If you're one of the many people who've recently sent me e-mail about the "one day gas boycott" on May 15, then please don't take this personally: it's a really stupid idea.

It's not just that the e-mail itself is riddled with factual errors. It's that it simply won't work. Now, I could take a long time to write up all the reasons why, but luckily the folks over at MSNBC.com have done it for me.

This idea has come up pretty much every Spring for the last few years, just as gas prices are rising to some new historic high. And it never works, but every year it comes up again. This year, though, it's really taken root for some reason, and I've gotten it from a lot more places than usual -- even from a comment left here in the post about my new car.

Anyway, if you read it, the MSNBC.com article makes clear that the only REAL way to bring gas prices down is to cut consumption. Shifting your consumption forward or back a day doesn't accomplish that. Buying a car that uses less fuel DOES. Pressuring Detroit and the other manufacturers to raise their fuel economy standards (even bringing back an electric car??) would also work.

Even switching just two lightbulbs in your home to compact fluorescent bulbs would be enough -- if everyone did it. We've switched all but four lightbulbs in our home already, and those last few will be changed as soon as they burn out.

I'm trying to do my part. Are you?