The Grind at McCarthy's Brings A Reawakening

I've lived in Aurora, Colorado for sixteen years, eight of which I've legally been allowed to drink. Tonight, for the first time I went to McCarthy's, a bar which I've driven past, literally thousands of times.

I have a few spots I normally hit, those who know me well know the specific one I at least used to be a regular at, but tonight I just needed somewhere different to grab a drink at. So McCarthy's it was, and I'm glad for that decision.

The atmosphere was decent, fairly busy thanks to it being a Friday night, and a band was warming up when I got there. I sat at an empty seat at the bar and ordered a drink, which was priced about what I expected for the area. Was figuring on only the one drink as I knew I needed to come do some writing and get up early for work, but kept my tab open anyways.

Then the band started, apparently a well known band, at least to McCarthy's crowd, called The Grind. They looked like a middle aged biker/garage band, and I wasn't expecting much other than some decent music. However, it was how they opened that made me an instant fan.

The Grind could've opened with any well known song, that every band covers, and made everyone at the bar happy with them. But no, that's not what they did. Instead, they started the night off by doing a very good rock version of The Star Spangled Banner.

Their opening that way caused me to order a second drink, and stay for a bit longer to enjoy their music. In fact I found myself wishing I could stay for the night, and keep listening to them as they were pretty good. On another night, when I have the time, I hope I'll catch The Grind playing again at McCarthy's.

However, more than playing good music, with some good drinks, something more important happened to me tonight. Their starting with The Star Spangled Banner reminded me of something, I've been missing. Twitter and Facebook aren't the only places I can find people that love this county. It can be found anywhere in this country, as long as you remember to look. The individual patriotic citizen is what makes this country great, even more so than the arguing masses ever can.

A random band, playing at a random bar, opening with our national anthem also awoke in me a reminder of part of me that I've been ignoring. I love blogging. I have since I first tried, but I've become too busy with working, and writing for other parts of this site to do it much. For this I must apologize to those of you who have been here since I was just a little blog site fighting for a hundred views a month, rather than the thousand plus I get a day. I ask you to keep me accountable and encourage me to keep making every part of TORARADICALcom a place you want to come read.

For awhile I've known that I need to get back to the basics, without losing what the site has expanded to. Yet it took a local band playing the anthem to make me sit down and write an actual blog. God works in such mysterious ways, does He not?

Police Helicopter Crashes Into Glasgow Club

A police helicopter crashed into a Glasgow, Scotland club, on Friday night.

At least one hundred and twenty people were in The Clutha, when the crash occurred, with three people aboard the helicopter.

Dozens were injured, with little information yet being known if there was any fatalities.

A neighboring Holiday Inn Express was taken over as an emergency treatment center.

One hundred and twenty-five firefighters were called in to deal with the emergency situation.

Witnesses say that the helicopter lost power, just before crashing.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Police in Ukraine Crack Down on Protesters

Police in the Ukraine cracked down on protesters, on Friday.

Thousands have been protesting, demanding that the government join the EU.

Many Ukrainians fear that the government has fallen prey to Russian influence, and worry about losing their independence.

On Friday night, the police moved in and ended the mass protests.

Police attacked with tear gas and beat protesters with batons.

Dozens were injured and dozens more arrested at Independence Square in Kiev, where nearly thirteen thousand had been protesting for a week.

The story was repeated across the country, and in other parts of the capital.

US Backs Down Over Pressure From China

Just three days after showing military might in the face of Chinese imperialism, the US has backed down.

On Saturday, November 23, China declared a new air defense area, and demanded that all aircraft ask permission from Beijing, to fly into the area.

The new area included part of Japan's sovereign territory, and was quickly refuted by Japan and her US allies.

It was then mocked on Tuesday, when US aircraft flew through the zone, without even notifying Chinese officials.

This was followed by several flights of Japanese military aircraft.

However, on Friday, the US government bowed to pressure from China, and ordered US forces to seek clearance from China, before flying into the region.

This new decision shows US weakness and encourages China to press it's claims into the area, at the expense of Japan.