def parse_bool(obj):
  """Return true if the object represents a truth value, false otherwise.

  For bool and numeric objects, uses Python's built-in bool function.  For
  str objects, checks string against a list of possible truth values.

  Args:
    obj: object to determine boolean value of; expected

  Returns:
    Boolean value according to 5.1 of Python docs if object is not a str
      object.  For str objects, return True if str is in TRUTH_VALUE_SET
      and False otherwise.
    http://docs.python.org/library/stdtypes.html
  """
  if type(obj) is str:
    TRUTH_VALUE_SET = ["true", "1", "yes", "t", "on"]
    return obj.lower() in TRUTH_VALUE_SET
  else:
    return bool(obj)