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Just in time for Halloween, that “Mysterious and spooky …all together ooky” all-Un-American family, the Addams, are back. The Addams Family originally appeared in Charles Addams’ one-panel cartoons in The New Yorker magazine in 1938. In that franchise tradition of never letting a profitable brand name go to waste, the bizarre members of this clan with a supernatural vibe have appeared in numerous iterations, including a 1964-1966 ABC-TV sitcom; big screen, live action feature films; animated TV series and movies; and in 2010, a Broadway musical.

Children of my Gaza refugee camp were rarely afraid of monsters but of Israeli soldiers. This is all that we talked about before going to bed. Unlike imaginary monsters in the closet or under the bed, Israeli soldiers are real, and they could show up any minute - at the door, on the roof or, as was often the case, right in the middle of the house.  

The game may be almost over.

Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S.Davies put it this way:

“The irresolvable dilemma facing Western leaders is that this is a no-win situation. How can they militarily defeat Russia, when it possesses 6,000 nuclear warheads and its military doctrine explicitly states that it will use them before it will accept an existential military defeat?”

This month marks the 75th anniversary of the start of the Hollywood Blacklist. On October 27, 1947, screenwriter John Howard Lawson, the first member of what came to be known as the “Hollywood Ten,” testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee. (See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7W3XbDZqO4.) The contentious, testy testimony before a gavel-banging Congressman in Washington launched the Hollywood Blacklist, wherein members of the motion picture industry who refused to “cooperate” with HUAC by informing on themselves and others about their leftist politics were forbidden from working in the movies until roughly 1960, when the Hollywood Ten’s Dalton Trumbo received screen credits under his real name (instead of a pseudonym) for writing Spartacus and Exodus.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Mass cremations lit up the night sky on Tuesday (October 11) in northeast Thailand during Buddhist funerals for 36 people, including 24 children, massacred by a ranting x-cop.

Dead children were dressed in newly-tailored clothes of their fantasy careers, including tiny white coats and uniforms for those who hoped to be doctors or nurses, military uniforms for would-be soldiers, or civilian outfits if they fancied becoming teachers or other work.

Local Buddhist temples refused to cremate the killer's corpse, so it was secretly burned at a temple elsewhere in a ceremony attended by a handful of his relatives.

The king arranged "royally-sponsored cremations" at three main Buddhist temples in and around Uthai Sawan town where the slaughter took place.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha flew to the small town to meet relatives and survivors, and led the main cremation ceremony.

Smaller cremations were being held at other nearby Buddhist temples where relatives also brought corpses in coffins.

Mourners suffered remembering the horror.

One of the most conspiracy-minded “con artists” who sought to elevate and enrich himself by posing as a technical expert during the Arizona Senate GOP’s flawed review of the 2020 presidential election is returning to Maricopa County on October 1, where he is pushing a new – and easily-debunked – conspiracy theory about how 2020 votes were forged.

I’ve been haunted by a phrase for almost a month now: “morality police.”

The news has been global. A 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, was arrested as she was leaving a subway station in Tehran on September 13 by an Iranian police unit known as the Islamic guidance patrol, a.k.a., the morality police, because she was an inappropriately dressed female. Maybe her hair was showing. Who knows?

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid threw a wrench into the works when he declared from the United Nations General Assembly podium: “An agreement with the Palestinians, based on two states for two peoples, is the right thing for Israel’s security, for Israel’s economy and for the future of our children.”

 The statement took many by surprise, including the Palestinian leadership. 

 Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has been addressing the UNGA every September, every year, recycling the same speech about how he has fulfilled his commitments to peace and that it is Israel that needs to engage in serious negotiations toward a two-state solution. 

The 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly was, in many ways, similar to the 76th session and many other previous sessions: at best, a stage for rosy rhetoric that is rarely followed by tangible action or, at worse, a mere opportunity for some world leaders to score political points against their opponents. 

 This should surprise no one. For many years, the UN has been relegated to the role of either a cheerleader for the policy of great powers, or a timid protester of sociopolitical, economic or gender inequalities. Alas, as the Iraq war proved nearly thirty years ago, and as the Russia-Ukraine war is proving today, the UN seems the least effective party in bringing about global peace, equality and security for all. 

The arrest of a prominent Palestinian activist, Musab Shtayyeh, and another Palestinian activist, by Palestinian Authority police on September 20 was not the first time that the notorious PA’s Preventive Security Service (PSS) has arrested a Palestinian who is wanted by Israel.

 PSS is largely linked to the routine arrests and torture of anti-Israeli occupation activists. Several Palestinians have died in the past as a result of PSS violence, the latest being Nizar Banat who was tortured to death on June 24, 2021. The killing of Banat ignited a popular revolt against the PA throughout Palestine.