The talents of Thomas Jefferson
Posted by Melissa Shaw in Family Life on July 7, 2011
Wisdom from our forefathers… How was it that so many of our Congressmen had a difference in opinion, but believed in the same principles? The principle of capitalism needs to remain alive and well in America. Our grandfathers knew that necessity was the mother of invention, and they went to work to create! America is the land of creativity! We nurtured the arts and the creative talents that made America the land of inventions.
We need to be creative again in a big way! Things actually can be made in America still, and we know a lot about marketing. Keeping your local economy working is better than having one big FEDERAL economy. 50 different states that come together to create on United States of America. Each state has a little different flavor and color that makes the melting pot of America more flavorful and delicious. We don’t need one big country that all looks the same.
America was founded on the principle “We the People in order to form a more perfect Union! Not under the premise We the Government in order to form more perfect People!”
Thomas Jefferson got it right when he said that “Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.” What can we agree on?
The Royal Wedding
Posted by Melissa Shaw in Helping lead the Country on April 28, 2011
I remember in 1981, when I got up very early while it was still dark. I wanted to see Lady Diana Spencer marry Prince Charles. It was a wonderful courtship and the wedding did not disappoint us. I was a young bride myself at the time. We watched them have children together, heirs to the throne. It was a beautiful thing. The Queen could see life, and her mother was still alive too. It is fun to see your bloodline thrive.
The Monarchy has a place in history and it helped early man survive and evolve. The Monarchy still has a place in this world in the hearts of its’ people. Diana became the Peoples Princess as an honor we bestowed upon her from our hearts. Her death brought it out in all of us, and we truly mourned together as a world. She was always my friend, and truly my hero too. Her heart was as beautiful as her eyes. Her eyes, and that shy Di look she had with her sweet smile. No wonder Elton John loved her so, that his heart cold pour out his song at a time my heart was crying. And her poor sons. Those boys we loved so much. Mummy.
As it turns out Charles stepped up and did the best he could. The boys have thrived and done well. With William about to marry, and Harry as his bestman, my heart sings with Diana, as her ring adorns Kate in a terrific day! I’ll get up early again, and I celebrate all around the world with a much needed hug from our hearts.
America was part of that group before we broke away. George Washington was brilliant when he did NOT become a King, but a President instead. We took all that good old English and European knowledge, and created something we called the United States of America. It was different. And we the people, with good hearts continue to have hope for a brighter future. Mothers are kinder than Fathers, and our connection to Mother Earth and the globe is real. We do know that now, “Go World!” is a true statement. We are all part of Mankind. I hope we can find that kindness again. It’s so easy to just be mad, and stay mad. Leadership with vision is the key. At least with the Monarchy we have hind sight, and we can see many bloodlines. Seeing the past with a new perspective can help you make better choices for the future.
Are you ready to travel?
Posted by Melissa Shaw in Helping lead the Country on April 13, 2011
We just got our new US Passport in the mail, and it is beautiful. I’ve had a passport since I was 13, and it made me feel like a global citizen. When I traveled in Europe the blue USA Passport was like traveling on the “gold card.” You were treated well, and they knew we were a secure nation of good people. Europe wanted our travelers there! Many of us had DNA roots in Europe. Back in that day we checked “white” on the paperwork and forms. Today I’m a EuroAmerican!
The new Passport ID Cards are very good too. This is the card that should be used for voting. It’s valid ID and the technology is state of the art.
It’s time for Americans to see America again. Visit a National Park. Learn history first hand at Williamsburg. That is an experience everyone should get to do at least once in their lifetime! It is a terrific opportunity to step back in time.
Make a family memory and take a road trip! You’ll never regret it. Maybe you’ll find someplace else you want to try living for a spell. America has a lot to offer.
Visit the web site for the Western Travel Initiative. It is well done.
Why we didn’t need Obamacare.
Posted by Melissa Shaw in Helping lead the Country, Let's help Congress do their job. on April 6, 2011
In 1996 we had Kennedy-Kassebaum which was intended to fix the health care problem. It gave self employed the Medical Savings Account, a forerunner to the newer Health Savings Account. “They” were paranoid too many self employed would take advantage of this new tool, so they capped the number at 700,000 eligible participants in the country.
We never got near that much participation initially and they have tinkered with it ever since.
There are so many rules and regulations that continue to bog down “the system” and make it so honest men can’t comply.
MANAGED CARE March 1997. ©1997 MediMedia USA
LEGAL FORUM
Kennedy-Kassebaum Law Means Greater Fraud Scrutiny
BY NEIL CAESAR, J.D.
On Aug. 21, President Clinton signed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 into law. HIPA is extremely significant for physicians and managed care organizations. I’m not referring to the portions of HIPA that gained the most press coverage–namely, the creation of an entitlement to (and mechanisms for) more affordable and portable health insurance. Rather, HIPA creates perhaps the most substantial and dramatic change to health care fraud-and-abuse laws since this category of legislation was created.
As we begin to explore these sweeping changes and their implications, I predict that we will draw three conclusions. First, HIPA makes the government more intrusive than ever in its commitment to seeking out health care fraud, and also makes the government more eager than ever to probe potentially unethical or illegal actions. Even when no fraud is found, the costs and burden from government and payer inquiries and investigations will be substantial for physicians, other providers and managed care organizations subjected to scrutiny. HIPA also creates an incentive for the government to seek financial settlement from many of the providers and managed care organizations that it investigates, even in circumstances where it previously would have walked away from the investigation because it was not likely to be worth the cost and effort of continued probing and/or prosecution.
Second, HIPA demonstrates that the federal government has become more responsive to the growth of creative and alternative systems and structures for delivery of health care services. Among these are alliances, management services organizations and integrated delivery systems. Some of this recognition, you will note, takes the form of new rules and means to fight fraud by these new systems and entities. Other rules reflect the converse: The government realizes that approaches that differ from “tried and true” methods do not necessarily indicate improper intent or encourage fraudulent activity.
The third conclusion reflects the first two: Every health care provider and managed care organization must put into place an appropriate health care fraud and abuse compliance program. At a minimum, every physician or physician group and managed care organization must undergo prompt and regular legal and financial analysis of its health care compliance activities, must correct deficiencies identified in that analysis and must implement a program to reduce the likelihood of these sorts of problems occurring. Period.
The question no longer is whether you can afford a health care fraud and abuse compliance program. Rather, it is whether you can afford not to have one.
Anyone may blow the whistle
Let’s start with one example. Section 203 of HIPA requires the secretary of health and human services to implement a program that will encourage people to report information about health care fraud. The program is quite broad. It encourages reports of improper activity in the past, even when it has stopped. It encourages people to report improper activity involving kickbacks, false claims, mail fraud, false billings or almost any other activity that relates to penalties under the Office of Inspector General’s areas of authority.
Longtime readers of this column know that one of my recurring themes is that our behavior is influenced by rewards, whether financial, egotistic, spiritual or other. HIPA also recognizes this observation about human behavior. It authorizes payment of a reward to anyone who reports information that leads to the collection of at least $100 under any of its law enforcement provisions except for the anti-kickback law. My understanding is that this reward program will be modeled on the Internal Revenue Service rewards for tax fraud tip-offs. IRS pays up to 10 percent of the amount recovered. When fine and penalty are added to overpayment, this can easily be very lucrative.
The new HHS program is dis- tinct from provisions of the federal false claims act that permit health care “insiders” who are aware of fraud in their organizations to undertake a lawsuit against the allegedly fraudulent providers on behalf of the government and collect part of the proceeds. The new HIPA incentive program, in contrast, permits any individual to obtain a reward. A beneficiary is eligible, a competitor is eligible and a health care adviser is eligible. (Note that the attorney-client privilege requires lawyers to maintain confidentiality about wrongdoing by their clients. But this does not apply to other health care business advisers!) Basically, if you are aware of the possibility of past or present fraud, you may receive a reward regardless of who you are.
Also, note that the law pays a reward simply for reporting information that leads to the collection of funds. The person does not have to sue the fraudulent provider. A physician would not, for example, need to risk becoming an outcast in the medical community, viewed as disloyal or greedy. Indeed, the reporter often will have no involvement beyond the initial conversation(s) with the government. And since the primary mechanism for this reporting will probably be some sort of hot line, the person may not even have to meet directly with government agents.
Are you your brother’s keeper? You betcha! And a darned lucrative job it can be, too!
Required: attention to detail
I don’t mean to be flippant. This system can go a long way to encourage people to report fraud that would otherwise never be reported. But I have had many clients suffer the burdens of government scrutiny without having engaged in fraudulent activity. This is especially true now that the government asserts that repeated billing errors may constitute a pattern of fraud. Thus, inattention to detail can easily subject a provider to a fraud investigation. HIPA will increase that danger.
Incidentally, note that Section 203 also requires physicians and other providers to give beneficiaries an “explanation of Medicare benefits” form for every item or service, even if there is no deductible or coinsurance payment required of the beneficiary. At present, EOMBs are issued only where the beneficiary will pay for part of the service.
This means that Medicare beneficiaries will know all charges claimed by health care providers. In theory, this will alert them to potential fraud. In practice, it will probably lead to a lot of complaints about $40 bedpans and $10 Ace bandages.
Are you getting a bit nervous? In another column, we will explore additional ways HIPA will affect you.
Neil B. Caesar is president of The Health Law Center (Neil B. Caesar Law Associates, PA), a national health law/consulting practice in Greenville, S.C.
A Proud American
Posted by Melissa Shaw in Helping lead the Country, Let's help Congress do their job. on March 25, 2011
If you could stick together, as 87 Proud Patriotic Americans, committed to old fashion values, and not sell out for cash and power, would you?
We have that group right now in our new freshman congressmen.
We must return to the vision that Benjamin Franklin showed us when he gave away money to a university, to hold and manage for 100 years before they used it. He was brilliant, to show us compounding interest grows geometrically. But so does debt, and we all know that lesson now.
We all need to brush up on our history lessons. My son’s 8th grade school paper is a perfect start. The world actually runs at about a 10th grade level these days. Are you smarter than a 10th grader? America has invested in its EDUCATIONAL system.
JFK was brilliant to launch the space program because it fine tuned our focus and helped us apply ourselves as a group. The most incredible technology has come out of NASA and the space programs, and it has enriched our lives in SO many levels you would be amazed.
Let’s help the Gang of 87 do their job with public support for serious REFORM. Start with the mayor in the local town, and help the Chamber of Commerce create viable businesses without over regulation and complication. Let us be creative at the local level, and the state level using what we know about the welfare state se feel. The money is in the budget already, just being spent in inefficient ways.
As a planner, you see the future and work to create it. How can we come off the “oil” based forms of transportation we use? Can we use other means to create a efficient community and people mover? Can we use something as simple as a roller coaster to move people around? The UNIVERSITY system is an asset America has built. We need to grow around our educational system into vibrant local economies. We can make things here in America, and use them locally.
Retirement villages are needed for the time span of age 65 to 100. We know our people will live long, and they can be a part of society long past their prime. Let us. Build those communities around your existing infrastructure. Create and revitalize your downtown area and clean up the place.
Nurture the arts, and the artists. Creative people bring value to society and they always have. A vibrant community always includes the churches, the charities and the arts. Get back to basics.
We need the food banks and the soup kitchens but we also need the Camps to help rehabilitate people back into usefulness. When you fail financially and emotionally you may require help to get back on your feet.
The famous “Hoover Towns” of the 1930′s were evident when the money supply was too constrictive, and it didn’t flow in a free banking market. You must remove some of the regulatory challenges that were brought upon the Insurance and Banking industry, so that they work to help the people grow once again.
The solutions that the Gang of 87 can present to Congress should be the will of “We the People.”
If we hold Congress out to the FIDUCIARY standards they would see that they are working with Our Money, not their money.
We the People, in order to form a more perfect Union.
Not, We the Government are going to form more perfect people.
Let’s help the Gang of 87 stand firm, even if they don’t get reelected.
Let the old ways go buy up cheap real estate somewhere and retire.
If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.
Grandma always had a garden and an apron
Posted by Melissa Shaw in Family Life, Helping lead the Country on February 12, 2011
My hero as a child was my Grandmother in her 70′s. She led by example. Her garden was refreshing and a constant thrill to retrieve things we would eat, and her kitchen just worked. The salt in the salt dish, the can of bacon grease, her sour dough pancakes were my favorites. You had to start it the night before!
She loved Jesus, his teachings and his music. Her example as a mother and grandmother showed her offspring how life should be lived. She had a good life and a long life. She was loved.
Now, 30 years after her death, she lives in me still. That is how you carry on the family tradition, values and integrity. Thank goodness she had a business sense too, and she learned about real estate, stocks, bonds and how to carry back paper. She and grandpa were smart business people and they raised a family during the great depression. Grandma was full of stories!
When women all had to pull together, to get the vote, to make a difference, to advocate for ourselves and our children, we thrived.
We must come together once again for a 2020 Initiative to nurture our communities, our cities, our state with kindness, because we need to help save the failing without a government bailout.
Housing is at the base of someone’s life. Where do they live and with what stuff. In the end, stuff matters. But life is not all about stuff.
Kindness in people is the goal. Man is not really very kind. He is downright mean to each other. Jesus came to set man straight.
Women understand kindness because we birth the babies. It’s an act of mother nature that is beyond man. It’s a universal principal! It’s truly a miracle! As mothers we advocate and nurture. As half the population we need to step up and nurture the world. The women who know how to lead are around me, and together we can all have the thought that brings us out of this mess!
A fabulous use of technology for a community…
Posted by Melissa Shaw in Family Life, Helping lead the Country on February 6, 2011
When we were growing up, the ability to “get around” provided the freedom in life. It was transportation. The ability to get around beyond your own feet!
It quickly moved from horse, to wagon and train. In Pasadena, CA Henry Huntington brought us the Pacific Electric streetcar in the 1930′s that revolutionized Southern California.
Our last visit through Dallas airport gave us a chance to ride the SkyLink. It was such a great use of transportation and a way to link a community. I wanted to share photos so you could envision the future with me! Our Universities and educational facilities are the core fabric of America. They are an asset and an economic force. We need to use them to help our cities and states. Could a municipality become self sustaining with revenue and resources? What if the retirement community like a Leisure World was owned within the retirement fund? Real estate is an excellent long term investment because people do need a place to live!
Who would invest in those bonds? Baby boomers come to mind, and a generation of people that grew up with good music and liked fun and toys. And the generation right behind them too!
 |  It is the modern day version of the village! |
The SkyLink at Dallas airport
Moving people around with ease.
Where you have a healthy local economy families thrive. Small business continues to be the fabric of America, but people need to be able to get around. Is there another alternative to everyone owning their own car and being all spread out? The villages of Europe were the original communities, and all the artists worked together to create their economy.
It helped a lot when we added clean water and sewers to society. Electricity really brought us along too. We take it all for granted these days, but 60 years ago life wasn’t as automated as it is today.
We wanted a lifestyle that looked like the Jetsons, and the handheld technology we have is just about there! When you add a SkyLink type technology to your local economy, you create opportunity.
We love the idea of high speed trains, but a great healthy local economy between Orange County California and San Diego , CA could be brilliant. Monorail service to Palm Springs and back could be a wonderful economy to encourage. Even all the way to Las Vegas is within reach. Highway 395 is the Mother Road of California, and a route they favor for the train from North to South in the state.
Retirement communities and recreational playgrounds are the gift that California offers the baby boomer generation. We may have been part of the 1960′s movement, and we will be part of the 2060 solution too.
Adding the long term vision to our planning process makes the decisions we face today clearer.
We need to listen to the great mind of Thomas Jefferson.
Posted by Melissa Shaw in Helping lead the Country on January 24, 2011
Wisdom comes with age. Knowledge alone is not enough.
There is a talent to leading and seeing what the future should look like. Understanding what isn’t working, and course correcting. The long range vision is what should lead a country. For me, “Willing to Thrive in 2025!” became my own mantra. I’ll be 65 then, and I can see it already.
Thomas Jefferson was a very remarkable man who started learning very early in life and never stopped.
At 5, began studying under his cousin’s tutor.
At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.
At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.
At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.
At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.
At 23, started his own law practice.
At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
At 31, wrote the widely circulated “Summary View of the Rights of British America” and retired from his law practice.
At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.
At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence.
At 33, took three years to revise Virginias legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.
At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia succeeding Patrick Henry.
At 40, served in Congress for two years.
At 41, was the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.
At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.
At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.
At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of Republican Party.
At 57, was elected the third president of the United States .
At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nation’s size.
At 61, was elected to a second term as President.
At 65, retired to Monticello .
At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.
At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.
At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence along with John Adams
Thomas Jefferson knew because he himself studied the previous failed attempts at government. He understood actual history, the nature of God, his laws and the nature of man. That happens to be way more than what most understand today. Jefferson really knew his stuff.
A voice from the past to lead us in the future:
John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the white House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: “This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
The 2020 Initiative
Posted by Melissa Shaw in Family Life, Helping lead the Country on January 15, 2011
It’s easy to see the retirement of the baby boomers in the decade ahead, and how Social Security and Retirement Income all come together in “lifestyle” and then ultimately death. That’s right. You won’t get out of life alive. In the end, there is an end. And for some, then comes eternity. An interesting thought for sure.
If you had a Great Park to look at, with a 2050 time horizon, how would you build it out brighter, smarter, more thoughtful to energy and water and even transportation? Do we have the creative minds to do it? You bet. California has been built around engineering, transportation and business. We do know something about oil, concrete and steel too. We are bright creative fun people living in delightful weather. How can we cash that check and help our State come up with better solutions that don’t discourage business and growth with too much regulations and taxation.
They promised us the Jetsons! How can we use monorail technology in and around Southern California? How can we have a system between LA and San Diego, and include Palm Springs and Las Vegas. We have the airlines, and they should be doing great. Travel and Lifestyle is always a number one goal for people, after they have security, food and the basics. Why have we made travel so “not fun?”
In my days in Europe in the 70′s traveling on an American Passport was like having “the gold card.” Americans had control of their people, and their data base, and they were a good country. Their currancy was solid, and the Americans were fun, smart and kind.
We could use that Patriot Card again now in our American Passport. The background check is a formal part of that process. It’s like applying for FAFSA and getting a PIN number so you can get financial aid for college kids. You are in the system already.
Now, do we all agree that beheadings are bad? What went on in Alcapolco was not good. Mexico suffers with a new kind of bully. We have had our own American experience with that kind of behavior, and we agree it is unacceptable. There actually is a LINE for behavior, and it is always up to debate. That’s why we have a Constitution, the Amendments, and The Bill of Rights and the Court System.
America has a wonderful INFRASTRUCTURE. 1950 was the year of my parents marriage. They had 5 kids during the next decade. We had wonderful Grandparents on both sides with a broad storke of European DNA. We were the “white” on the forms. Now we are the EuroAmericans, and you know who we are.
Social Security was designed in the 1930′s to be a safety net for society. In all honesty, you shouldn’t pull your benefit until age 65 at a time when life expectancy was 62. It was a pass thru funded system based on taxation of wages. I have my grandfathers original paperwork from 1937 in my office. It was like your “insurance policy” with America.
You pay in while you are young, and take back benefits when you are old, or disabled, or you die we have survivor benefits. They never dreamed we would have so many wives, and children, and live so long! We should be able to BANK hours of service to charitable causes while we are young, and then be able to draw from that same “charitable bank of hours” as an old person to be able to remain healthy and independent. Old people need good housing and good communities within which to live. Not die. But death is actually part of that whole process, and it can be planned for too.
Are you willing to look back and see where we were in 1900 with the Pacific Electric Trains, the growth of LA and suburbia and the opportunity to find “leasure time at the beach.” In the 1850′s we were trying to get to CA and survive too! By the 1950′s my parents were married in a nice back yard ceremony with an opportunity to make a life for themselves. In 2000 they had arrived at 50 years of marriage looking really good, with their kids in good order, their health holding up and enough money to have a great lifestyle. They had arrived.
By 2050 they will be gone, but their 5 kids produced 13 grandchildren, and the great grandchild count is nearing 10. They paid into the system and they left a whole string of others to pay into it too.
When we let the “immigrants” into the Social Security system, we undermined it because their lack of premiums through wages into the system put a huge drag on the system.
The other mistake we have made is in having Social Security be a pass thru system without actually holding the assets. If it held the bonds that funded the retirement villages we would live in some day, around a lifestyle that encouraged education, the arts, productivity and recreation, then we would have a society that boomers and others would want to be a part of. Baby Boomers would buy into a retirement story like that. Just look at how many people enjoy Mammoth area. Can we harvest that geothermal energy up there and use it for a retirement community? How can we be creative and come up with new ideas for our State of California? Highway 395 is the Motherroad, and the mining story all along there is great history from the 1850′s era.
Does a municipality really need to always run in the red? How could a city be profitable, and even own some retirement real estate for the community it represents? Can we have a layer of local social services that help take care of the “people” before the government steps in? How can we run our books smarter, and work to be profitable and accumulate assets, with all our education, creativity, technology and systems we already have in place? We can.
The 2020 Initiative is simply that. A “can do” attitude of America.
We welcome the Chinese 2011 Year of the Rabbit
Posted by Melissa Shaw in Family Life on January 10, 2011
As we say goodbye to the Year of the Tiger, we welcome in the Year of the Rabbit, that it may be a softer, warmer and more pleasant year! I love this painting by the artist Spring! Let me share her with you in this post. I am personally so grateful for all that the Chinese have done for us, and for America.
Original art by Spring Liao