News Cut: August 17, 2008 Archive

Prayer at the pump

Posted at 9:08 AM on August 17, 2008 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Energy

Republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann maintained earlier this summer that just by talking about more drilling for oil, the price of a barrel would come down. Now that oil has come down in price, the political debate is whether that's due to factors including Bachmann's assertion, or whether it's the natural order of the marketplace.

But maybe something else is involved, according to a story on the BBC Web site this morning.

People in the DC area have been gathering around the pumps ... to pray.

This week the group returned to the site of their first prayer meeting to celebrate. Singing "We shall overcome," they changed the words of the well-known hymn to "We'll have lower gas prices".

Mr Twyman is sceptical that market forces might be responsible for the lower prices. But he and his prayer warriors have changed their motoring habits.

"We believe not just in prayer - because we believe that faith without works is dead. So we've encouraged people to car-pool more and organise their days more, because it's a combination of faith with these other factors."

The prayer meetings started in April and, as you can read in the story, the advocates think the price has come down because of their prayer. Maybe, but when they started praying, the price of a gallon of gas was $3.299, according to the Department of Energy. On August 11, it was $3.764.

Comment on this post

A day at the bridge

Posted at 6:51 PM on August 17, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Bridges and roads

Attention Twin Cities reporters: Touring the new I35W bridge is not a day at the beach.

MPR's Jess Mador tells the story behind the story of Sen. Amy Klobuchar's tour of the new bridge spanning the Mississippi River today. Apparently the press corps anxious to see the senator's reaction, was not properly informed that sandals and shorts are not the de rigueur attire for such locations.

Long pants and boots or closed-toed shoes are preferred.

"We all showed up improperly dressed," Jess reports. "Most of the guys were in shorts and flip flops and i was in sandals. "There was pandemonium. After some negotiation, klobuchar's aide ended up giving me his shoes. So I wore these ridiculously huge men's shoes, a few sizes too big and looked like a clown. It was funny. he really went above and beyond!"

Comment on this post

The Phelps conspiracy?

Posted at 8:11 PM on August 17, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

It didn't take long for the conspiracy theorists to set up shop. A web site has been created to "prove" that Michael Phelps didn't really win his 7th gold medal at the Olympics.

The next picture in the series, however, shows a bit more -- Sports Illustrated has the photos.

Phelps' fingers appear to be bent back, as if bent back by the wall. The swimmer on the right? Not so much.

Comment on this post