The spreading of misinformation is in my opinion just as bad as a scam. People who are misinformed make bad decisions and that has negative consequences on society as a whole.

Of course these things are free speech under our constitution and are protected. My point is that if you or anyone else gets one of these, do the research before you act on it or pass it to someone else.

I remind everyone that chain emails, and blogs for that matter are not held to the appropriate standard of proper journalism. While blogs are a great thing that empower the average person to get their ideas and opinions out there in front of a lot people, they can also be a source of misinformation as bloggers are not required to site and notate the information upon which the opinion is based.

All I am saying to the people here is this, stay informed about the issues. While Snopes and Wiki are not perfect they are good places to start because they do site source info and provide links to the material in question. I would also make time to visit your local library or bookstore and if time permits it; sit down with an expert on the subject that is in question. You would be suprised how many of these folks enjoy enlightening the average person.

Here are some guidelines to help everyone out:

1. Is what is being presented supported by expert opinion or reliable data?

2. If said opinions are sited via quotes, go to the source material and make sure the individual is acurately quoted and not taken out of context of a much larger quote( politicians are often quilty of that one)

3. Verify any statistics sited, if the sender cannot provide the source material for said stats, then I would stay away from it. It means they are deliberately misleading the reader.

4. Have someone knowlegeable in the field read the post, or blog and get their opinions and discuss.

5. Take anything anyone says, including me, with a pile of salt. Never put blind faith in anything, ignorance is an opportunity for enlightenment, willful ignorance is a sin.

Finally if soneone makes pronouncements about anything remember it is incumbent opon them to provide proof to support the statement(s) regardless of who they are. If someone is not willing to do this, they have no intellectual legitimacy and should be ignored.

Take care everyone, and I am always open to further dialogue, you are welcome to PM me about any social, political or economic issues and I will respond.

TJ