The FBI is investigating bankrupt solar-panel maker Solyndra after the company secured more than $500 million in loan guarantees from the federal government. Glorified by President Obama as "the future" of clean energy and a "testament to American ingenuity and dynamism," Solyndra headquarters was raided by FBI agents on Thursday, as allegations were made that executives knowingly misled the government in an attempt to swindle $535 million in federal loan guarantees. FBI spokesman Peter Lee said the investigation commenced following a request by Energy Department inspector general Gregory Friedman, who alleged that the department’s clean-energy loan program lacks "transparency and accountability." The investigation launched a week after the Silicon Valley solar company filed bankruptcy, which resulted in immediate layoffs for 1,100 workers. The company has gleaned raving reviews from the Obama administration, as the President branded the company as a poster child for clean energy: "Companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future."

Nearly 80 percent of likely American voters believe in the healing power of prayer, according to a recent poll conducted by Fox News. The findings could be significant as a stable of mostly Christian Republican presidential candidates compete for the right to challenge Barak Obama in the 2012 presidential election. A full 77 percent of Americans believe that “prayers can help someone heal from an injury or illness, while 20 percent don’t believe that,” reported Fox of its phone survey, conducted in late August. “The remaining 3 percent are unsure.” Fox found that the groups most likely to believe in the healing power of prayer “include those who regularly attend religious services (93 percent), white evangelical Christians (91 percent), blacks (89 percent), conservatives (85 percent), and those who are part of the Tea Party movement (84 percent).”

Although better remembered today for his tales of the mythical land of Narnia, the so-called “Space Trilogy” of C. S. Lewis has remained of great interest to students of the thought of the Oxford don who moonlighted as a Christian apologist. A generation ago, Lewis’ nonfiction works such as Mere Christianity and Surprised by Joy were of primary significance for those individuals engaged in substantive reflection on his thought. Nevertheless, the fictional works that gave expression to Lewis’ worldview never lagged far behind in sales and readership. In fact, today Lewis’ apologetic writings have been eclipsed in the public spotlight by his works of fiction, even as he remains prominent among in the ranks of the 20th century Christian apologists.  

In his talk on Thursday to the Economic Club of Minneapolis, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned the Congressional Supercommittee not to cut government spending by too much, and that if the economy continues to slide into another recession, the Fed has tools to meet the challenge. Speaking over the heads of his audience directly to the Supercommittee, Bernanke warned that “while prompt and decisive action to put the government’s finances on a sustainable trajectory is urgently needed, fiscal policymakers [i.e., you members of the Supercommittee] should not, as a consequence, disregard the fragility of the economic recovery.” In other words, it’s OK to do a little nibbling around the edges of government spending, but anything that would cut such spending seriously needs to be avoided altogether, at least until the economy gets back on its feet.  And that’s the problem. With the economy stalled, consumer spending slowing, factory production dropping, job growth at zero, 14 million Americans unemployed, jobless claims increasing, 42 million on food stamps, and consumer and investor confidence at its lowest levels in years, jumpstarting the economy is going to be a Herculean task even for the Fed.

An Illinois appeals court has ruled against a woman who sued a Planned Parenthood clinic because it did not inform her that the abortion she requested would take a human life. As reported by LifeSiteNews.com, “The plaintiff, identified only as Mary Doe, had an abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Chicago in 2004, before which she says she had specifically asked a clinic counselor if her unborn child was a human being. Two years later, she filed a malpractice action against the clinic based upon the fact that the counselor had erroneously told her no.” On August 22, the First District Appellate Court dismissed the case, affirming a lower court decision. “No court, regardless of where it sits, has found a common law duty requiring doctors to tell their pregnant patients that aborting an embryo, or fetus, is the killing of an existing human being,” wrote Justice Rodolfo Garcia wrote in a 16-page court opinion, as reported by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. Garcia said the “negative answer from the Planned Parenthood counselor to the plaintiff’s question of whether ‘there was already a human being in existence’ during the plaintiff’s intake evaluation simply reflects the opinion of Planned Parenthood on when life begins.” He wrote that it was clear from the consent form the plaintiff signed that she knew “there was going to be a termination of pregnancy and that she would not have a child.”

Hundreds of protestors from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) breached the Port of Longview in Washington state, dumping grain, damaging railroad cars, and assaulting security guards. After tearing down the port’s gates early Thursday morning, 500 Longshoremen workers trashed the guard shack and held six port guards hostage. The turmoil began Wednesday night when Longview’s first grain shipment arrived. Led by ILWU President Robert McEllrath, union demonstrators obstructed the shipment by blocking the tracks, which resulted in 19 arrests and a violation of a federal restraining order lodged against the union last week for death threats and physical assaults. Ironically, the incident stemmed from a union shop hiring a contractor that staffs other union laborers, but the ILWU believes it should still have the right to work at the facility.  

With "gun control" a popular rallying cry for liberals across the country, it seemed only a matter of time before they turned their attention to other items that are potentially dangerous. Lawmakers in Boston are now looking to restrict the sale of pocketknives. The city of Boston has witnessed over 1,300 knife attacks over the course of the last two years. Politicians in Boston now believe that by restricting the sale of pocketknives, these stabbings will decrease. On Thursday, the Public Safety Committee of the Boston City Council began holding a hearing on whether they should license the sale of knives in the city of Boston. According to the Boston City Council, the purpose of the hearing is as follows:

Liberals often tout themselves as the epitome of tolerance, which makes the production of a video game entitled “Tea Party Zombies Must Die,” by StarvingEyes Advergaming, all the more confusing. In the new game, players are encouraged to shoot such Tea Party favorites as Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and many others, some of which do not exactly fit the criteria of the Tea Party movement but who appear in the game nonetheless. The Blaze reports: In a new online game created by liberals titled “Tea Party Zombies Must Die” players can live out your most vicious fantasy by gunning down prominent conservatives with an Uzi. Among the “zombies” available for slaughter: Glenn Beck, Brit Hume, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich and the Koch brothers. Players begin the game with just a crowbar as their weapon, but as they work their way up through the different levels, they acquire different guns until they reach the uzi.

Most members of the Tea Party movement reject the idea that global warming is real, according to a new survey conducted by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. Its report, Politics and Global Warming, states 53 percent of Tea Party members say global warming is not happening. Surveyors interviewed 1,010 adults from across the nation earlier this year, identifying them as Democrat, Republican, Independent, or Tea Party members. The latter made up 12 percent of respondents, while Democrats held the plurality at 39 percent. The majority of the other three groups believe global warming is indeed happening, but Democrats are the only group with a majority — 62 percent — who name human activities as the culprit. Fifty-one percent of Tea Party respondents say they are not at all worried about global warming and believe it will never harm people in the United States or around the world. In contrast, 72 percent of Democrats worry about it, and 45 percent say it is already harming people.  

When the government infringes upon Second Amendment rights through regulation and harsh gun control, it is accused of violating one’s right to self-defense. There is no greater example of this violation, however, than when the federal government attempted to punish a man for killing a grizzly bear that threatened his life and the lives of his family. Fortunately, when the story was publicized and received a great deal of negative media attention, federal prosecutors decided to drop the charges. Idaho resident Jeremy Hill faced trial after he killed a grizzly bear that came into his yard on May 8. According to Hill, his six children were playing in their yard when three grizzly bears — a mother and her two cubs — entered the property. The children called to their father who was inside of his home. He immediately came out with a rifle. According to neighbors of the Hill family, the bears had visited several properties that day before their stop at the Hill home.