Ben O'Donnell
Recent Activity
Enough With Race and IQ Tests Already
Race and IQ tests are two nebulous determinants of nebulous qualities that have incited fractious and controversial reactions as long as they have existed. … Read More
February 20, 2009 | In Arts & Culture
Finding Friendly Interrogation Methods at the Wall Street Journal
In a recent editorial for the Wall Street Journal, author of the Bush-era "torture memos" John Yoo warns against Obama's closing of Guantanamo and effort to stamp out Geneva-unfriendly interrogation methods. … Read More
February 20, 2009 | In Arts & Culture
In Japan, they have a saying: first the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes the man. Or, at least in the case of former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, the drink take's the man's job. … Read More
February 17, 2009 | In Truth & Justice
Could Blagojevich Take A Hint From India?
For decades, the average Indian citizen could vote for the governmental representatives of his choosing and then follow their foibles in the news—and that's where his access to government ended. … Read More
February 9, 2009 | In Arts & Culture
In Wake of Downturn, Rethinking Vomit
In the Sunday New York Times Magazine, Deborah Solomon interviewed philosopher J. D. Trout about empathy. During the course of a rather hostile interview, Trout invoked the image of the Roman vomitorium as a metaphor for waste and excess, and Solomon challenged both the metaphor and the actual existence of the vomitorium in Roman culture. … Read More
February 4, 2009 | In Science & Tech
I have recently worked as a traveling wine correspondent for the Francis Ford Coppola blog knoWine.com, as well as at the Hood Museum of Art in New Hampshire and the literary magazine The Paris Review. I am now a freelance (unemployed) writer. I am interested in classical cultures, classical art and architecture, classic literature, classical, rock, and rap music, but not so much rock-rap or rap-classical.
