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Musings about Detroit, the Kahlo/Rivera exhibit, the Detroit Symphony, and the Mayo Clinic.

Rice is a staple of the Japanese diet. Japanese-grown rice costs twice as much in Japan as the same rice sold in other countries. This is because of a convoluted system of distribution and middlemen, which raises the price far beyond the actual and reasonably expected price of rice.

The price of healthcare in America is similarly inflated. . .

Photos from Jordan and Israel.

For the third year in a row, Susan and I attended the conference Middle Eastern Nurses Uniting in Human Caring. This year’s title was Human Caring in a Time of World Crisis, a theme chosen almost a year ago, before the most recent war between Israel and Gaza, before the hideous executions by ISIS, most recently of a Jordanian pilot burned alive. . . 

Four years ago, Susan and I toured Jordan for the first time. Through the internet, I hired a driver/tour guide based on an ad from a Jordan tour company. This driver, Mazen, met us at the airport holding a sign with our names on it. Spending hours together with him in the car that first year, we became close friends with Mazen. We have hired him as our tour guide during our three subsequent Jordan visits. Mazen has invited us to his house twice for dinner with him and his wife. Both he and his wife speak enough English to get to know each other well enough to cement our friendship. . .

The world is a big place…I was picked up at 3am to travel to the Mumbai airport for a 6:40am Turkish Airlines flight, which flew seven hours from Mumbai to Istanbul. After a couple of hours in the chaotic, crowded, and very international Istanbul airport, I flew two hours to the Ben Gurion airport outside Tel Aviv Israel. Met by Susan, we traveled half an hour by taxi to the town of Rehovot, where Susan’s sister and her husband have lived for many years. . .

It’s often said that India is a land of contrasts, which I am happy to confirm and illustrate. India has some of the world’s richest people and many of the poorest. It has luxurious high-rise apartment buildings, surrounded by the huts and hovels in which the servants, maids, drivers, cooks, and workmen live who take care of their richer neighbors.

February 2015: If I am counting correctly, this is my fourteenth visit to India, starting the first time in 1971, again in 1982 & 1983, again in 2002, and finally practically every years since 2005 on tour with Mynta. It is very gratifying to have made so many great friends here, that my social calendar is filled with trying to connect with everybody. . .

My father was a Superior Court judge in Columbus, Georgia. His legal philosophy was ahead of his time. He believed that “victimless crimes” were contrary to freedom and the intent of our constitutional founders. His theory of law was that the force of government should only be used to protect people and property, not to incarcerate people for what they do willingly in their private homes. Thus, he believed that prostitution and drugs should be legal. He came close to losing an election when his opponent claimed Judge Smith was “soft on drug dealers.” (He was!) . . .