Jones On Politics

Our office has been working with “Social Security Claimants” for over two decades. Most Social Security applicants don’t understand what is involved in successfully presenting their case in front of an administrative law judge. First, it is important to understand that it is normally not enough to prove that you can’t work at your last job. Instead you must prove that you have a “medically determinable disability” which prevents you from engaging in any “substantial gainful employment”. The word “substantial” is important because you can earn a small amount of wages and still be eligible for disability benefits. The amount is set by the Social Security Administration and can change from time to time. If you are already engaging in substantial employment, then you are not eligible to obtain disability benefits.

Secondly, there are regulations which Social security attorneys refer to as “the Grid”. The Social Security Administration recognizes different standards for claimants of different ages, levels of education and work backgrounds. Once the appropriate standards are determined, an attorney can determine whether the medical records are adequate to support the claim for disability. If not, an attorney may pose specific questions to a claimant’s treating doctor(s).

Thirdly, it is important for an attorney to help his client quantify his complaints in a specific manner. A claimant may be asked, “How much can you lift”. A bad answer would be “not very much”. An answer like this doesn’t help to describe the claimant’s limitations. It should be noted that Social Security judges refer to something called “The Dictionary of Occupational Titles” for job information. This source describes the exertional requirements of all classified jobs which exist in the national economy. It is up to the claimant’s attorney to prove that his client can’t perform any substantial work for which he is qualified. In addition, “Social Security Judges” will often bring “vocational rehabilitation counselors” into a hearing in order to get clarifications as to the claimant’s “work background”, “work restrictions” and the requirements of various jobs. An attorney must be prepared to effectively challenge the vocational counselor’s testimony through effective cross-examination.

Finally, Social Security Hearings are informal and usually take about an hour, although they can vary in length, depending on the judge’s format and the complexity of the case. Your attorney will know the various judges at the “Downtown SSA Office” and the “Creve Coeur SSA Office”. Be sure to dress appropriately, as it is important to create a favorable impression. In short, preparation is the key to winning your case, so talk to your attorney ask him what you can do to help your cause.

The contents of this article are intended for educational use only in order to provide readers general information and a basic understanding of the law. If you are seeking legal advice, please consult a licensed professional attorney in your state. The information in this article should not be substituted for experienced legal advice.

Social networks definitely became a part of our day-to-day life. But when it comes to younger generation it looks like social networks are not just a part, but something more comprehensive and important in their lives. Let’s try to assess potential benefits and negatives of the social networks for our children:

Benefits:

1.      Despite of widespread opinion that social networking is a nothing more than a time-killer for students, recent researches discovered educational benefits of social networking. Study reveals that students tend to learn much of their technology and communication skills from online networking resources such as Facebook, MySpace, etc. Particulalry this way of learning efficient for low-income students.

2.      Another positive point for social network users is that they are surely more globally aware with immediate access to latest global issues. Furthermore online socializing develops perspective-taking, decision-making and critical thinking skills, with the latter is almost unaccessible to our youngsters at schools and universities.

3.      Social networking sites offers students the opportunity to create a positive self-image. The profiles gives them a chance to create the image of themselves that they want people to see by putting their best qualities “out there.”

4.      Social networks are also used as a good recruitment tool both my employees and employers. So having well regarded references and respected reputation of professional will open a huge oppurtunities in job seeking throughout your contacts network.

5.      Social network could turn into source of revenue for those youngsters who are trying to make some money with network marketing and affiliate programs. Advrertising through social network is often easy and effective rather than doing it by cold calling for example.

Negatives:

1.       Students may get into trouble with University administrators for incriminating and inappropriate information or pictures on their social networking profiles that are violations of school policy or the code of conduct. They also may damage own reputation by posting some discreditable data or images of themselves.

2.       Obvious negative of all social networks is that young people getting used to it very fast and sometimes it becomes some sort of addiction rather than just a hobby. People who got themselves addicted to social networking waste plenty of their time to unnecessary chatting and surfing through network’s profiles. Such addiction may result also in psychological stress once social networks become unavaiable to related person.

3.       Due to the thorough connectivity of various members, people will be able to see their contacts which they may not want to reveal to others and thus these sites create holes in their privacy.

4.       There are many profiles on these sites which contain the objectional content and thus it fears lots of parents as their children get to see all that objectional content. There have been cases where people started abusing others and have gone so far that they took the photos uploaded and made changes in them using photo editing softwares and made them look nude and other sutff.

Political parties are like co-operative societies

Dalip Singh Wasan, Advocate.

After the invention of concept of democracy, political parties came into being or we can say the people who were politicians gave birth to this concept of democracy in the world. The politicians wanted their absorption and for that purpose they introduced the system of elections and then they established this voting system and when voting system was there, they needed candidates. The voters were already existing and they needed candidates. They formed the present party system. Some people joined together like people joining co-operative societies and they distributed the status amongst each other. Some were appointed as presidents, some as vice presidents, some general secretaries and some were enrolled as executive members. Others were enrolled as ordinary members.

They are the people who started taking places of rajas, maharajas, monarchs and then even the imperialists. They started election system and they are the people who enabled themselves to stand as candidates and all the people were converted as voters. We have noted that these people could take the position of rajas, maharajas, monarchs and the imperialists and the people at large became simple voters. At the time of elections these political parties came forward and started raising false and empty slogans and thus they could attract people and could get their votes. The people i.e. the political party which could win majority could form a government and the parties which lost or remained in minority, they formed opposition. In India, it is on record that there had been family rule, there had been party dictatorship and then individual autocracy. Now one party having majority has stopped and now the political parties are joining together in alliances and they are forming governments.

Most of the political parties have got no principles nor they are interested in the development of the country they rule. They just come forward with empty slogans and they win elections because most of the people in democracies are not properly educated and that is the reason they are not understanding what is hidden in the hearts of these politicians. They do not know that these politicians are not willing to become public servants and that is the reason, most of the elected governments just work in routine matter and they just pass time and then. Where political parties are not having any principles or basics with them, there the people just change the government and they start believing that they have done something great. But in reality they just change the set of people and the new set of people who occupy the seats of power and not better than those who are vacating the seats and that is the reason the governments go on without any progress in the country.

The people in politics have formed these co-operative societies and they have distributed seats amongst themselves. They are allowing others to enter the parties, but against admission fee and sometime they sell the party tickets and sometime they also sell the ministries. They divide the money they collect as per their own adjustments within the party and they are also sparing something for party fund.

We have noted that all these politicians with all their separate parties, they are one from heart and that is the reason they are taking seats of power by turns. They may be raising minor objections in the functioning of government, but they do no speak much about the scams, scandals, muddles, bribes, corruption, sale of jobs, quotas and the licences. They know that tomorrow their turn shall come and they too shall be doing the same crimes, therefore, they are not speaking against these items and that is the reason that in most of the countries public funds had been misutilised or mis-appropriated, but none has gone to jail nor this money had ever been confiscated or refunded to the state exchequer. Who so ever had collected money that remained with him and that is the reason this class of politicians have turned rich in such democracies.

Since there is no alternative, the people are bearing all this bungling and they are not shifting once again to the rule of rajas, maharajas, monarchs and the imperialists. No body knows what shall be the next form of government, but it seems these politicians shall not leave this field and now more and more people are joining this line because it gives money and power both and the man starts running in crores. That is the reason that in India there had been a family rule, there had been a party dictatorship and then there had been individual autocracy. Now we are running in alliance system, but here too people are taken in on their merits, but they are taken in on the basis of their strength in the government. Till these politicians rule a country, we would not find people on merits and we should not expect any major development in the country The politicians would never allow intelligent, wise and meritorious people in the parties because once such entries are allowed, the people without merits shall have to be ousted and such a course is not favouring them. The politicians are not there to serve the nation, but they have taken up this line as a profession, trade, calling and employment and they are investing huge amounts just to win elections and form a government. Then they divide ministries as is done in a partnership business.

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