You're watching FJTN, the Federal Judicial Television Network, a Federal Judicial Center series for United States Magistrate Judges. Social Security, Process and Problems, Part 1. And now here is the moderator, Judge Aaron Goodstein. Hello, I'm Magistrate Judge Aaron Goodstein of the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Welcome to Part 1 of Social Security, Process and Problems. Joining me for this portion of our program are Magistrate Judge James Glazebrook of the Middle District of Florida and Magistrate Judge Erlander Keys of the Northern District of Illinois. Thank you both for being here. Our plan for this first part of our program is to bring you the insights of these two knowledgeable judges about how to adjudicate a Social Security case both fairly and efficiently. Judge Keys, who before he became a Magistrate Judge was a Chief Administrative Law Judge for the Social Security Administration in Chicago, will tell us about the process a case goes through before it lands in federal court. In a number of districts, Social Security appeals are referred to Magistrate Judges for processing. So before we ask Judge Keys how the case gets there, Judge Glazebrook is going to share with us the methods he has developed for handling this ever-growing part of our case load. Judge Glazebrook? Thank you, Aaron. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Federal Judicial Center's 12-Step Program to Recovery from Social Security Appeal Overload. My name is Jim and I hate Social Security Appeals. If you too admit that you are powerless over the tidal wave of filings, if you too admit that your lives have become unmanageable, then you have come to the right meeting. This disease is more properly known as Social Security-induced Anxiety Disorder, not otherwise specified, DSM-4 diagnosis code 293.84. Human epidemiologic data show the highest incidence of this disease among United States Magistrate Judges. Only a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity, and I'm not referring to the Judicial Conference of the United States. Only you can answer the question of whether you meet the diagnostic criteria for this incurable and disabling illness. Do you have excessive anxiety or worry about your ever-increasing case load of Social Security Appeals and the new reporting deadline?  Does your disturbance cause you clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning? If you answered yes to each of these questions, then the Federal Judicial Center is here to help you to help yourself. Just keep an open mind as one recovering victim describes his personal road to freedom from this progressive illness. In a minute, I will propose an efficient system that you might like to use for tracking and resolving Social Security Appeals. Before I do that, let me take a minute to describe how stressful the working environment has become for Magistrate Judges. The Commissioner of Social Security has shifted visiting ALJs from less burdened circuits in order to process the huge backlog of aging disability applications and to handle the wave of new filings. Processing of the administrative backlog results in massive filings at the district court level. Administrative office statistics show a 49% growth in district court filings of Social Security Appeals nationwide since 1995. Florida, for example, now has 572 appeals pending. That's about 52 appeals for each Magistrate Judge. In the face of such volume, it is an enormous challenge to rule correctly and to produce a report and recommendation or a decision of quality. In other words, a solid opinion that is fully comprehensible on review. Let me tell you about the system that I've come to use in order to efficiently process and to resolve a large volume of these Social Security Appeals. This is just one possible system that you might like to use and to tailor to your own needs. There are many, many variations that work. First you should make a searching and fearless inventory of your docket of Social Security Appeals and then track the appeals on a chart. Here's the chart that I use. Your staff can fill in the boxes as the case progresses from left to right on the chart. As you see, the columns starting on the left include the case number, the claimant's name, the complaint filing date, the answer date. The filing of the answer and record triggers the need for an immediate scheduling order as you may have as little as 10 months to obtain both briefs to decide the case, to draft the report and recommendation, and to allow for the filing of objections to the report and recommendation, and then to allow at least one month for the district judge to consider and rule on the objections. A magistrate judge has more time, of course, to rule on consent cases because no time need be allocated for objections to a report and recommendation. Now the projected completion date should be 10 months from the filing of the answer and record, and then be sure to insert the very first September 30 or March 30 that occurs after the 10 month completion date. This is the date on which the district judge must report the appeal as an overdue pending motion. In our district, all district judges insist on having clean six month reports. We electronically monitor our appeals using web chaser in order to move them along towards a decision, and we electronically review the docket sheets, the pending case reports, and the service and answer reports by restricting the field to social security appeals. On the screen, you can see the scheduling order that I issue on the filing of the answer and record. The scheduling order sets the date for the claimant's brief 42 days off, and the date for the commissioners' brief 42 days after the claimant's brief. This should allow you enough time to resolve the appeal before it becomes reportable. The scheduling order solicits consent and prohibits motions. A very important part of the scheduling order requires each party to submit a copy of his brief on diskette, preferably in WordPerfect 8.0 format for our system. If you end up liking a prevailing party's summary of the medical record, you can save hours of work by downloading those facts into your R&R or opinion. The farthest right hand column on the chart will show that the appeal is right after both briefs have been filed, and that column will also reflect the order in which you plan to resolve the right appeals in light of the reporting dates and in light of the length of time that they've been pending. Now, as general rule, I have not been setting appeals for oral argument. Rather, I've been deciding the appeals based only on the briefs and record. Recently, however, I have begun setting the oral argument in most every case. It's primarily as a calendaring device to be sure that I have addressed the appeal in time for the district judge to reach a decision. After both briefs are in, I can usually set aside the two hours or so of undisturbed time that I need to reach a tentative decision. I always read the following items in this order. One, the appeals counsel's denial of review and the list of any evidence considered by the appeals counsel in denying review. Two, the ALJ's decision. Three, the plaintiff's brief focusing strictly on the precise issues raised. Four, the commissioner's brief. And five, all or parts of the hearing transcript before the ALJ. I then look for any specific items in the record that might help to resolve the specific issues that the claimant raises. Next, I tell the law clerk assigned to the case my tentative view as to how the appeal should be resolved and why. The law clerk then drafts the opinion. There are really only three possible results, affirmed, reversed with an award of benefits below, or reversed and remanded under either sentence four or sentence six or both. Several years ago, most of the cases were affirmed because there was nearly always substantial evidence supporting the decision of the ALJ and the appeals counsel. Now, we encounter many more remands and outright reversals. This may be due to the crush of cases being hastily processed by the ALJ's at a rate of what, 40 to 60 decisions per month. It may also result from a decision by the United States attorney to cede control over social security appeals in the district court to the commissioner of social security through his regional offices of general counsel. The system that I am describing has another very important feature, the model R&R containing the model social security law. In a minute, I will give you one model R&R for adult disability cases and another for the less frequent but very different childhood disability cases. The idea is that you write a model report and recommendation that includes all of the law that recurs repeatedly in disability cases. You write the opinion very carefully the first and only time because you will reuse the model in every case. You will then update the model law section every time that your circuit hands down an important social security disability case and every time that you research a new issue. Everybody is welcome to use my model format for the R&R and everyone in the 11th circuit is welcome to use my model law as well. These materials are available on the JNAT and also may be downloaded as published opinions off of Westlaw. The model format and law for adult disability cases may be found at Bag Air, BAG, UER, the APFEL, 65, FSUP2D, 1345, Middle District of Florida, 1999. The model format and law for childhood disability cases may be found at Hawes, HAWS, VAPFEL, 61, FSUP2D, 1266, Middle District of Florida, 1999. Now a model format provides a tremendous amount of guidance to the person crafting the decision. The format begins with an introductory preface describing the appeal followed by the conclusion right up front, affirmed, reversed, remanded. Part one of the model format calls for the insertion of a very brief procedural history of the case before the Social Security Administration, before the Appeals Council and before the District Court. Part two then calls for the insertion of a two sentence statement of the party's positions on appeal. Part three carefully and fully states the law governing the standard of review applicable in a District Court. Part four carefully and fully states the Social Security Disability Law itself, the statutes, the regulations, the circuit decisions. The model law covers every issue regularly encountered in disability cases, treating physicians, developing the record, medical tests and evaluations, the five steps in evaluating disability, other work that exists in the national economy, pain, credibility. Even if your final decision were to contain nothing more than parts one through four, a reviewing judge at least would know that you were aware of the correct standard of review and the correct substantive law when you reached your conclusion. Part five is the hard part, the blank part. Part five is the application and analysis. The judge should tell the law clerk whether the medical facts written by the prevailing party are adequate to download into the application section as a starting point. The quality of briefs, as you know, varies enormously. Obviously, the facts must be verified against the record. Nothing, however, prevents a court from ordering a party to resubmit proposed findings of fact on discat. Occasionally, but rarely, we must research a new issue. Next, we track the most closely relevant portions of the model law in describing the existing record about this claimant. In other words, we apply the model law to the facts, to this claimant's illness. Often, one can literally download the critical part of the model law into the application section, remove the case sites, and then change each sentence to refer to this particular claimant's illness and limitations. The decision then is nicely tied together and flows logically toward the conclusion in part six. In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, all available medical research shows that social security-induced anxiety disorder is a progressive illness that can meet or equal a listed impairment. It cannot, however, be cured in the ordinary sense of the term. It can be arrested, however, through total abstinence from handling social security appeals in any form. Where this is impractical, interim relief may be achieved through the caseload control system that I have just described. Newcomers are not asked to accept or follow these 12 steps in their entirety if they feel unwilling or unable to do so. If you are having a spiritual awakening as the result of these 12 steps, however, you are invited to carry this message to other afflicted persons. Thank you and good luck. Thank you, Judge Glazebrook, for that very useful presentation. I am pleased to see that you have been able to maintain your sense of humor about these cases. Clearly, a great deal of what we do on social security cases as magistrate judges is in reaction to what comes to us from the Social Security Administration and the ALJs. Judge Keyes, as I said earlier, was a chief ALJ for the Social Security Administration in Chicago before becoming a magistrate judge. And he has some very interesting information about that process that can help us all deal more effectively with these cases. Judge Keyes? Thank you, Aaron. Each state has a state disability determination services, which we refer to as DDS. This DDS is under the contract with the Social Security Administration to conduct reviews and make initial determinations as to whether claimants are disabled. DDS personnel include physicians, nurses, and vocational specialists who never actually see a claimant. In addition to the DDS personnel, DDS subcontracts work to consultative physicians in the claimant's area who conduct consultative examinations of the claimant only if DDS determines that based on the medical evidence in the file or lack of such evidence, it believes that a consultative examination is necessary. If DDS determines that it has enough medical evidence in the file already to make a determination, it will do so by having one or more of its doctors complete a residual functional capacitance assessment form on RFC and or a mental residual functional capacitance assessment form MRFC, setting forth what the doctor sees based on a review of the medical evidence as the physical and mental restrictions that the claimant has. Examples might be heavy work, medium work, light or sedentary work, dexterity problems or environmental restrictions, working at heights or around moving machinery, or even mental restrictions. These forms are then passed on to the vocational specialists in the same office who will list jobs that the claimant can perform based on the restrictions noted by the doctor. Judge Keyes, could you tell us a little about what type of doctors are employed to make this analysis and how they reach their decisions? Yes, it has been my experience as an ALJ that the doctors are, any doctors that are authorized by the state in which the DDS is located to as a physician can complete the residual functional capacity assessment. On the other hand, if it's a mental impairment, then the MRFC is filled out by a psychiatrist or a psychologist. And I've also known instances where pediatricians have completed the forms even though the claimant is an adult and ophthalmologists have completed them and other individuals who really have no expertise in the area in which, the impairment in which the claimant is complaining of. Now if, during their review, if DDS's review shows that in their opinion that the claimant should have a consultative medical examination, the claimant is sent a letter with the name, address and phone number of the doctor in his or her area who will conduct the examination and direct the claimant to make an appointment for the examination. Now most of the physical examination are conducted by internists, even though the claimant may be complaining about orthopedic, neurological or cardiac problems. Now each state has a set amount that they will pay for a consultative examination and specialists are more expensive. So therefore the internists are certainly less expensive and they are used in most occasions. The examinations typically last about 30 minutes and consist of taking a medical history and performing a general physical examination. Mental examination are conducted by a psychiatrist. Typically if DDS thinks that any mental impairment such as allegations of depression or anxiety is minimal, it will have the physical examiner conduct a mental status examination and report those findings to the DDS. George Keyes, what types of questions are usually asked of the claimant in a mental RFC exam? All questions such as how did you get to the examination today? What is today's date? What year is this?  How are they different? How are a tree and a bush alike and how are they different? If you discovered a fire in a theater, what would you do? Those types of questions. And supposedly those will inform the examiner as to whether the claimant has a severe mental impairment. Now even though the consultant position is the only person who actually sees the claimant, DDS does not have the examiner complete the RFC form or the MRFC form. That is obviously in my opinion because these doctors in the field, they don't know the significance of their findings on the RFC and MRFC forms vis-a-vis the grid. This has caused a great deal of friction between the DDS and the ALJs. ALJs, they do have the authority to send a claimant for a consultative examination and to demand that he or she be examined by a specialist and that the examiner complete the form. DDS will complain about the expense of these additional examinations and fill out the form, but if the ALJ wishes to have this done, it can be done. In my opinion, it would make sense to at least have some input from the examiner in making this critical determination. Indeed, in practice, the consultative examiners and physicians do not even comment on the claimant's physical or mental capacity. They simply relate the objective findings. Now after the examination by the consultative examiner, a written report is sent to DDS where the MRFC forms are completed by the DDS doctors based on the contents of the report from the consultative examiner and the other evidence in the file, if any. Based on the contents of the RFC and MRFC forms, the application is either granted or denied. When claimants are informed about DDS's findings of non-disability, they are notified of their right to request a reconsideration. If no reconsideration request is filed, then no request for a hearing before an ALJ is allowed. When a request for reconsideration is filed, the case file, including the initial denial and the rationale for the denial, is passed on to another DDS reviewer at the next desk or across the room. And unless additional evidence has been submitted which could change the result, that individual invariably agrees with the earlier assessment and the claimant may request a hearing. Over the years it has been recommended many times that the reconsideration stage be abolished because it is so time consuming and rarely results in any reversals. When a claimant requests a hearing, the case is sent from DDS to the SSA's district office which sends it over to the office of hearings and appeals. Is this then a live hearing at which the claimant appears? Yes, the hearing before the ALJ is the first and only time when the claimant actually sees someone who's making the decision as to whether he or she is disabled. Judge Keyes, what can you tell me about the pressures on the ALJ? For example, how many cases are they asked to resolve each month? Yes, when I first began at the SSA as an ALJ, we were expected to hear and issue opinions in 30 cases a month. That was in 1986. By the time I left there in 1995, it had gone up to about 60 cases a month. It went from 30 to 40 to 50 to 60 cases per month. In other words, we were expected to schedule hear and issue opinion decisions in up to 60 cases a month. Incredible. It is quite incredible. Now, the office of hearings and appeals organizationally is under one of the many associate commissioners of SSA. That is, this associate commissioner for hearings and appeals. While the commissioner is located in Baltimore, the office of hearings and appeals is located in Falls Church, Virginia. They like to consider themselves somewhat independent of SSA since they often reversed the earlier decision of the commissioner, but they do get their budgets and their marching orders from the commissioner in reality. And the associate commissioner for hearings and appeals is treated basically the same as any other associate commissioner. When the ALJ renders a decision either affirming or reversing the decision of ADDS and SSA, the appeals council acting as the final voice of the commissioner can either affirm, reverse, or remand that decision. If the ALJ's decision goes against the claimant in whole or in part, the claimant has a right to file a request for review of the ALJ decision with the appeals council, which is the final step in the administrative review process. Judge Keyes, who sits on the appeals council and how does it work? Well, at the time I last worked there in 1995, the appeals council consisted of 24 administrative appeals judges. They call themselves judges, but they were not protected against removal. They are not appointed pursuant to the APA or protected from removal. They serve at the pleasure of the commissioner. Now any two of them can reverse or remand in this case to an ALJ with instructions to the ALJ as to what the ALJ has to do in order to fix the case. And you can imagine that that has always been a sole point with ALJs having individuals who are not protected by the APA or appointed pursuant to the APA, review those decisions and actually reverse and issue a different decision. That has always been a sole point with the ALJs. Now it is not necessary, it is not necessary that they claim it in a request for review point to specific errors made by the ALJ. It is enough to simply say that the ALJ was wrong. I am still disabled. The standard for review by the appeals council is one, whether the ALJ abuse his or her discretion. Two, whether there is an error of law. Three, whether the findings and conclusions are supported by substantial evidence. Or four, whether there is a broad policy or procedural issue that may affect the general public interest. In addition, the claim it may submit evidence to the appeals council that was not submitted to the ALJ if it relates to the period on or before the date of the hearing before the ALJ. This is again, this is another source part with ALJs because after the hearing and denial of benefits, the claim it's council may obtain additional records, opinions or examination that were not submitted to the ALJ and could result in a different conclusion. Now after all, the standard of review is whether the ALJ's decision was supported by substantial evidence that was in the record at the time of the decision. That is the standard before the appeals council. Now if the appeals council finds that the new evidence submitted by the plaintiff is material, that is that it could have led to a different conclusion if it had been submitted to the ALJ, it would usually grant the request for review and remand the case to the ALJ to consider the new evidence. It could reverse outright based on the new evidence but this is rare. If it finds that his appeals council finds that the newly submitted evidence while new is not material or that the ALJ's decision is supported by substantial evidence, it will deny the request for review and that decision becomes the final order of the commissioner and appropriate for judicial review. Now you may have noticed that, noted the language in the appeals council's form letter, it's upholding an ALJ's decision, stating that it is quote, denying unquote the claim it's request for review. Actually what the appeals council has done is to perform a de novo review of the record and concluded that there is no reason to reverse or remand the ALJ's decision. So the denial of a request for review is a misnomer. When a request for judicial review is filed, the SSA's Office of General Counsel, that is OGC, is notified that the administrative file is sent and the administrative file is sent from the appeals council to the regional OGC. The certified administrative record is filed to the district court and sent to the claimant. Although the United States attorney represents the commissioner, it is the OGC that does all of the work on the case, including writing the briefs. It is not unusual for an AUSA to be completely in the dark regarding the case and unable to answer any questions posed by the court at oral argument. This has caused a great deal of friction between OGC and some of the assistant US United States attorneys, because the OGC feels that their attorneys who are specialists in the field of social security law and who do all the work on the case should be able to defend the case in court in the briefs and at oral arguments rather than having the AUSA who knows nothing about the case defend the decision of the commissioner. Now, when an AUSA requests an extension of time to file a motion, it is usually because the OGC attorney assigned to the case needs the additional time because of the large number of other cases in which briefs are due around the same time. Recently, I have noticed an increase in the number of voluntary remands where OGC, upon reviewing the administrative record, will convince the appeals council that the ALJ's decision is not defensible in the district court. In fact, I have had several cases in which I read the administrative record prior to setting a briefing schedule, had the claimants council and the AUSA in on status and hinted that I, as a formal ALJ, saw problems with the ALJ's decision. The AUSA then relayed my comments to OGC and after considering the record, the motion for voluntary remands were filed. This is a good way of getting rid of those cases, but it does involve a review of the entire administrative record, which I can usually do in about two or three hours. Judge Keyes, can you tell us something about the social security acquiescence rulings and the social security regs? Haven't there been some changes in this regard? Yes, they have. Prior to 1985, when a circuit court of appeals issued a decision which SSA felt was inconsistent, with its interpretation of the law and regulations, it would apply the decision only to the named litigants in that particular case and grant the benefits to that claimant if that was a decision. Then if SSA had other cases with the same or nearly identical facts in the same circuit, it would ignore the court of appeals decision in the earlier case. It would often even acknowledge the earlier decision but state that it was contrary to the rules and regulations of SSA. You can imagine how this went over with the courts of appeals when SSA had other cases before them. If the claimant in the later case did not know about the earlier case or was financially unable to appeal to the district court and later to the circuit court, SSA would have prevailed in its denial. Then in June 1985, reacting to scathing criticism from the courts and the Congress, SSA announced a new policy wherein it would thereafter apply conflict in circuit court decisions to later litigants but only at the hearing level. In other words, it would continue to apply the prior interpretation to cases to deny benefits at the initial and the reconsideration stages but will acquiesce in the circuit court's decision and grant the benefits if the claimant was persistent enough to request a hearing before an ALJ. Then after much more criticism, SSA in 1990 extended its acquiescence policy to all components including the state DDSs and the district offices. You can find a list of all acquiescence rulings from 1990 through March 12th of 1999 starting on page 1041 of the current 20 CFR parts 400 to 499. Now there are important differences between acquiescence rulings and social security rulings or SSRs. Acquiescence rulings are no more than concessions to the appeals court in the circuit which issued the conflict in decision and only applies in that circuit. They are published in the federal register which rulings specifically state that they are applicable only in that circuit or circuits. Social security rulings like acquiescence rulings are published under the authority of the commissioner. They make available to the public a series of precedential decisions and may be based on case decisions made at the all administrative levels of adjudication, federal court decisions, OGC opinions and the commissioner's decisions. SSRs are also initially published in the federal register then compile by social security ruling numbers in bound volumes. Although SSRs do not have the force of social security law and regulations, they are binding on all SSA components throughout the country and may be relied upon as precedents and adjudicating other cases. And SSR may be superseded, modified or revoked by later legislation, court decisions or rulings. Judge Keyes, I have a question about reversals and remands. What are the most frequent grounds for reversal and remand in your experience? Well, I have compiled a what I call the top 10 basis for remands or reversals of ALJ's decision. And these are the most frequent basis for remands in my experience. Number one, the ALJ failed to use a medical expert where medical evidence is unclear. Number two, the ALJ failed to use a vocational expert where the claimant has severe non-exertional impairments. Number three, the ALJ failed to give weight to the psychological or psychiatric evaluation obtained by the claimant's attorney, even though there is no contrary evidence in the record. If the ALJ had doubts about the validity of the evaluation obtained by counsel, he or she should have ordered a consultative examination and or had a psychiatrist testify at the hearing. The ALJ cannot make this medical decision on his or her own. Number four, the ALJ cites evidence both in favor of and against the claimant and gives more weight to the latter without specifically stating why it was more credible. Five, the ALJ indicates on the record that he or she believes that the claimant should have a consultative examination but renders the decision without obtaining one. It is clear that the ALJ has a duty to develop the record even if a plaintiff is represented by counsel. Number six, the ALJ uses the grid at step five to find the claimant not disabled when the record shows that the claimant may have a severe non-exertional impairment, such as one arm loss of dexterity, manipulation, mental impairments or environmental restrictions or the like. A vocational expert should be called in such instances. Number seven, there are indications of bias by the ALJ based on questions asked or comments made during the hearing. Now some lawyers will bait the ALJs into making mistakes so that the case can be remanded to a different ALJ. Number eight, there was a failure to comment on the testimony of the plaintiff's witnesses while assuming that they are biased and will say anything in order for claimant to get benefits. The ALJ does not have to credit their testimony just because it is consistent with that of the plaintiff which usually it is. However, he or she does have to mention it and make the appropriate credibility resolutions. Number nine, the ALJ fails to mention a whole line of evidence which if believed could arguably result in a finding of disability. Now although the ALJ does not have to cite every piece of evidence in the record, he or she cannot cite only the evidence that support his or her ultimate conclusion of non-disability. The ALJ must cite the contrary evidence and explain why he or she gives less weight to it. And number 10, there are inconsistencies between the ALJ's findings in the body of the decision and the severity of mental impairments indicated by checking the boxes on the psychological review technique form or PRTF. This is referred to as the quote B criteria, unquote. For instance, if the ALJ has indicated in the decision that the plaintiff has a severe mental impairment but that it would not preclude the performance of work, but on the PRTF, he's checked two or more boxes under the B criteria at least in the marked range. Then the plaintiff under the law actually meets a listed impairment and is disabled at step three. Remain is appropriate for the ALJ to resolve these inconsistencies in that regard. Thank you, Judge Keyes. You will now be known as the David Letterman of Social Security Appeals. However, I'm sure the combination of that look inside the Social Security Administration and your current perspective as a magistrate judge will prove valuable to our viewers. I would like to look at one last aspect of this topic before we end our program, the use of oral arguments in consent cases. In a number of districts across the country, magistrate judges handle Social Security appeals with the consent of the parties. The most obvious benefit of this method is that the appeal can be handled more efficiently and with less time. This is because the magistrate judge need not prepare a report and recommendation. Handling a case on consent also avoids additional briefing by the parties and review by the district judge. Of course, some litigants want the opportunity to have a second kick at the cat so they decline to consent to the magistrate judge. Magistrate judges will receive cases on consent by a variety of assignment methods. But an increasing number of districts are placing their magistrate judges on the civil assignment wheel, which includes Social Security appeals. It should be noted, however, that even if the magistrate judge receives the matter on consent, there is the same need to have in place an efficient method of processing these cases, such as mentioned by Judge Glazebrook. There is no need to comment on the preparation of a written decision in a consent case, although the decision usually involves less extensive reference to the administrative record since it is not being reviewed by the district judge. I would like to comment on another method of deciding a case on consent, which is the use of oral argument and rendering a decision from the bench. If used in the proper cases, this can be a very efficient method for resolving a Social Security appeal and one that avoids a written decision. First of all, what do I mean by the proper case? I find that oral argument will not work well in prosaic cases for obvious reasons. It may not also work in those cases that have complex or unique issues of law. In those cases, you may wish to write a decision, although oral argument could be helpful if the party's briefs have not answered all of your questions. Once you have selected cases for oral arguments, send out notices to the parties. I do not schedule more than two cases per day and allow approximately two hours for each case, which includes time for oral argument and delivering my decision. Since the government's case will be argued by attorneys from the regional office of the Office of General Counsel, an in-person court appearance may not be possible if the distance between the regional office and the court is great. In our district, the regional office is 90 miles away, so that does not present a problem. In some districts, oral argument is done by telephone, and I'm not certain if video conferencing has been utilized anywhere. I would find that preferable to telephone since I find that some attorneys will make an argument over the phone that they would not dare to make when they have to look the judge in the eye. Our district's briefing procedure encourages the parties to narrow the issues prior to oral argument. Our scheduling order limits briefs to 15 pages, so it forces the parties to concentrate on the issues that have some merit. If you permit more extensive briefs, you may wish to consider requiring the parties to submit an abbreviated version prior to oral argument, one which highlights the crucial issues. I do not set any time limit on oral argument, but find that they last about a total of one hour. I usually set the tone by asking the attorneys the questions that are on my mind after reading the record and their briefs. Let me emphasize here that you cannot avoid a review of the administrative record by holding oral argument. You have to do the same preparation that is necessary if you are writing a decision or a report and recommendation. This is because you must be familiar with the record and the issues in order to ask intelligent questions and in order to render a decision from the bench. In other words, this is not a work avoidant scheme. What are some of the advantages to oral argument? First of all, I find that the parties concentrate on the crucial issues which are often narrowed to one or two issues. Second, you can ask questions and get answers. Counsel are unable to equivocate or dance around an issue as can be done in a brief. As a result, you may obtain a concession from a party. For example, on the issue of waiver of counsel by the claimant at an administrative hearing, the government at oral argument may concede that an inadequate waiver was obtained. The issue then becomes whether or not the record was fully and fairly developed and whether the claimant was prejudiced by the lack of representation. I think that the major advantage of oral argument is that you issue a decision from the bench. Since I have fully prepared for oral argument, I usually take about 15 minutes at the conclusion of the arguments to review my notes and then return to court. In my decision, I state my reasons, but skip over the usual boilerplate and factual chronology that is contained in every written decision. In other words, I say, let's skip the procedural history which is in your briefs. There is no need for me to spell out the five-step test, which we all know. And let me get right to the heart of it, which in this case is the ALJ's finding at step five. Even if you are not prepared to issue a decision from the bench, oral argument may be beneficial if you have received answers to important questions and maybe have received a concession from the parties. In that case, however, you should follow up with a written decision while the matter is fresh in your mind. Otherwise, you will have unfortunately invested more time in the process than you can afford. After rendering an oral decision, it is still important to issue a brief order and judgment. If the case is to be remanded, the government has requested that my written order spell out the directives to the commissioner on remand. In other words, what is to be done? Finally, I've found that the attorneys like oral argument. What attorney doesn't always believe that they will be able to persuade the judge as to the merits of their case? For the attorneys from the regional office, it gives them an opportunity to experience a court hearing. Most importantly, the parties usually get a quicker decision. I suggest that if you handle social security appeals on consent, you may wish to try oral argument to see if it works for you. Well, that is it for the first part of our program. I want to thank judges' glaze-broken keys again for sharing their experience and insights with us. Be sure to join us for part two of our program when we will be discussing several issues at the core of the Social Security Appeals case from the perspectives of all of the different parties involved. Until then, for the Federal Judicial Television Network, I'm Judge Aaron Goodstein. Thanks for watching.


I'm Monica from the Public Health Rebrand to Data Science program, and here is your Data Science Tip for the day. Data Science Tip number 10. Preparing a GitHub Readme in R Markdown in Notepad is much easier if you use the assistance of an R Markdown editor.  Want to excel in health data science? Follow my channel to learn more about my mentoring program for career advancement.


Jesus says the one right use of judgment is how do you feel so if you start to get prompted to call certain people or visit some people and after the phone call or after the visit or whatever your relationships that we start off with so to speak and formulate during our life are there's guilt in them. There's guilt even though they're good times they have their bad times and they're guilty. So now the Holy Spirit is saying okay the way out of this is it's like a fresh start it's like actually going inside and thinking about all these people you can think about that one in particular and these other people and literally any moment in the Holy Spirit and saying you know what's best for them I'm not going to keep taking the responsibility for their happiness and their welfare on myself I give them over to you and also you want to inspire me to have guilt-free relationships and those are the symbols that come to you when you're open and serving the Holy Spirit you get witnesses of that love and that openness. I mean it's gone for me from being a very shy child, shy all the way through grade school, junior high, high school, shy all the way through university. Most of the 10 years of university I was very shy and then suddenly you know I finished those 10 years of university and of course the miracles comes into my life and I start going to after two or three years of reading it just on my own and listening to the Jesus and the Holy Spirit I started going to groups, I started opening my heart up and I started being, he goes frightened like whoa this is really threatening. After all those years of quiet and shy and isolated suddenly it was like the floodgates were opening up and I hurried and then as I just went with it over the years that was probably, I started traveling about 1991 so it's about 17 years now. Oh yeah, I just let the Holy Spirit bring me floods of witnesses of love and joining and laughter and happiness in 21 different countries so the floodgates more than opened up the flood came in and it kind of cleared away these things and the things that most people go through, I mean people will talk to me and they'll say well I've got to go to my 25th high school reunion or things like church classmates, churchmates, childhood friends and all those kind of things that most people deal with that involves certain amount of feelings those are gone from my life. I mean my friends, they're all like vibrational friendships that's how I know them is through this vibration. We were literally brought together by the Holy Spirit and those relationships are this flourishing and multiplying, like flowers in the garden, they're just blooming and blooming and blooming there's more seeds and there's more and more and more and somebody said, could say to me when was the last time that you saw or talked to like a classmate of yours that you went to school with? I'm like, what? I can't even I don't even have a space in my memory for that, it's probably decades actually what about your church that you grew up in, what about those people there? I was back there once but the Holy Spirit came ripping through and it was a very mystical experience but we had a lot of people that I had known were gone and there's not a lot of continuity in those kind of ways even in spirituality if somebody took a time-lapse photography of this peace house that I founded back in 1996 you would see all these different characters coming and going and including this body because I was off on travels you would just see a time-lapse photography like a collage of all these different people it wouldn't be like one person or two or three that were there the faces have changed some months even in my work with The Horse of Miracles the faces have changed in fact since about 1998 the only things that have been stable at the house have been my two cats I had these little cats and one of them even left when the person I were on seven months of travel the one cat angel left and her sister tripod the three-legged cat she looks like she's from another planet she's looking at these eyes and it's like where did you come from? I always tell her it's good that Spielberg never discovered you because who made one of his movies would be another he tea if I knew when I saw that face she's she's kind of a quiet little mystical three-legged cat she's she's happy to purr he's not into showbiz she's not and then another cat showed up when we were just taking up on that trip named Sam and he was about ready to be put to sleep by the owners who were moving out of the front house so he came out and rubbed him on the legs like need a home quick we're talking today and we were leaving for seven month trips so we said okay and there was a guy there I was going to record two CDs at the house while we were gone and Sam's been pretty much a fixture ever since then he's he's lives at the moment and he comes out from outside comes in and looks at you like he's never seen you before like who are you putting you in your own house and he'll like walk from the tile up to the carpet and he'll just like the carpet like the living in carpet as if he's never seen the carpet before or if he sometimes wants to jump up something he just stays when we keep looking down at him as if he's wondering if it's solid or not like really dramatic he's so in the present moment sometimes that he just gets this look on his face like he's completely blanked out all the time in his face and he's just totally in the present moment so it's like even the cats start to reflect our purpose our state of mind and they've been more fixtures than anything else even the faces have come and gone so so you get more into the purpose and you put less faith into appearances you know it's like you're ready you're open the door whoever's the door you're going to agree on the joy the phone rings and you speak the happiness and joy whether you seem to have the history or not it doesn't really matter you know it's like you're in the purpose with the Holy Spirit Jesus there so it's very welcoming very loving and uh and also when you're with people it feels like you've known them forever like you just you know know each other forever even if you just met you know for two or three minutes you know always this strong feeling of recognition like I know you oh yeah I remember you and it's very strong just becomes stronger and stronger and you learn to let go of the other stuff I mean I always had had the philosophy that everything is either a miracle or a miracle waiting to happen so there's no room for grievances or lost souls or whatever I mean if it's not gone on my path where joy I just have a joy surrounding me all the time and it's like that Charlie Brown character pink pen you know when pink pen is always dirty and there's always a big dirt falling I'm kind of in a cloud of joy so there's a cloud of joy around me and and anyone or anything that seems to be not a part of that joy they really can't even get very close to me it's almost like they can't penetrate joy there was there was some guy one time who was who was a very kind of a threatening menacing kind of character in the world's terms leading mess voice messages and saying kind of like when you get down here in Florida I'm gonna I'll meet you out in the parking lot like he's going to beat me up in the parking lot or something like this and people around me will go what are you afraid afraid what do you mean we got down to the Harmony Church we were in the parking lot where he was making all this threats that he was gonna do harm and everything and I had people with trail for states to come and see me and we just had the biggest comfort in the parking lot at Harmony Church and then we had a glorious gathering and I said yeah that's the way it's kind of like this joy that they said he was revving his motorcycle out in the parking lot after we were talking yeah I kind of remember something that I can't it's like it doesn't even reach my awareness anymore because you get into the state of joy and then you see a joyful world and you don't have heckler she certainly don't have any enemies uh like Jesus teaches you know if you if you believe you have an enemy you have a great need of prayer you have to pluck the enemy out of your own mind it's not like they're really external enemies but they're their enemies in consciousness when we have grievances that we hold on to those are the enemies we just have to pluck them out and hand it over to the Holy Spirit so I find that uh yeah a lot of people that I seem to have interacted with through the early years of the parable of David have disappeared it's almost like they disappeared and they were never there uh and I certainly don't feel any guilt I've got such a full life of joy that I'm not even thinking it and when people would even say to me oh have you have you seen so-and-so whatever happened to so-and-so you know those kind of questions are they and where is so-and-so they come up to you they ever talked or spoken to the person maybe for three decades and they come up and they say where is so-and-so they're in my mind how are they doing they're doing great because you start to realize that your mind is everything and that everything and every one is in your mind and of course if you're doing great that means they're doing great and you can answer with confidence even if you have to spoke to them for three decades you know that they're doing great are they still alive I guess so I'm alive in the spirit you know all those things that seem important in the world where they're living how their life is going are they living can they pass on you know just those things all disappear and there's no guilt it's very free it's a nice perspective except David I'd say if it's a parent they're not going to disappear from your life even though maybe um having opposite feelings that spirituality and I know if I spoke to my mother like you did with your mother even though I was trying to say respectfully I know she just think I was cookie and I would I would feel horrible but they basically I mentioned though they they turned around and they just started reflecting my joy and then my father that seemed to piss on and my mother still you know we just have been together for lunch and there's not so much frequency of contact just because this body is being used by the spirit and just for different continents and and yet it's like we don't miss a beat you know there's a little joy there but it can't seem that way I mean I've had a friend of mine was he was a girl was in prison had a child in prison and was hooked up with this man who's into drugs the drug dealer and I remember when she got out of prison I think her and her partner had robbed a bank or something and she got out of prison she just was could feel being involved with drugs and just could feel her life kind of being sucked back down into a very dark place and she she did pray she just got down to the knees and she said please god I know I've gone off something's going I get to feel it's going way wrong again in my life and she prayed for god to lift her up and help her out and then this man they found me hanging in the attic I think the next day she's not in the chair where there was some connection with mafia or you know you were making a prayer for for your life to turn people sometimes I pray for help from god and my partner hangs themselves and I'm not supposed to go really I said heavens no they're just symbols they're just images what would you want this is an attack top you want to come up there or or and take it out of your life or not you know you gotta play thinking of people as people these are all just symbols and it's the same with parents you know I had a woman down in Florida and she had this white curly hair and she was like she would tell me the story where she said I was flowing along in my life and everything was perfect in my life everything was perfect and really my coursework and I meant I said to god holy spirit you know I have everything that I could ever want I'm so grateful for everything for this mind training the only thing I want that I don't have is I would want I want a deeper feeling with my husband I want to feel him close to this like we share everything I want to give him deep love and connection the same thing it's not perfect so if there's any specialness in my relationship with my husband please take this from me this is the only thing I want and so about a month went by after she made her prayer she said I want a holy relationship with my husband that's my only prayer month went by and her husband was diagnosed with a tumor and the tumor began growing a month earlier when she had made the requests for a holy relationship I always tell this story because this gets rid of the appearance things and thinking you know what a holy relationship is or how it has to look so so as soon as she prayed for a holy relationship the tumors started growing uh her husband and it progressed and progressed and progressed and his health went down down and she had all this she'd been a nurse she'd done all this rest with care training and she said honestly I took care of him I bathed him we had we started talking as his illness seemed to progress we had more heart to heart talks that went from all this surface talking about the weather and this and that to really having these deep heart to heart talks deep communication I was saying yeah this coming it was not in the form that you imagine but but this deep connection she felt closer and closer and closer and she worked with this man loved him and cared for him and bathed him all the way again a year to the day after she had yes for a holy relationship with her husband and so I said wow that was a great lesson and then she said and then my husband died and I said I can't stay in this house I have to move and so she she looked around and she said I had no place to go so she said I moved in with my mother so she said I moved in with my mother about a few weeks later and I went there and she had this vicious dog baby ferocious dog prowling screaming might be able to assist this vicious dog I mean and so I said well what did you do I said holy spirit I need a holy I pray for a holy relationship with this dog I always tell this I tell this bear all over the world and the people go she killed the dog too but she prays for a holy relationship with the dog and the next day she went back and the dog was this passive and kind and gentle what did you do with my dog this is what I mean you know you know before it's the content and and people are really just thoughts and so it's like all this guilt comes from thinking of people as people somehow you have to maintain these associations and we've all know you had experiences when sometimes somebody's passed on and we felt closer to them after they passed and when they were buried in flesh and it's all a state of mind it's just we have to loosen ourselves from thinking about people as people because there's always going to be guilt when we are associating them with bodies you know could I have done more could I communicated more could I have better better friend a better partner a better lover could I would have should have guilt guilt guilt you know things could have been better I could have done more in everyone who walks this world with an ego self concept they they Jesus says they count the good and they count the bad and they hope that there's more good to offset the bad everybody is walking the service kind of keep a score in their mind am I going to make it back to heaven I've done all the bad if I've done enough good if I give them enough to cherry then kind enough with animals and the people you know as it's like somehow God's going to judge you in the end but God isn't a judge God is this beautiful being that knows you perfectly as you were created and the Holy Spirit is just the bridge that's working in your mind to clear away all this guilt and it helps to be able to talk openly about these things because it just gives your mind a different perspective on relationships you start to say when people lead your life that we're very negative you don't have to say oh my god I let them down or I could have done more of those styles are disappearing for a reason and when you meet people that are happy and joyful in your life they're reflecting your own desires wake up of course they're there you know they're symbols and witnesses you should feel good when you have loving people starting to surround you in your life but it's it's all you know very basic and practical it's all very mental it's all mine the scope of medical impulses and violence and of course kind of like a lot of these others sort of report to mind that there are just a lot of safe days in this area of this system yeah the distorted medical impulses I use the the metaphor of like like a prism where you have this beam of light coming down to the prism and then when the light moves to the prism it it splinters the light into a rainbow of colors and that's pretty much the way it works with distorted medical impulses that if you have an ego belief system and the light is coming coming up and the light gets filtered through the ego belief system it comes out the light on the surface of consciousness as cravings and wants and desires so when you want a piece of chocolate and you crave a piece of chocolate maybe with almonds or peanuts or something or caramel or whatever you're thinking of it that's a distorted medical impulse that's really god calling that craving for that chocolate it's god calling the craving for for sex or for warmth for different kinds of stimulations for entertainment you know there are many things in this world that seem to be very important in the mind can become somewhat addicted to them or they can turn into cravings but really it's just underneath it is the light calling the mind back so there's a miracle impulse a very strong miracle impulse to return to the grace of god but once it comes through this ego lens it will call it like a prism which is a very fragmented lens it fragments the call or fragments the light into all these cravings because the lens is the belief in scarcity the lens is the belief in lack so when you take this powerful impulse and you run it through the filter of lack it comes out on the surface of human consciousness as as a craving or want and it seems like it's very individualized like one person can crave one thing the other person can crave another but really all the cravings are the same because they're all ego cravings all it does is it's the belief is that there's a craving and if you do something in the world with the temporal you will satisfy the craving so when people are hungry or thirsty or horny or hot or cold you can actually seem to do things in this world it will satisfy the craving or lack for a short period of time and then it comes back again and again and some of you remember that terrible in the bible where the woman at the well wanders up and comes up to jesus and out of this word comes out as metal comes the holy spirit drink of me and you will never thirst again you hear that that's the miracle impulse drink of me and you will never thirst again and and so if you think of that's what this bright light is it's coming like a beam of light in your mind just drink of me and you will never thirst again and then it comes to the ego that is a lack and make him i want i want a coffee i need a tea it's a hot day i want a tall pool of less of water on the surface of consciousness for human beings that's how it's coming out so again we're back to the same thing inviting the holy spirit to help you clear away the lens of lack and what happens when you clear away the lens of lack you get a prompt we'll call the miracle impulse call so and so and and so you call them and have this delightful conversation your hearts open they're telling you thank you i'm so glad you called the day you made my day you're an answer to prayer so on and so forth when you answer those miracle impulses in a very direct way that's what we call being a miracle worker and when the ego lens is covering over those miracle impulses then it seems to come out in the sense that you can do something with the body or do something with magic or something of the world that will just temporarily satisfy you and then that's the human condition and you get right back into that's why people work so much to make a Jesus as meaningless things so they can get meaningless money and spend it on more meaningless things is because it's like craving satisfaction craving satisfaction it's like the whole world's just built to to solve those cravings in a temporary way without ever getting to the roots of where the craving came from in the first place so it all makes sense when she starts to have a comment what i recommend is that the text is is highly highly metaphysical and there's no parables in it uh no whereas parables you know how Jesus would teach two thousand years ago he spoke in public mostly in parables he wasn't speaking metaphysics back because he was over the head of all people so he would tell parables and he would just say things like for those that had the ears to hear let them hear and people would hear parables on different like they were so well designed that they could get different things out of them depending on whether there's a lot of consciousness and awareness so like for some people i said if you have a lot of difficulty with the course it may be a book like the last section of the rancher book uh the rancher book is the last section is the life and teachings of Jesus it's a much fuller picture of Jesus's life and great detail of his entire life unlike the bible where he said like oh we got a virgin birth and then boomies 12 he's in the temple uh saying to his parents you know joshina i have to be about my father's business and then kind of skips over all the teen years and the 20 years and boomies he's 37 years old and he's walking around calling apostles and then you go through three years with different versions of the gospels highlight different aspects of those three years and then you've got a crucifixion and resurrection very spotty the gospel is very spotty but they feel like there's really something to be learned from jesus so for me something like the rancher book is something that i would recommend uh i remember when i read through the last section of the rancher book it was it was like if i could have prayed for one full picture of human life it would have been for jesus you know give me a full full biography on on jesus's life all the little details you know to fill in how do you live this love how do you live divine love in a practical way with human beings all those high ideas abstract love universal love show me the practical things so i actually just had all these tears of joy just pouring through me when i was reading through that last section because it was extremely practical you know it was times like i was right there with jesus and it wasn't so much like the movies of jesus because a lot of the movies throughout the history and predicted you know all the like even the passion of the christ mill hipster's movie there's all this pain and suffering and sacrifice and everything even from jesus for the last temptation of christ you know it's kind of got a huge struggle even on the cross he's thinking of very raglan and imagining her and hitting kids with her it doesn't but it painted a very divine picture of jesus it's a more like he's just struggling to try to make it through and things in the bible saying in the garden of the semi the sweating blood wow i mean to listen to the holy spirit for three years and and i the father of one and you're gonna go sweat blood it sounds terrible why would you i think you want to follow the script you got a sweat blood to me those are the kind of things that i would just go come on let me have something a little more realistic well the last section of the dementia book is a realistic fact you've touched and you've been rajas one of those that are starting to start reading it and so if you're editing like with the course it's still not clicking i would suggest something like that for me i had many steps before the course they were in gospel of jesus christ was one of them was helpful a lot of different books kind of helping me open towards it and then by the time i got to the course you know my mind was really so open and ready that it was a very joyful experience that i could read it for you know about eight hours a day so it's still i can get resistance for the highlands would get like led weights even for me know at that point like no more then i'll just be gentle and it's again about being intuitive but i've heard many stories around the world in different countries where people the course went into their life and then they know that it's for them but maybe not just right now so they use it as a they put plants on top of it or they use it as a doorstop or you would be surprised at all the things some actually they're more like warriors you know warriors for christ they get in there and they work with it and the resistance is so strong that for one of them tore each page out individually uh through it in the toilet or throw it in the river you can hear all these stories because you have to really be ready for this book if you're not ready don't fight yourself you know there's just not the spirit guide you to something where you have a sense of resonance and you have a sense of your heart opening and in a way it may fall off the shelf and knock them ahead of two or three years or something like oh i guess it's time and you read it and then you open up or people who even read it a lot know that they're always saying i can't believe you said that i i can't believe i've read this book that it's it's in there you know because it's you're just ready for that particular idea and there it is it's been waiting all along for your life i found that um journey of young words by frank hassel um companion to the course was very helpful for me there's a terminology of course it's a bit overwhelming when i first started to to read the course but then terminology of um journey of young words was very simplified varies and provide and they always remind me of who i really was which was the son of god and it kept on reminding me and that consistently even when i slipped out of my mind it would remind me of that so then when i went to the course i felt like it was easy to remember you know i was because i'd already been reminded of something like what you said i wasn't ready for the course at that time even though it had been sitting in my shelf for 10 years i used so many tools underneath that that derive on course because it seems ironic and i wanted to get up in that one i don't know why that's been a bad license to me yeah there's there's lots of symbols too uh carry on arms books two books disappear to the universe and there are more of reality many people find you who have had struggles with the course where they start to get empathetic with it or start to feel the resistance was getting too strong they find those books often because there's so many parables of examples were included and still the metaphysics come through so so those can be helpful as well um that was my feeling when i first learned the experience of the universe is uh i've been teaching a lot of the societies that art and persa teach in that book um for years and i kind of laughed and went off it's finally in print because i was not copyrighted but um here was gary got the teachings put it in a copyrighted book and this is going to make my job even easier now you know people read it they get the metaphysics they get some good clear examples and many people have told me they just read through that book and then the course comes alive like it's like it's been hidden behind some veils or it's they've been in some dark chambers and then they pop through those and then they go up it all lights up again so there's lots of ways including our materials i mean i i basically have been doing this for 17 years and when you listen to the cds and the dvds and reading some of the materials there's so many examples and i use so many metaphors and parables that it actually helps uh clarify a lot of things so it's like you're still getting teachings but you're getting them in a context with many metaphors and examples and uh for a lot of people when the person's listening to a lot of the teachings over and over probably hundreds of hours and and jason and different ones who have worked with me uh they just nowadays with mp3 players are so small and portable you can go about so many antitivities and just have the little mp3s going in there and your mind is engaged even if you're gardening or taking a walk or doing one day they're going really deeply into the self-concept and she's kind of stuck couldn't understand and getting through the questions and i was on my walk like i'm going up so i just joined her and they're loud track board come out and put it here and correct me when new stuff on my plan and then get crashed on the floor and it's hot and then finally i got so far on walk and then she just popped through to this realization on the plan and at the same time i just popped through whatever it was that i was going through and then i thought i was looking to the post office and i just got almost here i mean oh i don't need to go to the post office anymore and i just turned around and walked back and it was in the shade that was so cool and quiet as beautiful meditation perfect just to help me just stir up all that stuff while i was listening to this recording and found teaching about the self-concept because the whole thing was about this belief that there's this world outside of you that can just do you and it was just amazing like by the time i got back to the house i was like wow they're like a 19 you you know get into like listening to a whole siege and then i would have a break and you might have a question for them and i would just please play and boom they're asking my question it's very dreadful but it's almost like if the mind is so deep that you need a guide to go down like someone to hold your hand take the lantern with because it's like going down this dark basement and having to go through all these dark crevices and caverns and this and that and that's really what a lot of material is i mean i've done so many gatherings and they've been recorded so people engage in those and it's like going down deeper and deeper and you hear the questions you hear the answers and it takes you way down it was just this past year this man kelly love has been a friend of mine for years the in north carolina united states was where the first horse americles group in the world was held um judy's gush went through gave a little book and they said let's study it other than uh i can't you can't even consider bill bill fedsford and how much up on the first group they were the first two students but they didn't really want to study the book or the notes and jesus had to dictate a lot number of chapters and finding out i want you to study the notes what i studied the notes you want me to actually study them so they really weren't a study group they were like this but they had good people in north carolina and kelly love was part of it so kelly's this was back probably in the 1970s so so kelly's been at this for probably over 30 years and uh i recently got word from him that he said my wife is not a horse american student she's had wanted nothing to do with the course of miracles nothing to do with the book and everything for 30 years he's held with it and he said somebody sent us one of your you might have it over somewhere sent sandpaper dvds and he said she watched that sandpaper dvds and she said what is this book i want to find out more about it this was like after 30 years of marriage you know just it was timing but whatever she saw the joy the laughter whatever was said on there something connected something started to resonate and to me that's a great testimony i said oh that's a wonderful little story that somebody just happened to get over one of those dvds and and feel like okay i want i want to open up to this thing and it's it's all working together for the good it's it's important to do the course of miracles with the root because i found i tried i have it all and it was very deep for me very um systemic or concepts and of course i do that very well but i don't get down into this area so so i've been doing a course in way of the heart which which is many many inroads in fact uh i think um i think there maybe there wasn't there a group i think right here in brisman they started off as a course of miracles study group and then they started receiving a lot of my emails and my teachings and so it kind of went from a course of miracles study group to an awakening mind slash course of miracles study group and then then it kind of turned into a support group where they decided to let's talk about our issues that's made it practical not just about theory and concepts and so it kind of swung into like a very experiential support group for awakening and then they cleared away so much that turned into a meditation group where they could anyone could speak but they basically just wanted to sit inside a communion so that's kind of a progression i thought i always remember that in my group here in brisman that there are many many inroads and so it's what we were just saying you do have to work with what resonates and then you take a step inward and many people talk about this they'll get to start off with necrotolating power now or conversations with god or the way of the harness just many many many many inroads to it and then as you go deeper the mind as you get more and more ready you know you're told about the next step it becomes apparent but there's no universal force in form for everyone the curriculum is highly individualized and so the only reason i put course of miracles and all the stuff that i've done is that was the path that i have to take along with what it is that we have found do you know what it is exactly that is it like the soul that's awake that that's not ready that what is it in us that that suddenly finds this thing what is it that suddenly wakes up well you might say that that when they're when you are finding something valuable in your mind's opening that's that's reflective of since one mind is all minds that's reflective of the state of openness is the mind that's awakening and when we seem to have partners or friends or people in our lives show up this seem to be resistant to that those again you bring it back to everything is mine those are still you can say these are my own doubt thoughts being acted out it's not really them that are not ready but those are just aspects of of saying i'm not ready for the transfer to go sweep across my whole perception so i've got an exception here maybe an exception here an exception there and that's just one's own doubts so in my life in the terrible day that you know i started getting into all the metaphysics going to course groups and traveling and yet i still would come back to the biological parents jack and ebbom and they would still be changing the subject to the weather really quickly or to the latest gossip about the family but you don't understand this is quite funny they at one point i think my mother ebbom she she looked at me and she said i don't need a minister i already have a minister we heard we've heard the comments and at one point ebbom i was just like i had so much joy coming out i could almost like not hold it in she just said you need to find other people share this with me that's the holy spirit and so so you start to realize that those are still the doubt thoughts or the places where that word hasn't completely transferred and it really you can't understand it from a soul perspective an individual soul perspective because they really aren't individual souls it's like the spirit but but when you keep it simple and you just bring it back to me what is this reflecting to me you always keep it in that framework what is this reflecting to me then and you just keep opening then it takes the pressure off of the partner or the friend or whatever and you get into this glorious state where you realize that it's all of you so to speak it's all one and there's no one to convince about anything and there's nobody that needs to gather or not and some of those metaphors that were important to me early on when i was developing was i i just want to be the people who are sincere who really want to go deep you know those are my parameters and i of course would get frustrated when somebody would come and want to talk about this event i think why did you send them to the gathering but it was just again my own doubt thoughts getting acted out and as soon as i let go of that as soon as i really got happy then i was really i could be of service i mean you can't really be a miracle worker and if you have doubts and fears so as soon as i got happy then i went around i had no parameters people could come and go as i want i didn't perceive any interruptions i didn't perceive anybody getting it or not getting it or you know all this kind of things just started to get lifted from my mind and it was just like everybody's became adorable even the ones that were i went through the bible belt and this young man ran and invited me to to his his parents church and invited all his family and friends down in louisiana and so i just showed up and just let's start really proving everything and they got on the topic of jesus and they think they are very strong ideas around jesus and they seem to get louder and louder and their faces start turning red and their veins and tell you to them oh i was just singing about adorable it's just adorable it's how passionate they are for jesus i'm thinking because the next veins are coming out and turning red i had a wonderful time uh the people carry you said she liked transcobbiness and i liked them david goes down in those situations because it's all real fiery and i i'm not talking about fire and brookstone i'm just going to pour through but but i just see it as kind of a unified perception so i didn't perceive the anger or whatever uh just to me it was a very wonderful experience and i just moved on i was born ahead of time that i could be tarred and feathered i would do this consistently the longer deep self that i had no fear of tarred and feathered but that's everybody else that that is not everybody else's business like it's my business guys business and then that and whoever else with business whatever journey that they might take and say the only business of mine could be exactly the same as the leg is the experience of how i view that person that's not per se going down the road that i want them to so that's their business and i have to stay out of that and i think what i can do is choose a theme through the right one and i don't know how that has an experience otherwise and then that way it leaves the whole world kind of freedom to do just um whoever to do whatever they want to do yeah because they say you're about to pass this story when you're when you're tuned in with god anything that's unlike god you do just take a look at the terms of releasing it um you don't you don't really ponder that on it's not even so much the beginning i was thinking why everyone's just doing the best that they can just a nice symbol to i'm just doing the best that i can and then the more that it started to kind of clear away and i started to see this dynamic of projection really was just an attempt to reject something from my own consciousness and see it outside is a trick as if it was they or them doing it once i started to realize i was silly and was then then it was just very attentive i was very attentive to my thoughts you know the ones that were joyful and happy and free and grateful you know those were i would i would align myself with those and the other ones you know it was like that's they don't serve me anymore so it was a sense of like just going where i always just go around invited i had never a sense to go uh to another place to try to heal somebody or open up uh a certain person or group or whatever i never saw uh that way i just saw it as joyfully listening and following guidance for my own awakening and not thinking of it as them the thing is with with the partner is that you you are seeing you are actually one and there's a set of beautiful worlds whatever and they're not but it doesn't work like that in the long run it's just seeing them as perfect and beautiful even though that the stuff that's coming out of them before would have triggered and there would be an anger or something but it's it's just now if if you embrace that loving part they change if you just need the experiences with love it really doesn't change the other person and cannot not be changed because you're not reacting how you were it is very good it seems like they change and then you think oh my gosh it's my perception it's right that's right because people said that about my mother and father so no other people have said that these change too easily so and they're just reflecting it's just like all reflections of yes it is it's very empowering it is empowering because i do think the love and and there is positive vibrations really do encompass everyone yes that's what it means in the attitudes you know um someone on the mount where jesus says you know what's about the meek that they show on her in the earth and if he talks about that then of course the like overtaken with their strength strength and weakness are the same and when you become so unified in a lethality single you're so unified on your purpose it literally transfers to the whole world all perception finally becomes turned around and cleared up and so that's what it means that those who are the meek for they show on her in the earth they're in heredity because they've changed their perception of it and then owned it in one sense in a good sense they said currently things out and say i'm glad i don't like that one or i'm glad i don't like that one some of those old pensions by way of for the grace of god there go i it's like thank you for the grace of god there go i you know it just it slips the whole statement around from you know i'm glad i'm not like them to oh i'm exactly like that actually thank god i'm exactly like that


Here we are along the beautiful James River. This site is one of the most important historic sites in America. It drives a huge part of the economy in this area and people come from all around the world to see where America, as we know it today, got its start. That extraordinary scene experienced by John Smith and everyone else in 1607 will be affected, I think one could say, be destroyed. Dominion is already staging their equipment to build a 3.5 mile power line across the James River. They say, well, there are things along the bank down there that are modern. Those are very small in relative terms within the view and dramatically different from what the transmission line would be. Once something goes across a body of water like this, it's marred forever. For decades and for centuries, we've made decisions to try to protect this area and the thought that we might lose that and not be able to pass it along to my sons is really troubling to me. There's got to be an alternative. I may cost a lot of money, but what is the price of that piece of river? And I think it's just priceless. It is possible to put it under the river. It's an investment in protecting this scenic viewshed and all the environmental resources. If it costs a little more to go under the river, do it. There also was an option of expanding the lines that are currently crossing at the James River Bridge in Newport News. When you weigh up those options, do you really want to destroy a 400-year-old, 1,000-year-old viewshed with these massive towers? We're not arguing that we don't need power. We all use power, we all need power, but we also want to protect our heritage here. Why not have your cake and eat it? We can, I think, do both, and we should do both, and we can't afford not to.


Remember the millions of Marines who have filled our ranks throughout our history and earned our reputation as the world's most lethal and feared fighting force. Be proud, stay loyal, train hard, and most importantly, be ready. Happy birthday Marines, Semper Fidelis.


A lot of us tend to get annoyed by certain types of people, whether it's religion, politics, diet, whatever. But one thing you can do and something that I often do is ponder. Why is that person so passionate about that thing? Typically, it's for some really good reasons that maybe I haven't taken into consideration. So next time you find yourself wanting to roll your eyes at someone being passionate about something, I challenge you to seek out the answer to that question from that person.


Welcome to the Virtual Linguistics Campus P MOOC, Linguistics 101 Fundamentals, our permanent free online offer for everyone who is interested in language studies or linguistics, or both. In the following, we will briefly look at the class syllables. We will explain the basic principles of using a permanent MOOC and we will say something about the class requirements. Accessing the class is simple. Just log in with your personal data and you will find the class on your personalised VLC start site under your current classes on the Virtual Linguistics Campus. A click on the class name leads you to the class start site where you have access to several class-related links. For example, to the bibliography, to the links section, of course to the class description which is this video and links to the social media, for example, to the Facebook group associated with this class. Furthermore, and this is a novelty in the world of online courses, your class is a P MOOC, a permanent MOOC. But how does it work? Here are the central principles of using a VLC P MOOC. Central to our P MOOCs is the idea that you have access to all units of a class at any time. However, if you wish you can also define your own fixed rhythm using the class timer. Let's say you want to go through the class on a weekly basis, then select the 7 days rhythm. If this is too short for you, go for the 10 days rhythm. If it's too long, select, say, a 4 days rhythm. Please note that the rhythm is just a guideline for you. It marks the unit you should work with in red and makes available the practical solutions in time. Whenever the red marker moves on, you will see these clickable symbols on the practical sheet. But note that, of course, you are free to change your rhythm whenever you like and you can always override it at any time and access any unit of your choice and the components within it. Let us now look at the content of Linguistics 101. After an introduction to the central goals of linguistics in the first content unit, we will go through the core areas of linguistics from phonetics to pragmatics. At the end, you will understand what linguistics is all about and you will know the basic concepts to proceed with further courses. For example, with our permanent MOOCs 102, 103 and so on. And our teaching and learning concept? Well, studying online on the virtual linguistics campus simply means go through each unit at your own pace. Make use of as many VLC options as possible. For example, if you don't know what to do, use the advice options on each unit start site. And if you want to contact your peers, either use the class-related forum or the Facebook group, MOOC Linguistics 101. And if you want a certificate? Well, here are your options. The simplest option is the statement of participation issued by the virtual linguistics campus. You will receive such a certificate for regular and active participation, including the submission of at least one worksheet and for free. Once you have successfully submitted a worksheet, you will be eligible for such a certificate and can open it by hitting the open statement button. The second option is the statement of accomplishment also for free and issued by the virtual linguistics campus. To be given such a certificate, we not only want your regular participation, but we also want you to do the mastery worksheets, our electronic tests, one for each unit. And we want you to achieve an overall score of all the worksheets of at least 60%. A simple click on the open statement button and the certificate is yours. If you want to obtain a graded statement of accomplishment, select yes down here. This most advanced option of certification includes your precise grade, the workload in hours and a complete list of all the tasks you successfully submitted. This graded statement of accomplishment is issued by Marburg University in conjunction with the virtual linguistics campus and it involves a fee of currently 45 euros. Once you have satisfied the conditions and have decided to obtain such a certificate, you first have to open the invoice and transfer the money to Marburg University. And once your payment has been accepted, you can download your personal graded statement of accomplishment via mouse click. Well, that's it. In case you have more questions, do not hesitate to ask us. For example, in our Facebook group, the rest is up to you. Thanks for your attention and see you soon.


What's going on everyone Sam here with late and sports guards. We are ripping 21 Panini flawless collegiate football hobby at one box break number 47 random left-side serial numbers There's a look again at your ran results as always you define those on the website under the results tab as well as the link in chat good Yeah, okay scared me for a second there Sort the range here Keith taking a spot down to four to go on the next one everybody just four spots to go on the next one We have one more of these four to go. Let's get that filled up. Here we go Flawless collegiates that's very solid in her. All right. Here we go. Stay on the back Going to the 14 spot 14 spot is DW DME Brown It's like ACC patch potentially That's sick for UNC 14 of 15 DME Brown Nice one here going to Nathan Q at the two-spot trait Lance Three-colored patch auto. I mean three colored patch non-auto non-auto three colored rookie patch. Very nice Grads on that one there Two-spot Nathan Q Next up we've got going to the four-spot Daniel I Darius slain that is Jersey and two-color patch auto It's player one as well very nice very nice very nice for the four-spot FCS legend going to the six-spot that is gonna be Matthew COP Gardner Minshew on the Star Swatch six of 25 layer worn on that very nice Gardner Minshew remember Minshew mania Five of 15 five-spot Josh C. Earl Campbell nice one there and it's gonna be five of 15 Here he goes Josh C on the five-spot Very cool. Congrats on that Josh We've got going to the one-spot Joel B one of 25 Aaron Jones Very cool UTEP legend 2020 flawless collegiate that is from Aaron Jones very nice and 14 of 15 DW again on that 14-spot Baker Mayfield Two-color two-color patch auto for Oklahoma. That's sweet dude. Why are worn on the Baker? 14 of 15 Baker Mayfield Empty empty. Let's do our outer now and start here. Just go into the 18-spot that is Douglas G Derek Henry on the flawless diamond Nice one there for the University of Alabama 18 of 25 King Henry This is going to the eight-spot. That is Derek K Trevor Lawrence eight of 15 on the rookie diamond For Clemson and the eight-spot Down to three to go in the last one or the second one now T law eight of 15 very nice and very nice one here Going to the one-spot one of 25 Justin Fields two-colored RPA There we go one spot Joel B killing it with that one spot. There you go Joel. Congrats my friend That is a fantastic card for sure for sure for sure for sure one of 25 J fields That will do it here for the break guys again empty flawless case Thanks again for getting that filled up. We got one more of these after gotta get it filled


Hello everyone. Today I'm appealing to you over the years. I have helped many students and their accounting courses as well as preparation for the CPA exam. What I'm looking for today is some students to share with me, willing to share with me their experience. Simply put, I'm looking for some volunteers to record a similar video to what I'm doing right now. Tell me their name. How did they find my YouTube lecture helpful? Whether they were studying for their accounting courses or their CPA exam and recommended for others. I already posted this notice and I received several videos. I would like to share with you as a sample, but please I'm looking for a few more. So if you are willing to do so, remember, I'll be posting those on LinkedIn and on my YouTube and other places. So if you're willing to do so, please help me. Why is that beneficial to you? Let me tell you why this is beneficial to you. Standing in front of the camera and speaking, it's going to increase your confidence. It's going to increase your communication skills. So it's a skill that you want to have. You might have to do the recording several times. That's okay. That's part of it. That's part of learning. Also, you are going to show yourself. You're going to test yourself how well you do this later on with your employer. You can be the face of your employer down the road and obviously you will be helping me. The way I will be using those videos is to market my videos to other students. So when a student sees another student is using them, they are more likely to use my videos. So you'll be helping me, of course, and I appreciate that, but also you'll be in a way helping or training yourself to present, practice the speak in front of the camera. Anyhow, I will have few videos. I will share with you a few samples just to show you what am I looking for. I hope you like. Use the most out of it and see you online. And of course, stay safe. My name is Irene and I'm accounting professional in one of the big four company. I was trying to pass my CPA exams and I was using one of the national review courses and I was doing really great, but I needed some more explanations on theory and I found Professor Farhad's lectures. Those who are really helpful for me to understand some theory and comprehend a little bit more information. So I could easily solve my multiple choice and task based simulations questions. I would like to recommend Professor Farhad's lectures for those of you who cannot really memorize and remember all those concepts because Professor Farhad is great in explaining those concepts. So you do not need to memorize them. You just will understand and be able to use them whatever you need to solve questions. Good luck. Hello, my name is Heidi Salinas and I took intermediate accounting one at California State University of San Marcos and a spring 2020. I watched Professor Farhad videos before going to class to help me understand the charter. And prepare me better for my quizzes and tests since he explained everything clear and easy to understand. I always recommend Professor Farhad videos to students who asked me how I pass the course and I hopefully you take advantage of his video too. Thank you Professor Farhad for taking the time to create all these videos and help students like me. Oh, my name is Jay and I'm making this video to describe my experience with Professor Farhad's lectures. First and foremost, I want to say that I've never came across any other CPA free tutorial YouTube channel that pretty much helps you with any material you can imagine. I don't know how Professor Farhad does it, but he's a very knowledgeable guy. He knows how to it's like he gets inside of the students body and then transforms into a professor while he's teaching because it's like every question that I have. He answers it very clearly, very easy to understand and for that, I think I'm thinking a lot. He definitely passed helped me pass a lot of my college exams now thanks to his encouragement with his channel. Now I'm sitting for the CPA. Anyways, thank you.