The Velvet Hammer

Hi honeys,

The reason I titled this the way I did was because I only had one foggy memory of the start of it and no memory of the event at all...

To understand the why of it happening at all a little background. I was an abused child. My mother hated me all my life and I did not know why until my father told me at 17 but by then it was too late. She hit me a lot. She used weapons of punishment. She verbally tormented me. She threw away my favorite things. She would lock me in my room. I finally fought back. She kept hitting me - at about 15 and I started picking up jars of things on the kitchen table and smashed them against the kitchen wall.In the end I was severely bruised, she was crying and there was broken glass EVERYWHERE.

My sister was allowed to hit me and I was not allowed to respond. So once when she kept lashing my with the wooden handles of her jump rope, I grabbed the rope and tied her to a pole in the basement. I was beaten so badly for that I had what I know now was my first psychotic break. She started hurting me severely and I knew I couldn't defend myself and so I locked myself in the bathroom and proceeded to tear at the tops of my hands until there was no skin left. The pain of those scabs was more horrible. (Unfortunately, this behavior has returned to the pain in my feet from black mold. I have gone back to tearing at my feet. So I am partly responsible for the lack of healing. I think I am angry that I have not had medical benefits for 5 years. Or dental and I really need to have my remaining teeth (1/2 the set taken out....my teeth were lost because there was no fluoride in the water and because my first husband (English and Scorpio) smacked me upside of the head so hard during an argument that he fragmented a major molar root on the right side of my face. Sadly, after 20 years of extensive dental saving attempts - when I had or could afford dental - missed the root problem and by the time it became completely infected, an oral surgeon had to remove it and actually asked if he could keep it because he had never seen anything like it. I told you I am a mutant and my body always tries to do impossible things... )

So....

My one foggy memory is this.... Mickey, my second and last husband (the doctors tell us I will be a widow by 60) whom I love more than my own life, well we had a very heated argument about something. In Chinese astrology he is a Tiger and I am a dragon - always fighting in Chinese art...
At some point I got scared and it started hitting childhood buttons. I felt myself start to panic and I started to withdraw....I saw Mickey on the phone and then our neighbors walked in and I became even more threatened and frighted. And then my mind passed out. I have no further memory.

Here is what Mickey told me - 17 years later - after my panic I with drew to the corner of the rooms and started crying and wailing. He tried to calm me but it only made it worse. He called our old friends and neighbors who live across the street. Once they came in I started babbling incoherently and did not know my own name. He says that I was terrified all the way through it (I still don't like him) but that Ann gave me tea tree oil and talked in the soothing (retired teacher) and I started to consider that A... might be my name. But I wasn't speaking in English words. More like Martian. LOL

After a while, Mickey came over to me and looked me straight in the eyes and told me that everything was all right and that he loved me more than his own life. He kept repeating it because I started to actually look back... Finally, I started crying and speaking English to him and he held me and rocked me and gradually I believed and I reached out for him and he held me and rocked me for hours as I kept crying.

But I came back.

Some people have a psychotic break and they never come back. Mickey had a client's secretary who "snapped" and started stamping the same envelope over and over and over until they fired her...

So I am grateful.

But I am also disturbed that some of my current behavior leans that way again. I put that down to extreme stress - my husband having a prognosis of no more than 2 years to live - dead by 61... Also I have a on where I am SAILING to the top with sales because I have very real people skills. I am particularly good with alternative people, disabled people, really sick people, old people and people in very difficult positions. I have been fired countless times for defending a client over boss or company. I am a Buddhist and a humanitarian. I can not abide liars or manipulators or abusive tempers or criminal people. My latest boss is cheating on his wife with my co-worker who is an actual "B". AND they are both lying about it. But I am a borderline genius (tested 145 IQ at Willis-Corroon now Willis Corp. And English owned 3rd largest broker in the world.) The new hire receptionist wants out NOW. She is an Irish natural health nut and masseur/aroma therapist. Her husband just lost his Fed Ex job but she told me (she is psychic off the charts just like me...) but she is going to leave because she overheard their (co-worker and boss) conversation about a client's "bulge" and she was as uncomfortable with that as I am. I am faithful and monogamous.)

Actually, I have a lady boss who has asked me to meet with her and checked with the district manager and discovered that I am the 6th top sales person in the NE/NW region. I am a cross-sell queen! But I am also thinking of leaving insurance because it has become so corrupt and cut throat. So...I you are in (or know someone who does, my international sisters) Cleveland ad you know and ethical boss who will let me work independently (I hate micro managers) I am willing to talk. I am going to leave this ob because of their affair. If the lady offers (on my terms) I will walk out. So I am immediately available. I have worked nearly a yeat (5/2) for abusive cheaters and it is hurting my health. If I could find a way to work at home, that would be my ideal but we have no start up money. I do know some fabulous opportunities but we don't have the deposit... Yet....

I wish you all good health, good times and prosperity. My religion is as the Dalai Lama says, "Kindness." Please be kind. So many people are craving that now. And please help Haiti if you can. Contribute to Doctors Without Borders - they are doing the most good. Oxfam and Save the Children are also good.

 

My husband enlightened me to the fact that about 15 years ago I had a psychotic beak. I have no active memory of the event. That is one of the symptoms. LOL

"Psychosis is a loss of contact with reality, usually false ideas about what is taking place or who one isa(delusions) and seeing or hearing things that aren't there (hallucinations)."

This weekend I am gong to blog about it at Live Journal. According to Mickey, I did not know my own name and I was NOT speaking anything remotely like English. I made it back and most people don't. I have no memory of the event but that is a symptom of that kind of event.

One note....the mentally ill, including people who break down have been proven to also be more intelligent and sensitive...so I'll take it as a complement....

Let me share a true story - a moment in the history of my country when heaven came to earth for three days.

It was called The March Against Death in November of 1969 long before you were born...

I was a teenaged hippy then and had been a die hard activist for 3 years. I began by picketing (at 14) the local Pick and Pay (no longer in existence) for exploited the Mexican grape pickers in California, lead by Caesar Chavz. Once I started I could not stop.

Well, The March Against Death was an anti Viet Nam protest. Not anti soldier but antiwar. Most of the soldiers were not much older than I was at the time. I was 17 and MOST of them were 19. There is a song about that I will go look for..

Anyway, I was not legal adult and was going to miss school to do this and my father (who worked for NASA and happened to detest the government - he liked space but not the government and it pissed him off that there was no private space program...) told me I would flunk ALL my classes while I was gone because he WOULD NOT call in to excuse my absense. I said, fine, and got on the bus to D.C. My (now estranged) older brother also got on the bus with me. He had avoided Viet Nam service by being the only son of an only son - last in line...

Anyway, when we got there we wer taken by car to one of the volunteer homes for protesters. They were people who supported the Antiwar effort. They bedded and fed us and drove us daily to the protest. They were real angels,

At the protest there was a 3 mile walk carrying a candle and wearing a placard of a soldier who had died. It began at the Lincoln Memorial and ended at the White House. Once at the White House there was a line of White Coffins. When you got there you threw your name into the coffin and screamed out the name. Three days. Without any stopping.

The heaven part is this: It was windy the whole time and candles kept going out. Because of this we had to endlessly help each other with fire and this made us closer. Also we were (in general) generouos people and everyone kept giving things to others. Mostly food. I once ended up with so much food that I had to give some away. No way I can eat five whole food sandwiches! So I gave all but one away. And then I noticed that others were doing the same. It created abundance,

And so I say to the world. Whatever you have, please share it. In this way we can care for all people. That is my hope and that is my dream.

I am saddened that the world has lost a great musical talent. Lord knows I love music more than anything but nature...

But I have to say that the sudden death of MJ is not really a shock. I felt it coming. In fact I said that he would die soon the day he died. I am that psychic.

MJ was blessed but also cursed. Something in him ran from his own race. Otherwise he would have let his natural beauty be... He would not have bleached his skin, whittled his nose to a needle nose about to collapse into his face nor gotten the Kirk Douglas cleft in the chin.

He also, having no childhood himself, got the wrong ideas about children. I still think he was a pedophile. I also think any father that dangles a baby off a balcony is performing child abuse.

Celebrity should not excuse bad and mentally unbalanced behavior...

I am sad that he died. He should have left himself alone....

I am a voracious Facebook resident and belong to many causes and groups there. I play a lot of games. I have a lot of friends. I choose to share now a message I snet to a group member who wrote about a near billionaire betting a dime a hole in a game of golf at a swanky club. I have many more concepts percolating and will write more tomorrow. It's on my list. LOL!!!

Anyway, for your enjoyment:

"I don't ever pretend to not have opinions or to be all that nice although "Kindness" is my religion and I aspire to it.

Your wealthy friend was frikking typical and a sign of the devastating economy (and part of the cause, IMNSHO)

The wealthy are cheap, mean, selfish, small people - by and large. That's how they make and keep their money.

It has beeen proven repeatedly through socialogical tests that the only genuinely generous (consistantly) and helpful people are the poor.

It was and is a civil/social war. The blue meanies and the flower people.

It is exactly that now.

The rich are willing to let most people die. Eat the rich.

lol"

Well, I survived another birthday and still have a job which is a frikking miracle in the evaporating city (one 1,600,000 and now a mere 400,000 - and now that the resident requirement for government and city workers has been removed - thanks a WHOLE lot! - we'll be 200,000 in 2 years and the Village of Cleveland.)

Things are screwed up everywhere - the economy is tanking and the bailouts were like black hole plugs that did not work. As a NASA kid, I did predict this... The medical megopolis is fighting giving anyone reasonably priced health care and jobs keep slipping away. Yet the media - that blind mole - insists that happy days are here again is a few or several months. I want the drugs THEY are taking. No, babies, it is not going to go away or even get better soon. Dreaam on you shiny diamond. Still reality remains. Sorry. I talk to people daily and no good news yet - except for the wealthy who have always - since Day 1 of time records - said: we are just fine here - let them eat cake. Or some version thereof... All BS. New era and same rotten message. Which is why P. J. O'Rourke said Eat the Rich.

Wikipedia:
"Eat the Rich is a 2001 book by P. J. O'Rourke about economics. Its chapters include Good Capitalism (The US), Bad Capitalism (Albania), Good socialism (Sweden), Bad socialism, and an intermission on "Economics 101", teaching facts that your economics professor didn't tell you, including the ten less basic rules of economics. Subsequent chapters are on How to make everything out of nothing (Hong Kong), How to make nothing out of everything (Tanzania), How to build (or not) an economy (or not) if there is (or isn't) one (Russia) and Eat the rich, the last an encomium to Capitalism — "the worst economic system anyone ever invented, except for all the others"."

Take for example California...a bread basket built upon a desert. It is now at risk from the nuclear power plant ON the San Andreas Fault. This fault line is connected to the line which includes the earthquakes in Washington http://www.pnsn.org/req2/ with a recent medium quake in part of the Ring of Fire:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ring_of_Fire

"The Pacific Ring of Fire (or sometimes just Ring of Fire) is an area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a 40,000 km horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements. The Ring of Fire has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes. It is sometimes called the circum-Pacific belt or the circum-Pacific seismic belt.

About 90% of the world's earthquakes and 80% of the world's largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. The next most seismic region (5–6% of earthquakes and 17% of the world's largest earthquakes) is the Alpide belt, which extends from Java to Sumatra through the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and out into the Atlantic. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the third most prominent earthquake belt.[1][2]"

You see everything is connected. Not only are we all related but the places of stress on our planet are all related.

It is only a matter of time until the coastlines go underwater from polar melt - and the gulf stream will stop.

It is only a matter of time that the deforestation will hamper the lungs of the world and even if we plant a billion trees a year it will not be enough to stop humanity dying of self-created emphysema.

It is time to plan to go off planet or go underground. I really wish that I could say better. Without some amazing new technologies or major reduction in governments (lol!!!), we are in for a bumpy ride.

So take my hand darlings and we'll ride this shop to the bottom of the ocean with some pride.

No I didn't die and I am still a writer. That came back to me tonight. With a vengeance.

It isn't time to be quiet or cowed by the evaporating economy nor the damaged ecosphere. Okay...it will take two or three generations to fix the money pit and we probably can't fix the ecology...even with billions of trees and treatment of the oceans so that the sea life doesn't all die and the gulf stream stop. We may have to invent ways to cope with the complete and utter mess that we have made of things.

So, this is when my warrior self rises and the mother's heart beats... I can't give up until my very last breath and I encourage you to do the same. If we don't try to fix the things we can fix now, future generations are lined right up for extinction and they will NOT thank us nor should they do so.

What were we thinking? Nothing? What have we been doing locally? Nothing?

Well, get off your collective duffs, honeys and speak, think and act now.

What are you waiting for????

p.s. love to all....

In my own opinion, it is time...

My own John:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87yq372R4Ts

My Tracy Sister

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rZbvi6Tj6E

Goodness! NOTHING in February? It's not like I'm not glad it is Obama/Biden and not the McCain/Palin nightmare but I knew that it was like the guest getting stuck with the oversized dinner bill when the hosts ran out of the restaurant without paying to the waiting limo. It will take us 10 years to recover from the financial rape under King George the First of America. If not forever.

And in the recovery process, CEOs still reward the inner circles and lay off worker bees. Banks, Insurance Companies, Financial Companies suck in billions and it evaporates. Meanwhile many in America - and maybe me - lose their jobs - AGAIN - and may lose their homes. Now families are committing suicide. Fabulous PR for the "free" world!

Right after the suicides and the foreclosures in the "Unfortunate Events of our Days" is the Deluded mother with a litter of EIGHT when she already had SIX little ones! Two of the SIX are disabled and have public assistance from California, the Black Hole of money. She is living with her Mom in a house that is about to be foreclosed, like most homes in America. She is unemployed and refusing to marry the Dad - oh, sorry - he is already married! He is simply a sperm donor. Thanks a lot!!! You put bad ideas on a dang pedestal!

Family values. Uh huh. Tie her darn tubes. Place the children with rational people. Stop asking for money on the Internet! LOL She just slays me!!!!

Oh that's it! Make her a reality show. Have them all eating water naked but please KEEP that dysfunctional family TOGETHER! I agree with some. Force the doctor to adopt all of them. Let him begin to have a clue. Oh, never mind, a Porn company has made her an offer.She'll be fine.

Oh, what am I thinking? We are all at the Madhatter's Tea Party now!

Curiouser and curiouser...

http://www.thenadyasulemanfamily.com/

Please tell me how great these spuds look...as an exMom I know they are going to have serious physical challenges. 2-3 pounds is not enough for developed lungs and other organs. Oh, I so want to smack her upside of the head...but I know that I would only hear the tiny balls bouncing off a skull... (very big sigh)

One of my favorite stories, as a child was Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen. As you know me by now, the sliver of darkness is the spice of my life and perhaps that began with this story - a set of seven stories, really...but seven is my number. There were a few other stories that are equally as provocative and shadowy. I think that I will visit them also because the dark-yet-educational stories are not read all that much anymore and they should be read.

This is the first of the Seven Stories:

"FIRST STORY. Which Treats of a Mirror and of the Splinters

Now then, let us begin. When we are at the end of the story, we shall know more than we know now: but to begin.

Once upon a time there was a wicked sprite, indeed he was the most mischievous of all sprites. One day he was in a very good humor, for he had made a mirror with the power of causing all that was good and beautiful when it was reflected therein, to look poor and mean; but that which was good-for-nothing and looked ugly was shown magnified and increased in ugliness. In this mirror the most beautiful landscapes looked like boiled spinach, and the best persons were turned into frights, or appeared to stand on their heads; their faces were so distorted that they were not to be recognised; and if anyone had a mole, you might be sure that it would be magnified and spread over both nose and mouth.

"That's glorious fun!" said the sprite. If a good thought passed through a man's mind, then a grin was seen in the mirror, and the sprite laughed heartily at his clever discovery. All the little sprites who went to his school--for he kept a sprite school--told each other that a miracle had happened; and that now only, as they thought, it would be possible to see how the world really looked. They ran about with the mirror; and at last there was not a land or a person who was not represented distorted in the mirror. So then they thought they would fly up to the sky, and have a joke there. The higher they flew with the mirror, the more terribly it grinned: they could hardly hold it fast. Higher and higher still they flew, nearer and nearer to the stars, when suddenly the mirror shook so terribly with grinning, that it flew out of their hands and fell to the earth, where it was dashed in a hundred million and more pieces. And now it worked much more evil than before; for some of these pieces were hardly so large as a grain of sand, and they flew about in the wide world, and when they got into people's eyes, there they stayed; and then people saw everything perverted, or only had an eye for that which was evil. This happened because the very smallest bit had the same power which the whole mirror had possessed. Some persons even got a splinter in their heart, and then it made one shudder, for their heart became like a lump of ice. Some of the broken pieces were so large that they were used for windowpanes, through which one could not see one's friends. Other pieces were put in spectacles; and that was a sad affair when people put on their glasses to see well and rightly. Then the wicked sprite laughed till he almost choked, for all this tickled his fancy. The fine splinters still flew about in the air: and now we shall hear what happened next."

Well, what happened next and after that is a journey which requires courage and love for it is just packed with evil influences...kind of like our current day.

Speaking of our current day, I sing the Body Frozen here in Cleveland, Ohio. With the "wind chill", it is 15 degrees below zero. Our bodies are 98.6 degrees and this is a temperature not fit for bodies.

Here we have next to no city services and so cars are still spinning tires and getting stuck in intersections a week after the 14 inch snow accumulation. It's a winter wonderland out there! The things I like about it today are: I am unemployed and don't have to go out in it, the snow crunches when you walk on it and it sparkles like a blanket of diamonds because it is so otherworldly crystal cold. Just like my Queen.

Unfortunately, everyone forgot how to drive and there are about 3 dozen major accidents in the area. On top of that, people are so stressed they are leaping from said crushed cars and trying to kill each other.

So much for merry christmas and a happy new year... Hmmm...

Be careful out there, darlings.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a REALLY dark side to my humor, that I love music more than most people and that I am the cartoon strip here at The Pubhouse Dialogues. I love stirring the pot. I just love it!

I have had some really bad Christmas presents in my time and this humorous YouTube video honors that experience. Picture it...I am a Gemini adolescent, just thriving on variety and choice. My one aunt (only had one) sends me days of the week underwear. Different colored underwear with the days of the week embroidered on them. I threw them out. What if I want to wear the blue ones on a DIFFERENT day? Oh, it sucked alright...

We must have been really, really naughty because it's coal time at the white house...

(((Thanks to Eleanor Roosevelt - the best First Lady of all time...)))

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Human Rights Day 10 December

60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."

PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.

(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.

(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.

(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.

(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.

(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

------------------------

Lest we forget...

Love to all.

Be universal.

Give everyone these rights.

It's time...

"Remember.
The christmas spirit is
Not what you drink"

Jethro Tull

I know...I know I said I was done with Xmas but I'm not. I recently realized that my atheism was not fully functional in that friends of the Dalai Lama came at me and got me. They made me realize that my love of Compassion and Kindness was a sort or "religion" - so I am now a Tibetan Buddhist and that is actually considered a philosophy...so it is dang terminology at this stage of the game. My religion is kindness...including the bitchy kick-butt to bad behavior. Kindness of a difficult kind. LOL

Anyway, my husband (The Iconoclast - brilliant with a 185 IQ and now kudoed by German financieers as a visionary - who'd a thought...) was homeless for two years. The stories he can tell - including motivating the governor o Colorado to do the right thing and saving very precious lives...are nearly endless. They also include many deaths and none of those pretty.

Anyway. I recently read a book by a lovely homeless man named Richard Lemieux. It is my gift to you this season - as well as the videos that follow - on U.S and one Canadian...

"Breakfast at Sally's"

He was a millionaire with his own company, a loving gal and children. He lost everything but a very special dog.

This is my gift to you, dedicated to Mickey, Richard, Willow and all Homeless people! Please don't pass them by...

Invisible (Canadian ad - not ours, sadly...)

Pretty Ribbons