The Internet is a great engine of information -- and also a purveyor of a large amount of nonsense. Consider this item, which may have come to a computer mailbox near you, because its recipients are asked to pass it on in the manner of an old-fashioned chain letter:

"Since our religious leaders will not speak out against the war in Iraq, since our political leaders don't have the moral courage to oppose it, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is 'Not One Damn Dime Day' in America.

"On 'Not One Damn Dime Day,' those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.

"During 'Not One Damn Dime Day' please don't spend money. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours. ..."

Some newspapers have done stories about this silent protest, including USA Today, which raised the possibility that it might be a hoax. It also rated an unflattering mention on snopes.com, the Web site dedicated to urban legends. Both USA Today and the Web site pointed out that no one knows who is behind the effort, although it is sometimes falsely claimed to be TV journalist Bill Moyers.

Indeed, it would make a fine hoax, in that it encourages woolly-headed thinkers to stop buying their lunch or to walk to work because they can't pay their bus fare -- and all for what? Personal inconvenience. One can imagine a right-wing provocateur somewhere rubbing his hands with glee and observing: "What fools these liberals be."

For hoax or not, this is a silly idea, and maybe it is just unhinged enough to be a genuine invention of the far left.

A personal decision not to spend money tomorrow won't make a dime's worth of difference to the conduct of the Iraq war or the behavior of the Bush administration. Corporations won't notice; only small merchants will be hurt.

This newspaper doesn't like the Iraq war either, but don't enlist us in a cause whose authors won't even come out of the woodwork.