Did you see the photograph of Senator John McCain playing poker on his iPhone during the Senate hearings on whether or not the United States should take military action in Syria? He was supposed to be listening to testimony from Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey…
so it was no biggie…instead he decided to relieve his boredom by playing video poker.
Obviously talking and listening are so last century and so borrrr-ring that no one is doing it anymore…especially when there are just so many alternatives available to help us avoid it.
And After all it was just a hearing on the President’s call for military action against another country!
And I doubt the good senator was worried about being tested on anything that the secretaries of State, Defense and the Joint Chiefs might have said. Since he had already made up his mind on how he was going to vote he didn’t think that any new info would make a difference…where have I heard that one before?
And if afterwards he had been asked to take a test as to the content of the testimony he was supposed to be listening to…How do you think he would have scored on that test?
Now imagine that the responsibility for his score would not have rested on himself or even his parents, who should have made him leave his damn phone home, but rather on the shoulders of Secretaries Kerry and Hagel and General Dempsey, who would then all receive a cut in salary and benefits, a reprimand for not knowing their subject matter, and then have to attend a seminar on “How to talk more entertainingly so that others will listen”…
And of course a more rigorous, more extensive and more expensive test would have to be developed to try and figure out why Senator McCain just won’t learn.
Next will come the Charter Senates that won’t be for all Senators or Congressmen but which will help demonstrate that longer hours, more dedicated speakers… and love… are what will help make U.S. Senators better achievers and in the immortal words of former President George W. Bush, better deciders.
And in the end?
We’re just gonna bomb the crap out of Syria anyway!
So let’s play some video poker!
Which I think is what Senator McCain was doing in the first place.
Now you know what America’s teachers are up against on a daily basis…