Praying at the pump

Where else but in America?

At a Shell petrol station in Washington, Rocky Twyman and an unusual group of activists were mad as hell about soaring fuel prices.

"Last week, this station was $US3.51 ($A3.72). Now it's practically $US3.60 ($A3.82). So it's gone up nine cents in one week," Twyman said as he pumped five dollars worth of petrol into his thirsty American car.

"Someone's making a lot of money and it's really, really wrong," added Twyman, who founded the Prayer at the Pump movement to seek help from a higher power to bring down fuel prices, because the powers in Washington haven't.

The half-dozen activists - Twyman, a former Miss Washington DC, the owner of a small construction company and two volunteers at a local soup kitchen - joined hands, bowed their heads and intoned a heartfelt prayer.

From here.

A sombre Independence Day

In honour of Independence Day, Canadian Silver Bug has posted a rather critical commentary on America:

I honestly ask myself what all the fuss and posturing about?

Well they threw off British rule; that’s pretty impressive.

They helped destroy the Kaiser and Hitler; that’s pretty impressive despite the fact they like to take all the credit and showed up to both wars several wars years late.

They created a constitution that put the protection of people’s rights to the forefront of government responsibilities; which by any account is an outstanding achievement.

America built the most powerful industrial machine the world had ever seen, they made it to the moon and advanced all manner of technical innovation big and small; once again all things worth celebrating.


We must remember however that these events are the high points of the American experience and quite probably hollow victories when compared to today’s reality. Such patriotic holidays as Independence Day are now tools of the establishment who know that people will get lost in pointless pride when frustration and anger are more appropriate for today's circumstances!

Strong words, to be sure, but I can't find fault with much of what he says here. But if there's a take-home message, it's this:

No one hates America for its freedom; IF they hate America it's because America rations freedom to those deemed worthy, which these days is not even its own population.

Truer words couldn't have been spoken. The sad thing is, at one time the US really did seem like a beacon of freedom and democracy. That isn't to say they didn't ration their freedom before (they kept slaves until 145 years ago, after all) but they introduced an ideal to the modern world that hasn't completely died out, and hopefully never will, despite the efforts of their current leaders.