Not about Music

I received this e-mail in the usual mailings of spam and chain letters. I thought I would post the whole thing:

GAS WAR - interesting concept! Don't wimp out on this! It can make a difference This is worth a shot... 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 on me 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 send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 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.

It has the usual hallmarks of the chain letter - hoax emailings -

". . . This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive."

I wonder which "Coca-Cola executive" that was.

". . . I hear we are going to hit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer . . ."

Hey, I hear it's going to hit close to $1,000 a gallon, but why believe me, a scientist from Halliburton said so, it must be true!

My favorite line is, however:

". . .And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves."

So, we, as Americans, deserve cheap gas prices, huge Humvee-sized automobiles, and no sacrifices on our part, simply by the fact that we are Americans. And if you don't believe this, you are a commie pinko fascist.

I certainly agree the oil companies are making a bloated profit, but, here's a clever idea I thought of in about 1 second, maybe we could help by buying more gas-efficient automobiles, working towards better public transport, not building suburbs 1 million miles away from the stores, allowing the mixing of homes and business.

Oh, we have to make some sacrifices, what a gyp!