UN: Israel Is Committing War Crimes!

Crimes against humanity.

The Associated Press reports that the U.N.'s top human rights official demanded Wednesday that all sides in the two-week war in the Gaza Strip refrain from indiscriminate attacks on civilians, warning that violations may amount to war crimes.

The warning by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay came at a special meeting of the U.N.'s top human rights body, which voted 29-1 to authorize an international commission of inquiry to investigate all alleged abuses since mid-June in the Gaza Strip.

Only the United States voted against the resolution championed by Arab nations. Another 17 of the Human Rights Council's 47 member-states abstained.

Israel said that the council's decision to investigate Israel's role in the conflict sent a message to extremist groups around the world that using human shields — which it accuses Hamas of doing — was an "effective strategy."

"The Human Rights Council must start to investigate Hamas' decision to turn hospitals into command bases and schools into weapons warehouses and to place rocket batteries near playgrounds, private homes and mosques," said a statement from the Israeli prime minister's office.

The U.N. secretary-general said he was "alarmed" to hear that rockets were placed in a U.N.-run school in Gaza and that "subsequently these have gone missing."

A statement by the spokesman for Ban Ki-moon expressed the U.N. chief's "outrage" at the incident and demanded that militant groups stop such actions and should be held accountable for endangering civilians.

No details on the number or kind of rockets were given. The location of the school was not given.

Of the more than 600 Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip reviewed by the United Nations, three-quarters were civilians, Pillay said. At least 147 were children and 74 women, she said.

According to the latest count more than 680 Palestinians and 31 Israelis — two of them civilians — have been killed during the conflict.

There's nothing good about this.

Pillay cited an Israeli drone missile strike in Gaza City that killed three children and wounded two others while they were playing on the roof of their home. She also made reference to an Israeli strike and naval shelling that struck seven children playing on Gaza beach, killing four from the same family.

"These are just a few examples where there seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes," Pillay told the rights council's special session.

Israel launched its operation in Gaza on July 8 in response to heavy rocket fire out of Hamas-controlled Gaza. The fighting escalated last week with an Israeli ground offensive.

Pillay also warned that Hamas and others were violating international law.

"Israeli children, and their parents and other civilians, also have a right to live without the constant fear that a rocket fired from Gaza may land on their houses or their schools, killing or injuring them," Pillay said.

"The principles of distinction and precaution are clearly not being observed during such indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups," she added.

Pillay said not abiding by those principles could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

OKCupid Deliberately Trying To Break Couples Up!

Experiment goes wrong. Love website OKCupid angers supporters with its social test.

Online dating is kind of like high school. It's nothing but drama. Even though you may never have met the partner, that person probably knows a person that knows you.

You may have worked with this person. You may have seen this person once in your life. You may have never seen this person whether at school, a social gathering, or even online. However, you joining a social networking website that offers you a chance to date a partner.

I am single. I work two jobs. I am not looking for a relationship (for now). I am only looking for dating and hanging out. I am willing to date any woman. I am into girly girls. I am not into tomboys or obsessive phone/text messaging types. I don't normally be on the phone and I tend to be a reclusive person at times.

I keep a very small circle of friends and acquaintances. Nothing personal, but once you have a weakness, you let your guard down, everyone comes after it. Then of course, the high school mentality kicks in.

He said and she said. That's not the "real" you. Or my personal favorite, you're a nice person, but I just think of us as "friends" and nothing serious.

Been there, done that.

Interracial marriage is on the rise.

Now I have a profiles for Facebook, Blackplanet, POF (Plenty of Fish), Badoo, AYI (Are You Interested), Tagged, and OKCupid. Each opportunity a woman would see my profile and find interest in me.

OKCupid is one of the country's most popular social networking website for relationships. It's free to sign up but if you want stronger access you have to shelve out some dollars.

OKCupid gotten into some trouble this month. To finish out the month, here's a heartbreaker.

The New York Times reports that the users of OKCupid, one of the web’s most popular dating sites, that provide a window into how the company chase romantic partners in the digital age.

At the same time, the results offer yet another example of how websites like OKCupid are sometimes used as social science laboratories — often without telling their subjects.

In June, Facebook disclosed that it had tested to see if emotions were contagious, deliberately manipulating the emotional content of the news feeds for 700,000 people. After the disclosure led to an uproar by users, privacy regulators in Europe began looking into whether the social network had broken any local laws.

Despite the bad publicity faced by Facebook, OKCupid on Monday published results of three experiments it recently conducted on users. In one test, it obscured profile pictures. In another, the site hid profile text to see how it affected personality ratings. And in a third, it told some hopeful daters that they were a better or worse potential match with someone than the company’s software actually determined.

“If you use the Internet, you’re the subject of hundreds of experiments at any given time, on every site,” Christian Rudder, president of OKCupid, wrote on the company’s blog. “That’s how websites work.”

LGBT couples were pleased that the OKCupid CEO put a ban on Firefox. The Firefox co-founder supported California's Proposition 8 ban.

The research found that if an OKCupid user was told that another user had a high compatibility score instead of a low one — the numbers are based on a mathematical formula created by the company — the user was slightly more likely to reach out with a message. Those who believed they were corresponding with a good match were almost twice as likely to send at least four messages compared with people who were told they were a low match.

The test also illustrates how easy it is for a website to manipulate users without their knowing. The small number of users who received changed compatibility scores, some to 90 percent from 30 percent, were not told about the change before the experiment began. After the test ended, OKCupid sent emails revealing the true compatibility scores.

“I understand that that experimentation is part of the process,” said Zaz Harris, 37, a user of the site from Redwood City, Calif. “But I do think that experiment is a lot more invasive than the others because it could affect outcomes in a meaningful way.”

Love is not an experiment.

She added: “I would probably never see someone that the site said was a 30 percent match when we were actually 90 percent, so that is not cool, really.”

Ms. Harris said, however, that her expectations for online dating were low regardless of percentages displayed. If the experiment was short-lived and produced better matchmaking, she said, “It’s not that big a deal.”

OKCupid’s user agreement says that when a person signs up for the site, personal data may be used in research and analysis.

“We told users something that wasn’t true. I’m definitely not hiding from that fact,” said Mr. Rudder, OKCupid’s president. But he said the tests were done to determine how people can get the most from the site. “People come to us because they want the website to work, and we want the website to work.”

The New York Times added that in the other two experiments described on Monday, OKCupid said users were more likely to equate “looks” with “personality,” even in profiles that featured attractive photos and little if any substantive profile information.

And, it said, when the site obscured all profile photos one day, users engaged in more meaningful conversations, exchanged more contact details and responded to first messages more often. They got to know each other. But when pictures were reintroduced on the site, many of those conversations stopped cold.

“It was like we’d turned on the bright lights at the bar at midnight,” Mr. Rudder wrote.

But while appearance matters as a rule, there seem to be exceptions. When people went on truly blind dates that they set up using a companion app with no photos, their enjoyment of the dates was less influenced by looks.

In other words, maybe love can be blind, if you let it be.

Like with Facebook, the internet is a tool to connecting with people. But it's also a tool to driving wedges between families and friends. It's a damn shame that our social networks would disrespect our privacy.

This Girl Is On Fire!

Alicia Keys announces that she's pregnant again!

Alicia Keys, the famed R & B singer and entertainer announced that she's pregnant with her second child.

Keys and her husband, rapper/producer Swizz Beatz are going to be parents again.


The musical duo tied the knot July 31, 2010, which makes today their four year wedding anniversary. Keys chose to highlight the occasion while breaking the joyous news:

"Happy Anniversary to the love of my life @therealswizzz !!" Keys, 33, captioned her beautiful photo, adding: "And to make it even sweeter we've been blessed with another angel on the way!! You make me happier than I have ever known! Here's to many many more years of the best parts of life! ☺️"

The couple has a son, Egypt, who will turn four in October.

Swizz Beatz has two other children. His first son with Nicole Levy and another with his ex-wife R & B singer Mashonda.

The couple were happy to announce the news.



Congratulations to the hip-hop couple.

Kendrick Johnson: Was He Bullied To Death?

Teen's death is being reexamined.

Down in Georgia, a family of a young teen is suing the school district after they accused the officials of a "cover up" in the death of the teen.

Kendrick Johnson was a student at the Lowndes High School. His body was found in the gym rolled up in a mat back in 2013. The school officials claim that the student committed suicide, but his family thinks that it was deliberate act of bullying by students which lead to an involuntary manslaughter.

Johnson's body was found in a rolled-up mat in the Lowndes High School gymnasium on January 11, 2013.

His parents earlier filed a negligence lawsuit against the south Georgia school district claiming it was negligent and violated Johnson's constitutional right to equal protection based on race. Johnson, 17 when he died, was African-American.

CNN report that the new lawsuit accuses the Lowndes County Board of Education, its superintendent and the high school principal of ignoring reports that Johnson was repeatedly attacked and harassed by a white student.

"As a direct result of and proximate result of defendants' aforesaid actions and omissions, on or about January 10, 2013, Kendrick Lamar Johnson was violently assaulted, severely injured, suffered great physical pain and mental anguish, and subjected to insult and loss of life, all of which took place at the hands of one or more students while on the property of Lowndes High School and during its normal hours of operations," the lawsuit said.

The complaint said school officials knew about an attack on Johnson by a white student during a school bus trip a year earlier and another attack later.

The other student "had a history of provoking and attacking" Johnson at school, the lawsuit said.

Johnson was "victimized" again "in the presence of the coaching staff and employees" of the school again after his mother complained about the attacks, the suit said.

After Johnson was "improperly accused and blamed for instigating" a school bus fight, school officials refused to let his mother see the bus surveillance video, the filing said.

Johnson was "subjected to undeserved punishment, humiliation and various forms of mistreatment by members of the coaching staff" of the football program, leading to his decision to quit the football team, the suit said.

The older brother of the student who attacked Johnson confronted him and told him "it ain't over," the lawsuit said.

No school official interviewed Johnson or his friends who witnessed the attacks, the suit said.

"This failure to act despite actual knowledge that Kendrick Lamar Johnson was being harassed departed from the defendant Lowndes County School System's own established procedures dealing with harassment and mistreatment, including racial discrimination," the suit said.

School officials also failed to "properly monitor the activities of students throughout all areas" of the campus and to "maintain a properly functioning video surveillance system," the family's suit contends.

Investigators with the Sheriff's Office ruled his death accidental -- concluding that Johnson climbed into the center of the gym mat to reach for a shoe and got stuck. Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson believe that their son was beaten to death. They hired an independent pathologist, who found "unexplained apparent nonaccidental blunt force trauma" to the teen's neck and concluded the death was a homicide.

The U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia launched a federal investigation into the case on October 31, 2013.

Warren Turner, an attorney for Lowndes County Schools, told CNN the school had not been served with the lawsuit so "it would be premature and inappropriate to make a public comment on this matter at this time."

R. Kelly Dropped From Ohio Concert!

Entertainer R. Kelly get the ax after protests.

Sometimes, R. Kelly can't catch a break. Since 2003, the entertainer has been in spotlight for being a nasty freak and possible child pedophile. There was a summer concert with him being a headliner act, but that was put on the back burner after protest from some women's groups. So it's a no go for Robert Sylvester Kelly.

The R. Kelly concert scheduled to open the inaugural Fashion Meets Music Festival next month in Columbus, Ohio has been canceled because of backlash over the R&B singer’s past. The Columbus Dispatch reports that some are pretty upset over the cancellation.

“We wanted to make sure we heard the Columbus listeners ... to make a statement and support the city we live in,” said festival spokeswoman Melissa Dickson, who added that a public-relations firm is helping the event repair its image.

The decision to pull Kelly’s Nationwide show on Aug. 29 came late last week after Saintseneca, a Columbus band also set to play the festival, announced plans to cancel because of Kelly’s appearance. WCBE (90.5 FM) withdrew its sponsorship shortly after.

Those departures were preceded by a local duo, Damn the Witch Siren, which on July 3 abandoned their festival appearance because of Kelly’s history, which includes a 2008 acquittal on 14 counts of child pornography and a Chicago Sun-Times investigation linking the Grammy winner to underage girls.

Still, the 47-year-old I Believe I Can Fly singer hasn’t been short on work: He headlined the Bonnaroo (Manchester, Tenn.) and Pitchfork (Chicago) festivals last summer.

But word of his planned appearance here drew almost-instant criticism.

Organizers of the Fashion Meets Music Festival, which is to take place in and around the Arena District on Aug. 29-31, issued a brief announcement last night via Facebook and Twitter to say the artist and event have “parted ways.”

Kelly’s publicist released the following statement: “R. Kelly is sorry to disappoint his fans but looks forward to seeing them in the near future during one of his upcoming tours.”

The remaining festival events and after-party shows will take place as scheduled in locations such as McFerson Commons. Performers include O.A.R., Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child and Future Islands.

There won’t be a replacement concert in the arena.

Deal$ Under The Family Dollar Tree!

Virginia-based Dollar Tree is going for the Tennessee-based Family Dollar brands. The possible merger of two of the nation's thrifty stores could spell MONOPOLY. An $8.5 billion deal is going forth.

The Family Dollar stores are struggling. I didn't know that they're feeling the heat literally. I mean if you head to a Deal$ or Dollar Tree you're expected to find something for at least a $1 at best.

Stockholders of Family Dollar Stores will receive $59.60 in cash and the equivalent of $14.90 in shares of Dollar Tree for each share they own. The companies put the value of the transaction at $74.50 per share, which is an approximately 23 percent premium to Family Dollar's Friday closing price of $60.66.

The companies put the enterprise value of the deal, including debt and other costs, at more than $9 billion.

Family Dollar stockholders will own somewhere between 12.7 percent and 15.1 percent of Dollar Tree's outstanding common shares at closing. Shares spiked more than 24 percent and were headed for an all-time high before the opening bell Monday.

Shares of Dollar Tree neared an all-time high.

Core customers for bargain stores and major retailers like Wal-Mart have been among the hardest hit by the recession and its aftermath because of job instability.

Family Dollar has struggled and has attempted to reinvigorate sales by lowering prices on almost 1,000 basic items. It's cut some jobs and shuttered underperforming stores.

The company had been conducting a strategic review since the winter, and investor Carl Icahn urged Family Dollar last month to put itself up for sale. Icahn has built up a stake in the company of more than 9 percent, according to regulatory filings.

Dollar Tree CEO Bob Sasser said Monday that the deal will give Dollar Tree more than 13,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada. That is nearly three times as many stores as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., though Wal-Mart's square footage is still greater.

The companies did not say if any Dollar Tree or Family Dollar stores would be closed.

The combined Dollar Tree-Family Dollar chain will have sales of more than $18 billion and Sasser says that the transaction will create a more diverse company with an enhanced geographic reach.

Dollar Tree stores sell products for $1 or less, while Family Dollar's pricing is much broader.

Dollar Tree will continue to operate under the existing Dollar Tree, Deals, and Dollar Tree Canada store signs. It will keep the Family Dollar brand as well.

Family Dollar Chairman and CEO Howard Levine will still lead those stores and report to Sasser. He will join Dollar Tree's board.

Dollar Tree plans to finance the deal with available cash, bank debt and bonds.

The boards of both companies have unanimously approved the deal, which is expected to close by early next year. It still needs approval from Family Dollar shareholders.

Shares of Family Dollar Stores Inc., based in Charlotte, North Carolina, surged $14.89 to $75.55 in premarket trading. The record high during regular trading is $75.29. Shares of Dollar Tree Inc., based in Chesapeake, Virginia, jumped 10 percent, or $5.50 to $59.72. The all-time high for that stock is $60.19.

The Insurgency's Newest Weapon: Laura Ingraham!

The newest face of the right wing insurgency has a microphone and two notches on her belt.

The conservative agitator is rising the stakes in Washington politics.

The controversial agitator is proud to say that last week's run off between Republican Congressman from Georgia Jack Kingston and David Purdue ended with another victory for insurgency.

Kingston is going to be the next victim of the insurgency's fight within the Republican Party.

Majority Leader's Eric Cantor and Kingston are packing their bags for home.

The conservative agitator along with Mark "Ratface" Levin and numerous other groups are fighting the Republican establishment. They've gotten tired of the hot dog process of Congress, the constant "giving in" to President Barack Obama and their ineptness to immigration.

The insurgency believes that immigrants who come from the Southern Border are vermin. They believe that some Republican lawmakers are willing to sell out their "White privilege" for a bunch of immigrants.

RealClearPolitics have been profiling the conservative agitator and it's a good read.

It tells a story of a nearly struggling talk radio agitator who managed to bounce back from the brink of defeat.