Everybody Loves a Puppet Show

I have two memories from very early childhood. And nearly 50 years ago, neither had anything to do with the other, but times have changed . . . I, like many children, had a real fascination and enjoyment with puppets. They were just fun. There was Sherri Lewis and lambchop. There was Tory Southwick and Gus, don't forget Kukla, Fran, and Ollie; and there was my toybox and my vivid imagination. My second memory is distinctly different. I remember the Kennedy / Nixon debate in 1960. I realize many Americans remember that famous debate, but I was born in 1958. In 1960, I had no idea how connected those two trenchant memories would become in the 21st Century. It would appear that most of our leaders also enjoyed the shows that focused on puppets. Here, it is Tuesday night and Capitol Hill is supposed to be an all night debate, but it's already been reported that there are cots, so it just sounds like a theatrical sleep-over to me. I've read some very interesting information regarding PM Al-Maliki. He seems pretty confident that America can stay or go, he's rather indifferent to our national division over his claim to "sovereignty" with his inability to maintain his country. Besides, his government is going on vacation next month, as is our Congress. Don't you wonder what the next puppet feature will be? The only independent decision Iraq seems to be able to make and carry out, is capital punishment. And the Bush followers can't see the puppet government in that, at all. Next in the news is all this talk about impending doom at the hands of terrorists, with alQaida central, supposedly now in Iraq. Well, America has given them a wonderful headquarters and recruiting station in Iraq, and the entire Iraqi government will be "out of town" next month. I keep reading about Taliban and alQaida training camps in Pakistan, yet the Pakistani leader is our ally? Isn't it at least time for an intermission on that show? We knew binLaden was headed to Pakistan shortly after 9/11, but our leadership opted to go to Iraq instead of Pakistan. Obviously, if binLaden was a real issue, there would have been a different choice and direction in '02, and clearly in '03, but then that would change the theatre of fear here on the homefront, now wouldn't it . . . How would the people continue to be led to cower in fear, if the dastardly villian, binLaden, were captured? That would make the puppet show end too quickly! And I noticed today that the Bancroft family is, after all, considering Murdoch's offer for the Dow Jones. So, we'll have a new theater soon, and the props have already been "raised" into place. Remember how Kukla and Ollie used to "thump" each other through the program? Now, consider our cast for this puppet theater: Rupert Murdoch, News Corp., FOXNews, the Dow Jones including the Wall Street Journal, and FEATURING: "fair talk" radio "persecution" vs. Ted Turner, CNN, Hollywood, Michael Moore, and THE "liberal media" . . . I'm here to tell you, in 1960 there was no comparison to politics and a puppet show!
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. New Testament