Lao Tzu's biography is encased in legend – much like the life of Gautama Siddhartha, the Buddha. Why is it that the details of the lives of the great founders of Taoism and Buddhism are not the stuff of historical interest in anything like the way the details of the lives of Moses, of Jesus, and of Mohammed are?This is for a world religion class! only pages pg.209-232

Respond to two colleagues separately with a discussion of why the evaluation of policies is often controversial and political and how the values of evaluation conflict adhere to social work values. What policy advocacy skills can social workers use to ensure that appropriate evaluations are being conducted on policies? Post 1 ST Evidence-based policies are ones that achieve positive outcomes when they are evaluated with research (Jansson, 2018). With that being said it is important to evaluate policies in order to see if specific things about the policy is working and not working. Evaluation of policies not only is done when a policy is passed but from the very beginning. Jansson (2018) states that policy assessment forces us to ask how, if at all, the world is different because specific policy exists, and what, if any, difference it would make if we remove or modified policy. Even if there is research backing up the success or not successful aspect of policy, there will be decision makers who will still not agree to modifications or changes to policies and that is where conflict of evaluation can come in. As advocates for change and social justice, adherences to social work values are important. As a policy advocate and evaluator we become debaters and must defend their arguments (Jansson, 2018). Jansson mentions tools that can be used to defend EB policies: -Find comparison groups that are not exposed to the specific policy. -Gather data to examine outcomes of a specific policy with respect to specific criteria and reference to comparison groups. -Develop a sampling strategy that ranges in rigor from convenience ones to random samples. -Use statistical analysis to determine the probability that differences between comparison groups could have occurred by chance. -Interpret and present findings to stakeholders in ways where they can retain information and approve specific policy. (Jansson,2018). When looking as social issues, values and research work hand and hand, due to the fact that they both are needed in order to promote change for individuals dealing with specific problems. Assessing policies is the starting point for creating a world in which evidence and ethical values of social work function to produce effective social welfare policies for vulnerable populations (Jansson, 2018). Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series. Post 2 TS Policy evaluation is definitely influenced by values. Policy makers decide on which policies to enact based upon certain criteria and especially the recognition of the public. Policy practitioners often want to know whether an existing policy is flawed or meritorious because the answers have important implications for a number of people and institutions (Jansson, 2018). For example, the United States education achievement, healthcare industry, and poverty rates are unequivocal to other countries in comparison. Data compiled from unrelated resources show that the U. S. is losing ground to other high-income countries on multiple measure of health and socioeconomic well-being (nap.edu, 2013). According to Jansson (2018), policy assessment forces us to ask how, if at all, the world is different because of a specific policy exists, and what if any, difference it would make if we removed or modified the policy. Policies in regard to these issues have to continuously be evaluated and revised to obtain greater results. The health industry changes all the time and poverty rates are steadily increasing, therefore policies in reference to the issues are influenced by the need of the people and what policy makers believe will be most beneficial to the public/people. According to the values of Social Work, all humans deserve access to resources, compassion, human relationships, authenticity and integrity, non-discriminatory treatment, competent providers, and ethical treatment, in which the values of evaluation are the same. Assessing policies is the starting point for creating a world in which evidence, and ethical values of social work function hand in hand to produce effective social welfare policies for vulnerable poulations (Jansson, 2018). Practices I would use to defend the effectiveness of EBP are research and values. According to Jansson (2018), research and values complement one another with respect to many social issues. Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series. Chapter 14, "Assessing Policy: Toward Evidence-Based Policy During Task 8" (pp. 488-503) National Academic Press. (2013). U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. Chapter 8, “Policies and Social Values” (pp. 207-238) Retrieved from https://www.nap.edu/read/13497/chapter/13#238  

Describe, in detail, the presidential disaster declaration process and the role and assistance provided by the federal government once the disaster or emergency has been declared. Include a recent example of this process at the state level where a presidential disaster declaration was issued. Then, discuss your reaction to this process and its applicability to you as a citizen who may be involved in an area where a disaster has occurred. APA 7th edition citations. Use at least one article to support the information provided.