World War II 'Battle of the Bulge' began this date: Dec. 16, 1944 -- with personal story of a veteran who was there.

World War II 'Battle of the Bulge' began this date: Dec. 16, 1944

On this day, the Germans launch the last major offensive of the war, Operation Mist, also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge, so-called because the Germans created a "bulge" around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line, was the largest fought on the Western front.
The Germans threw 250,000 soldiers into the initial assault, 14 German infantry divisions guarded by five panzer divisions-against a mere 80,000 Americans. Their assault came in early morning at the weakest part of the Allied line, an 80-mile poorly protected stretch of hilly, woody forest (the Allies simply believed the Ardennes too difficult to traverse, and therefore an unlikely location for a German offensive). Between the vulnerability of the thin, isolated American units and the thick fog that prevented Allied air cover from discovering German movement, the Germans were able to push the Americans into retreat.

Massive loss of American and civilian life
The battle raged for three weeks, resulting in a massive loss of American and civilian life. Nazi atrocities abounded, including the murder of 72 American soldiers by SS soldiers in the Ardennes town of Malmedy. Historian Stephen Ambrose estimated that by war's end, "Of the 600,000 GIs involved, almost 20,000 were killed, another 20,000 were captured, and 40,000 were wounded." The United States also suffered its second-largest surrender of troops of the war: More than 7,500 members of the 106th Infantry Division capitulated at one time at Schnee Eifel. The devastating ferocity of the conflict also made desertion an issue for the American troops; General Eisenhower was forced to make an example of Private Eddie Slovik, the first American executed for desertion since the Civil War. The war would not end until better weather enabled American aircraft to bomb and strafe German positions. The date was 25 January 1945.

Patriotic 85-year-old World War II veteran talks about 'The Greatest Generation': Robert T. Bradacich fought in Battle of the Bulge

(Article posted in Examiner Wilmington NC June 13, 2010 12:30 AM MST)

 By Verne Strickland   

Bob was attending the grand opening of an expanded headquarters space for Pantano for Congress -- GOP nominee for North Carolina’s Seventh District of the U.S. Congress.

“I don’t have much time left,” said 85-year-old Robert T. (Bob) Bradicich.
It was a candid “open microphone” comment before I went into an interview with this World War II veteran at a campaign event for Ilario Pantano. I knew what Bob meant, and it broke my heart.
Ilario had introduced us moments before, saying, “Bob’s an amazing guy and a great friend. He’s been there.”
“There” was Bob’s war. Normandy shortly after the D-Day landings. The liberation of Paris. Fighting through Belgium and Luxembourg. The Seigfried Line. The Battle of the Bulge.. The German blitzkrieg.
Many times, on many a chaotic battlefield, Bob – in those earlier times, in his youth -- had thought the same words that slipped out just before our interview: “I don’t have much time left.” That was in war. Now, in 2010, it is not war, but age that is stalking him.
A total of 16,112,566 individuals were members of the United States armed forces during World War II. There were 291,557 battle deaths, 113,842 other deaths in service (non-theater), and 671,846 non-mortal woundings. As of September 30, 2009, there were approximately 2,272,000 American veterans still living.
The ranks of these survivors are thinning at an increasing rate. Approximately 850 American World War II veterans die every day. The median age for a World War II veteran in February 2009 was 86 years.
So I sat with this wonderful unassuming American hero – a plain-spoken New Yorker now living in Wilmington – a dues-paying member of the Greatest Generation, aptly named by Tom Brokaw.
As an active and enthusiastic volunteer for Ilario Pantano, Bob speaks to groups about the war. He wants them to know what it was like. Not to shame them, but to remind them of the price of freedom.

 “I talk about the sailors at sea, whose ship goes down, and lay in unmarked graves under the ocean, and the airmen shot down, and for me, as an infantryman. I told them that when I dig a foxhole, I don’t know if that’s going to be my grave or not. I may have dug a hundred foxholes in France, and had the same thought every time.”
Bob’s humility is genuine and endearing.
“After I got through with my talk, the people applauded. That surprised me. But it was great to know they understood. That meant a lot to me.”
Why is this remarkable American patriot at a campaign program for a Republican candidate approximately fifty years younger than he is?
“I’m here because I believe in what Ilario Pantano stands for. The United States is losing a lot of our freedoms, and I want Ilario to go to the U.S. Congress and get America back to its roots – a country of the people, by the people, and for the people – so that we can live in peace again. And may that happen. Oh, God, I hope it does.”
Bob wrote a book. It’s a good one. Honest, matter-of-fact, full of his personal stories of battles -- horror, loss, victories, courage, and his buddies in the 28th Infantry Division. Some survived. Many didn’t.
“I’m not a hero,” Bob reminded. “The heroes are the ones who didn’t return. They paid dearly. I just gave them time. Yes, I was fighting over there. But they gave everything. I came back.”
This is a statement made by many survivors of combat. There is almost a hint of guilt that they did not die too. Maybe those who returned from any and every war will never be totally relieved of this feeling while on this earth. It’s futile to tell them otherwise – that they fought valiantly, and owe nothing more. But they do know and respond graciously to true expressions of appreciation.
We owe them this.

                                                             **************************
“World War II, As I Lived It”, by Robert T. Bradicich, is the story of Mr. Bradicich’s experiences in World War II, in Europe, 1943 – 1945, while serving as a rifleman with the 28th Division, 110th Regimental Combat Team, Company ‘E’ ASN 32885196. It is a compelling personal story, and is illustrated with both color and black-and-white photographs. Copyright @ 2000 by Robert Bradicich. For information about copies, contact the author at     Bobb7@atmc.net.

Pakistan Taliban: Peshawar school attack leaves 141 dead. Oh, no!

16 December 2014 BBC Last updated at 13:09 ET

Pakistan Taliban: Peshawar school attack leaves 141 dead -- Oh no!

(This is an extensive report from BBC on this horrendous attack by muslim terrorists. Please stick it out if you can. The coverage, which is warranted by the scope of this senseless terrorist carnage, is impressive. Also covered today on FOX.)

Verne Strickland: This report really made me catch my breath. I have a close personal relationship via FB with a devout Christian gentlemen in that country. He heads a Christian school in a location I won't divulge at this moment. Many FB colleagues in the U.S. know, support, and pray for this courageous man. My prayer at this time is that the mission has escaped attack and carnage. It is unthinkable that this should be otherwise. God bless you, my dear Christian friend. I know that the alarm, which has been constant, has been ratcheted up exponentially. We do pray for your safety and well-being.

One 13-year-old hospital patient tells the BBC's Shaimaa Khalil "they were firing...I was hiding under a chair."

Militants from the Pakistani Taliban have attacked a military-run school in Peshawar, killing 141 people, 132 of them children, the military say.

Officials say the attack in the north-western city is over, with all the attackers killed. Seven militants took part in all, according to the army.
Scores of survivors are being treated in hospitals as frantic parents search for news of their children.
The attack - the Taliban's deadliest in Pakistan - has been widely condemned.
There has been chaos outside hospital units to which casualties were taken, the BBC's Shaimaa Khalil reports from Peshawar.
Bodies have been carried out of hospitals in coffins, escorted by crowds of mourners, some of them wracked by tears.

Coffins were carried out of Peshawar hospitals

Empty coffins were delivered to a hospital in Peshawar in readiness for the removal of the dead

School pupil Mohammad Baqair lost his mother, a teacher, in the attack

A Taliban spokesman told BBC Urdu that the school, which is run by the army, had been targeted in response to army operations.
Hundreds of Taliban fighters are thought to have died in a recent military offensive in North Waziristan and the nearby Khyber area.
US President Barack Obama said terrorists had "once again shown their depravity" while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said it was "an act of horror and rank cowardice to attack defenceless children while they learn".

Analysis: Aamer Ahmed Khan, BBC News This brutal attack may well be a watershed for a country long accused by the world of treating terrorists as strategic assets.
Pakistan's policy-makers struggling to come to grips with various shades of militants have often cited a "lack of consensus" and "large pockets of sympathy" for religious militants as a major stumbling-block.
That is probably why, when army chief Gen Raheel Sharif launched what he called an indiscriminate operation earlier in the year against militant groups in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, the political response was lukewarm at best.
We will get them, was his message, be they Pakistani Taliban, Punjabi Taliban, al-Qaeda and affiliates, or most importantly, the dreaded Haqqani network. But the country's political leadership chose to remain largely silent. This is very likely to change now.

Anxious family members crowded around Peshawar hospitals

Troops helped evacuate children from the school

A total of 114 people were injured

As the day drew to an end, military spokesman Asim Bajwa told reporters in Peshawar that 132 children and nine members of staff had been killed.
All seven of the attackers wore suicide bomb vests, he said. Scores of people were also injured.
It appears the militants scaled walls to get into the school and set off a bomb at the start of the assault.
Children who escaped say the militants then went from one classroom to another, shooting indiscriminately.
One boy told reporters he had been with a group of 10 friends who tried to run away and hide. He was the only one to survive.
Others described seeing pupils lying dead in the corridors. One local woman said her friend's daughter had escaped because her clothing was covered in blood from those around her and she had lain pretending to be dead.

Deadly attacks in Pakistan

16 December 2014: Taliban attack on school in Peshawar leaves at least 141 people dead, 132 of them children
22 September 2013: Militants linked to the Taliban kill at least 80 people at a church in Peshawar, in one of the worst attacks on Christians
10 January 2013: Militant bombers target the Hazara Shia Muslim minority in the city of Quetta, killing 120 at a snooker hall and on a street
28 May 2010: Gunmen attack two mosques of the minority Ahmadi Islamic sect in Lahore, killing more than 80 people
18 October 2007: Twin bomb attack at a rally for Benazir Bhutto in Karachi leaves at least 130 dead. Unclear if Taliban behind attack

A hospital doctor treating injured children said many had head and chest injuries.
Irshadah Bibi, a woman who lost her 12-year-old son, was seen beating her face in grief, throwing herself against an ambulance.
"O God, why did you snatch away my son?" AFP news agency quoted her as saying.

Some of the injured were carried to hospital in people's arms

Both girls and boys went to the school

Troops sealed off the area around the school

The school is near a military complex in Peshawar. The city, close to the Afghan border, has seen some of the worst of the violence during the Taliban insurgency in recent years.
Many of the students were the children of military personnel. Most of them would have been aged 16 or under.

Hundreds of parents are outside the school waiting for news of their children, according to Wafis Jan from the Red Crescent
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Mohammad Khurasani said the militants had been "forced" to launch the attack in response to army attacks.
Leading figures in Pakistan expressed grief and indignation

• Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai said she and millions of others would mourn the dead children, her "brothers and sisters", adding "we will never be defeated"

• Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke of a "national tragedy"
• Pakistani opposition leader and former cricket captain Imran Khan condemned the attack as "utter barbarism"

Are you in the area? Are you happy to speak to BBC News? Email your comment to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk please remember to include your contact details if you are happy to speak to a BBC journalist.
Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

12.12.14 via Verne Strickland

   Joe Biden: ‘I’ll Kill Your Son’

THE DAILY BEAST

In a speech Wednesday, the vice president recalled a moment from childhood when he ‘smashed [the] head’ of local bully—and then threatened to kill him.

Vice President Joe Biden said he once chased down a bully on his bicycle, physically assaulted him, and threatened to “kill” him—all in the name of protecting the honor of his sister Valerie.
Biden is, of course, famous for being a bit loose in his public remarks. But these comments, made Wednesday night in New York City, were particularly unbound.

The vice president was being honored by Vital Voices, a women’s rights charity, at their event “celebrat[ing] men who combat violence against women.” Biden spoke about standing up for women—both in his personal and professional lives. In doing so, the vice president delighted the audience with a personal anecdote from his childhood as Joey Biden.
“I remember coming back from Mass on Sunday,” Biden began. “Always the big treat was, we’d stop at the donut shop…We’d get donuts, and my dad would wait in the car. As I was coming out, my sister [Valerie] tugged on me and said, ‘That’s the boy who kicked me off my bicycle.’”
“So I went home—we only lived about a quarter mile away—and I got on my bicycle and rode back, and he was in the donut shop.”
Biden remembered the boy was in a physically vulnerable position: “leaning down on one of those slanted counters.”
Sensing his opportunity, Joey Biden pounced: “I walked up behind him and smashed his head next to the counter.”
“I’m not recommending it,” he added.

“I walked up behind him and smashed his head next to the counter.”

“His father grabbed me, and I looked at his son and said, ‘If you ever touch my sister again, I’ll come back here again and I’ll kill your son.’ Now, that was a euphemism. I thought I was really, really in trouble… My father never once raised his hand to any one of his children—never once—and I thought I was in trouble. He pulled me aside and said, ‘Joey, you shouldn’t do that, but I’m proud of you, son.’”
The point of the story, Biden informed his audience as he accepted his “Voice of Solidarity” award, was that he was raised to know that it was necessary to “speak up and speak out” to correct wrongdoings. (Full disclosure: The event was held at the headquarters of IAC, the corporate parent of The Daily Beast.) Vital Voices in 2013 took over funds from the Women In The World foundation which originated at The Daily Beast.

In telling the tale of testosterone and a truly American desire for justice joining to propel him on his bicycle to defeat the Bad Guy in the donut shop, the vice president appeared to merge with The Onion’s caricature of him—achieving a moment of Peak Biden, or the bro-like state of being visibly pleased with the degree to which you do not give a damn.
It would be difficult to imagine another politician of Biden’s stature telling this story. Biden, after all, is known for his unbuttoned comments from the podium.
He described then-candidate Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
He told a partially black crowd of Mitt Romney in 2012: “He is going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, unchain Wall Street. He is going to put y’all back in chains.”
And, during his 1988 presidential campaign, he plagiarized the life story of British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock and tried to pass it off as his own.
Which is a shame, in a sense. If Wednesday’s night’s remarks were any guide, Biden appears to have had a rather colorful upbringing of his own.

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PAT BUCHANAN: The next real discussion about race in America "must be a two-way conversation."

Verne Strickland  December 15, 2014

This is a personal letter sent to me via private message -- from a friend I admire and trust. I will not identify him unless he gives me leave to do that. This is an important view of history and deserves much widespread attention:

Hello Brother, don't know if you've seen this or.not. I got it from my Uncle who's a Republican Mayor of a little town near Charlottesville. He also retired CIA and as my favorite uncle I put a lot of stock in this wisdom of his 80 year old mind.
Here's the email:The White Side of the Story of Negroes









This is the reason CNN has dropped Buchanan. It's like Newt G. said,"You’re not supposed to bring up uncomfortable Facts."
(Verified on Buchanan’s website)

Finally. It is said publicly. I have never seen the white side explained better! Pat Buchanan had the guts to say it. It is about time!!

 Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America . Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation.

BUCHANAN TO OBAMA

By Patrick J. Buchanan


Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America . Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White
America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to. This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances, and demands heard.
And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew
into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever
known. Jeremiah Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food
stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits, and poverty programs
designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. Governments, businesses, and colleges have engaged in discrimination
against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants. Churches,
foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated their time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education,
day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.


We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?

Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks. Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown , and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how
many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for'deserving' white kids.

Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white
America ? Is it really white America's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70% and the black dropout rate from
high schools in some cities has reached 50%?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while
white criminals choose black victims 3% of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45% of the time?

Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in
The first three years of this decade as the reverse?

We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al Sharpton about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena . And all turned out to be hoaxes. But
about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.

Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago. This needs to be passed around because, this is a
message everyone needs to hear!!!

OK...........will you pass it on?

YES. I did but will you?

Because I'm for a better America.

I am Not racist, Not violent, Just not silent anymore.
Chat Conversation End

"BAD DREAM IS OVER; HOOPS DREAM ALIVE" is front page story for "STAR-NEWS". Where are our priorities?

 I will explain this below . . .



 By Verne Strickland
Conservative Curmudgeon

I have a confession to make. I was beginning to calm down on my chronic vendetta against our own personal community paper -- the vaunted "Star-News"

But all of that good will is now in the past. On this Sunday, the Lord's Day, when love should reign everywhere, this curious publication has featured this front page headline (in all caps, and in color): "BAD DREAM IS OVER; HOOPS DREAM ALIVE."

And that ain't all. That headline leads us to a photo of a girl named Jada Bacchus, and underneath that we are informed that: "Off team, Jada was ready to quit school too. But she perservered."

Then there's another photo (we're still on the front page, if you can believe it what I'm saying) showing Ashley senior Jada with her teammates and right hands over their respective hearts.

Then, after a little copy, there's a jump "See JADA 4A". And finally, people, we get to a two-page spread on the same topic. Now, look, I'm sure this young lady deserves a little praise (although I wasn't interested enough to wade through all the details to find out why) but I don't really that when we beat the evil Islamic Front so bad that they surrender and become Christians, or when Hillary gives up the cause and starts stumping for Vice President, or when UNC get a case of the guilts and stops cheating for black athletes -- in any one of those outstanding developments, I don't feel for a moment that the coverage will be more lavish, overblown and undeserved than this story was.

In her defense, this lovely young lady has had a tough time and deserves a break. I have no criticism of her, and do not want to rain on her parade. It's just that -- Damn, boy! Let's try to maintain our composure in the newspaper editor's office. This was just story overkill at its most murderous. 

People, where are our priorities in life? What has it come to, when a happy little feel-good offering like this goes in the same place that real headlines like this occupied way back in 1945:  "IT'S OVER. TRUMAN NUKES JAPAN. TOJO SURRENDERS!" No comparison at all, wouldn't you agree?

Look, put the sports stories on the sports page, along with "Seahawks head to Louisville", and "Wildcats topple Heels", and Oregon QB Mariota wins Heisman Trophy. (Now that last one is more worthy than 'BAD DREAM IS OVER'. And I say that because Marcus Mariota, while clearly deserving of the honor, is also white.

Okay, I know I'm a jerk. But I'm a conservative Christian patriotic jerk who can't wait for Obama to clear out his desk, and for Thom Tillis and David Rouzer to get sworn in so they can run roughsod over the mess that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid made of our beloved U.S. Congress.

Wouldn't you say that should count for something? We've said that our time is coming, and it won't be many days before it arrives.

And all liberal, lying, anti-America, pro-Socialist Democrats will get their comeuppance -- or at least some of it. That'll do for now.

And what will the headlines be on that day?

'I've Been Hacked, Censored and Misquoted by the Government or Facebook. Leave Me Alone.' Verne Strickland

By Verne Strickland 

Because I am raining such fire, brimstone and hell on these enemies of all things honorable and decent, I am being cyber-stalked, hacked, censored, and blocked from successfully publishing my best work.



Okay, friends -- first, thanks for backing me and encouraging me in this screwy situation where I find myself. Second, let's see where I might go from here.

Those of you who have followed this tawdry tale know that, as a conservative Christian patriotic writer, I set myself up for derision and scorn from people who don't think as I do. And there are countless people on Facebook who fit that category.

The derision and scorn don't bother me in the least. I've experienced it for years, and am used to it. This hasn't dissuaded me from doing what I am certain I was put here to do -- execute God's plan for me. And that is to glorify the Name of our Lord and introduce Him to those who are strangers to Him.

This plan places Satan right in the route that I am taking, and infuriates him no end. That's cool too. But lately he has devised clever ways to discourage me, to confuse and harass me, and marshal his sworn enemies to block my efforts.





That I don't like. Over the past couple of months, I have found my material -- which is invariably direct, hard-edged, and even insulting (to causes driven, fueled and supportive of those twisted souls who are anti-God, anti-America, anti-family, and vehemently against all things that are decent, praiseworthy and good) -- being altered, misdirected, and outright censored.

This is happening because I have worked hard to sharpen the aim of my verbal volleys, and to attract readers who want to see a viewpoint that puts the lie to radical left-wingers, communists, socialists, abortionists, and rabid followers of the false god Allah. And I'll say this -- with over forty years of experience, I have gotten damn good at my craft. I am proud of that.

So what exactly is happening? Because I am raining such fire, brimstone and hell on these enemies of all things honorable and decent, I am being cyber-stalked, hacked, censored, and blocked from successfully publishing my best work.

Most of the problems are showing up on Facebook, where I am very active, have a good, loyal following, and appear to be hitting the hot buttons of those whose causes I least admire.

Most recently, as it became more and more difficult to publish, save and share my posts, I was surprised to find to find this intimidating notice:

"The Department of Homeland Security, under the authority of the Cyber-Intelligence and Protection Act, has informed us that your facebook account may contain material that the U.S. Government finds threatening to national security. Your complete history is being send to the F.B.I. for review."

Wow. Stern words. Not a veiled threat, but a direct one. How shall I respond? Not guilty. In addition, I can honestly say that I have never published anything even vaguely threatening to national security. To the contrary, I have sought to do everything possible to keep Barack Obama, his administration, and pacifist liberals in both houses of the U.S. Congress, from ripping to shreds the national security we have left.

I am proud and grateful to have received many posts from Facebook patriots of like mind, assuring me of their support, and their coaching on how I can avoid being hacked by liberal shills of left-wing politics.

Hacking is criminal. It is invading the sacrosanct archives of national intelligence at the highest level. None of these secrets will be found in the pieces I write. But what will be found -- and this shouldn't be a secret -- is a devout and forthright expression of derision for "Big Brother" tactics such as I am experiencing.

This is not my last salvo on this subject. I will not be silenced. I will not be cowed into writing with less energy and conviction. As, as God is my witness, I will not be silent in the face of threats -- from government or private sector -- against my God or my country.

Leave me alone. I have work to do.

Verne Strickland, Wilmington NC  12/13/14

*Update: Department of Homeland Security reports NC blogger Verne Strickland for 'threatening' post!

By Verne Strickland, December 16, 2014





Anyone else getting this?

Now how about  them apples? Targeted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under the authority of the Cyber Intelligence and Protection Act (CISPA) for posts on my Facebook account that "may  contain material that the U.S. Government finds threatening to national security."

Me? Verne Strickland? Eagle Scout? Former choir boy in the Episcopal Church? Award-winning farm editor at WRAL-TV; family man -- three fine sons, married for 54 years to same wonderful wife; grandfather. Conservative Christian blogger, with heavy traffic on posts about dishonesty and cheating in government, threats to the nation from muslim sharia, terrorism, immorality of abortion, anti-Christ rhetoric and violence, racial tensions, 2014 elections with GOP takeover of U.S. House and Senate, Benghazi scandal and cover-up, the lies of climate change radicals, Obama's destruction of U.S. security, economy, and national well-being, and many more. These hard-hitting posts by Verne Strickland for USA DOT COM have been followed and praised by loyal readers grateful for the truths laid bare and facts offered.

In a sense, it is no wonder that bold comments and opinions on what ails America and who's responsible would be painful to liberals, atheists, socialists, atheists and others in our society and one-sided media.

But in our free society, foremost among a dwindling few on earth, it could almost be thought as criminal, scandalous and sick to discourage, alter and censor the work of  an honest Christmas American who, like the national icon Paul Revere, is only striving -- but mightily and with passion, to keep the passions of modern-day patriots burning.

And this is why it is so puzzling to be aware of the efforts of anti-American citizens in the nation today -- to squelch the honest opinions of writer Verne Strickland and many others who are only exercising their right to free speech. That trend of Big Brother tactics is growing, it's vicious, and it's scary.