Patrick S. O'Donnell has been making contributions to this blog in the form of comments since our inception. We greatly appreciate his contributions to not only our blog but the blogging community in general. If you're a regular peruser of blogs, then you've undoubtedly come upon a comment by Mr. O'Donnell. The Medical Humanities Blog had this to say about Mr. O'Donnell:
Patrick has led a fascinating life, to say the least. After earning a M.A. in religious studies, he worked in construction, and then for over a decade as a finish carpenter. One of his former instructors at University of California Santa Barbara, Nandini Iyer, wife of the late Raghavan Iyer, and mother of the travel writer, novelist, and Time essayist, Pico Iyer, asked him to fill in for her while she went on sabbatical.
Soon enough, Santa Barbara City College realized what it had on its hands, and asked Patrick to hang up his toolbelt and teach classes in Comparative World Religions and Critical Thinking. He has also taught courses in Political Thinking and in Animal Ethics. He names as mentors two scholars whose work I am well acquainted with, in Dennis Patterson and Oliver Leaman. His current interests include ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of law, and he is also cultivating interests in philosophy of mind, and, of course, medical humanities.
Like Jeff Lipshaw, I've had the pleasure of "meeting" Patrick in the comments of various blogs I haunt, and a more knowledgeable, insightful, well-read, and decorous interlocutor I have yet to find.
In a post about Mr. O'Donnell on the Legal Profession Blog, he asked the author of the post to add this little bit about himself:
That I'm a vegetarian that looks like anything but; that I've never flown in a plane (although I did fly in a helicopter with the USFS to fight a fire in an otherwise remote area of Ojai); that I don't own a cellphone, a microwave oven or have any credit or debit cards; that I've never owned (and probably never will own) a car less than 20 years old (were it not for the heat, in other words, I'd be perfectly at home in Cuba); that I don't own a suit; that I absolutely abhor (get quite claustrophobic in) crowds (which means I'm confined to watching the Dodgers on television [but if Vin Scully is announcing it's about as close to heaven as I can imagine]); that I won't live anywhere in which the necessities of life are not within bicycling distance; etc., etc.
Mr. O'Donnell is certainly an interesting person, and he has been kind enough to forward us copies of his recently updated bibliographies of Comparative Law, Human Rights Law, and International Law. You can download the bibliographies (Word docs) by clicking on the links above. The bibliographies make excellent resources for anyone researching these fields, and we thank you Mr. O'Donnell for sharing these with us.
Travis,
It was very kind of you to make these available to others.
Truth in disclosure: My best friend and wife of close to 30 years, Diane, reminded me that I have, on occasion, relied on the fact that she has a credit card.
And I feel a bit remiss for not commenting on this and other blogs of late in light of your generous remarks, as I've been devoting more time to projects that don't require me to be at the computer (I like to write everything in pencil first), but I do try to read the blog posts now and again.
I wish your blog continued success...and happy holidays to everyone.
Posted by: Patrick S. O'Donnell | December 18, 2007 at 08:54 AM