The Whistling Kettle

We spend countless hours scrolling through our Facebook accounts, Twitter feeds, Instagrams, and Snapchats. Has all of this scrolling impacted how we view the world and find out what's happening? An increasing number of people are stating that they use social media as their primary source for news. In a changing world, should this fact be scary or normal? The cup's a little half empty, half full about this situation. Part of me is a little scared of this fact simply because I understand how much "fake news" exists and how gullible people can be. I will formally raise my hand for being gullible and clicking the link that supposedly goes to the article about Channing Tatum getting a divorce. No, he is still married. Yes, I did feel like an idiot. Also, my fiance got a little offended. The "fake news" can be a little humorous when it's something like that. However, when the news sounds real, looks real, and feels real, people are most likely going to be...

Recently, Gen. Dunford, the top US general, said that policies will not change regarding transgender individuals serving in the military. Controversy surrounds the idea of those who are transgender no matter what topic we're talking about. Look at the Target bathroom scare that happened recently. Honestly, I'm more scared of using a public restroom because of what might be lurking in the toilet or the door handle than who's using the stall next to me. Anyways, controversy follows those who choose the transgender lifestyle for reasons that I don't understand especially when trying to serve in the military. The media paints two very different pictures of those who are transgender according to which channel you're on. A more conservative outlet paints them as freaks who will rape our children and ruin our country. I'm sorry but no that's not accurate at all. A more liberal outlet will portray them as people who are just trying to live their lives. Yeah, tha...

On Sunday, my various social media feeds were full of tweets, posts, and pictures with #TakeAKnee. Of course, the fact that I work, work, work, work everyday and don't have much time for politics caused me to go: Take a what?  Therefore, I started clicking on articles and checking out various Facebook posts to find out what was happening. As it turns out, #TakingAKnee during the National Anthem was a form of protesting violence against African Americans by Police and supporting the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The President of the United States tweeted about how disrespectful and un-American this act was and bashing the NFL for allowing it to happen. I don't have any interest in football and sports. Never have and probably never will. But this act was pure brilliance and here's why: The amount of publicity achieved by #TakeAKnee was immense. Whether a media outlet supported or didn't support the protest, they were still talking about it. They were stil...

Hurricane Maria completely devastated Puerto Rico and left a trail of devastation, fatalities, and no resources to this country. Although Maria has lost strength and is only a tropical storm, now we must try to help those in the middle of the ruins of Puerto Rico. The question is: How do you solve a problem like Maria? (Of course, this is a song from The Sound of Music used in a completely different context but...) You solve a problem like Maria by doing our best as a country to help those in need get the resources that are necessary in order to survive. When Hurricane Irma left Florida and Georgia with serious damage, resources such as clean water, linemen, food, temporary shelter were given to these people because Americans take care of each other. When Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas, Americans and the President were ready to help others recover from the devastation. However, as Puerto Rico has suffered Hurricane Maria, Trump has only held a press conference saying our tho...

As I said in my first post, I'm not one to ever talk about politics or share my opinions about what's going on in D.C. However, recently, if I scroll through my news feed on Facebook or turn on the news, the phrase "President Donald Trump said..." makes me stir my tea and take a big gulp as I prepare to find out what he's said. Today, a transcript of a telephone call between President Trump and the Phillipines President was released stating that he was bragging about two submarines off of the coast of North Korea. I almost spit my sleepy time tea out as I wondered how Mr. Trump thought disclosing this information was the right thing to do especially since now the positions of those subs are compromised. Through his Twitter posts, since he has almost completely cut the media out of any correspondence with the general public, one can see that Trump does not quite know when to shut up.  I will say that for the most part I am a conservative republican wh...