IS GONE!!! If ever there was a reason to boycott something, THIS IS IT!!! DO NOT ACCEPT THE NEW DOLLAR COINS AS CHANGE. Together we can force them out of circulation. Please Send to all on your mail list!!!

Despite all the capitals and exclamation points, it isn't true. What is true is that the mottoes "In God We Trust" and "E Pluribus Unum" have been moved to the edge of the coin, shown above.

As for Obama, he is not a Muslim and he did not take the oath of office on a Koran.

Obama does belong to the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, which emphasizes black advancement and African heritage.

So, how do you check out an e-mail's claim?

Do this:

Type the words "Internet hoax" into an Internet search. You'll find several sites that specialize in tracking down the truth or falsity of rumors. My favorite is snopes.com.

In turn, those sites usually have their own search function. (Don't be fooled, by the way, by e-mails that claim to have been "checked out." Do it yourself anyway.)

And if I might put in a pitch for the home team, our own PolitiFact Web site (politifact.com) is a good place to get the straight story on the candidates for president, such as the Obama rumors.

Here's a bonus: Now and then, the rumor you're checking out turns out to be true. It's like finding an extra piece of candy in the box.

* * *

Today is live chat day on TroxBlog. From noon to 1 p.m. I'll be talking with readers live about current events in the Tampa Bay area, Florida and beyond. To get to TroxBlog, click on the "Blogs" menu at tampabay.com.

[Last modified January 14, 2008, 23:49:41]