@tawtovo@mastodon.social
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

tawtovo

@tawtovo@mastodon.social

I don't know where I am, metaphorically speaking.

Profile pic: Syriac mon
Header pic: two entries of a #Syriac dictionary, which say:
Tawtovo, tawtovto, root y-t-b. a sojourner, stranger, foreigner; a settler, a lodger.
Tawtovutho, root y-t-b. feminine. pilgrimage, sojourning, dwelling in a strange country.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

Teri_Kanefield, (edited ) to random
@Teri_Kanefield@mastodon.social avatar

Okay, I wrote the blog post I said I'd write: A more thoughtful explanation of why I refused to answer a few questions this week.

It's here: https://terikanefield.com/beware-the-lawyers/

This blog post could have been called “Why you don’t need a lawyer to answer your questions about legal issues in the news.”

Mostly it’s about former TV pundit Peter Arenella’s piece that I posted earlier.

If you get the error message, this is why:
https://news.itsfoss.com/mastodon-link-problem/

Just wait a minute and try again.

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@Teri_Kanefield
Thank you for another thoughtful post! But as someone who avoids partisan legal punditry, I still think you overestimate the legibility of the actual legal facts to non-lawyers. For example, you mention googling parallel cases, but most of us don't know of any parallel cases or even what issues would make a case parallel (though I did learn that Oliver North went to trial after 11 months, and Steven Rosen didn't, even after years). So I got there, but I value your explanations!

RealJournalism, to Georgia
@RealJournalism@mastodon.social avatar

Eight out of the top ten states that had the highest death rates voted for in 2020. The other two -- and . The vaccine denial coming out of FOX News and other right-wing media outlets significantly contributed to Donald Trump's defeat. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/6/2239188/-How-The-Right-Wing-Media-Killed-Its-Own-Audience-To-Own-The-Libs?pm_campaign=trending&pm_source=sidebar&pm_medium=web

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@mekkaokereke
Isn't your first point largely a result of more pandemic time under Biden? The first peak death rate (April 2020) was under Trump, and the second (February 2021) was inherited by Biden from people who were infected before his inauguration, and no subsequent death rate has matched those first two peaks (either raw numbers or 7-day rolling averages).

I strongly disagree with Biden's Covid policies! (Trump's Covid policies were worse.) But your first point seems logically shaky.

augieray, to random
@augieray@mastodon.social avatar

STUDY: "Regardless of the severity of the initial disease or the age of the patient, PASC (Post-acute sequelae after SARS-CoV-2 infection) is very likely to affect the quality of life of the patient after 'recovery'. This article gives a preliminary description of some of the symptoms of PASC. After SARS-CoV-2 infection, it mainly affects the respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, psychiatric, urinary, blood, skin, and digestive systems."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41419-024-06642-5

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@augieray

With a list like that, what doesn't it affect?

Hurrah for the skeletal system, I guess!

GottaLaff, to legal
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

1/…🧵 #TrumpTrial #Trump #legal

Let’s start with this, via @darthstar, because NY has laws that govern #GagOrders. I heard the Legals on TV say the same thing as Sean here:

https://mastodon.online/@darthstar/112320741962522803

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@GottaLaff Thank you!

Teri_Kanefield, to random
@Teri_Kanefield@mastodon.social avatar

I did what I said I would do with this week's blog post:

I analyzed the heated comments to last week's blog post.

I found it all so interesting that I kept thinking about it. Me: 🤔

https://terikanefield.com/the-ronna-mcdaniel-story-fall-out/

I installed that cloudfare cache plugin people were recommending so if you get that 500 error let me know (and I will growl -- but not at YOU. I will growl at Mastodon)

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@Teri_Kanefield
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I still got the 500 error when I clicked on the Mastodon link preview insert (that looks like an image at the bottom of the post).

But thank you for posting!

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@Teri_Kanefield
Another very sane post, thank you for writing it! I'm not a consumer of punditry (I try to ignore opinion pieces and never watch TV), but I quibble with the claim that the fact-based news adequately covers the legal news. I find your discussions of those issues helpful for (1) elucidating jargon and (2) establishing what is typical behavior in non-newsworthy cases.

To help mitigate US news outrage, I often read international news (e.g. BBC, Guardian, al-Jazeera English).

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@Teri_Kanefield
I've seen them when you've linked to them, and I've appreciated them! Is there a way to access them without providing an email address? WaPo is almost entirely behind a paywall for me as a non-subscriber.

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@Teri_Kanefield
You instructed me yesterday to remind you today to post a link to Washington Post's weekly update on the Trump trials. Thank you!

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@Teri_Kanefield Thank you!

tawtovo, to random
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

Mary of Egypt reportedly converted to Christianity during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. One of the earliest pilgrim accounts of Jerusalem is that left behind by a Roman woman named Egeria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egeria_(pilgrim)


14/?

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

A later princess was married to Ozbek Khan of the Golden Horde (in what is today Russia). The Moroccan Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta reports her name as Bayalun, but what her Greek name was is lost. Her husband being Muslim, she appeared as a lackluster Muslim in the Mongol imperial camp, but reverted to when she returned to Constantinople to give birth to their child in the 1330s.


40/?

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

The princess Anna of Kashin (d.1368) is an unusual saint for taking time off from sainthood. Her biography is unremarkable for a princess of Tver, but her recognition as a saint in the 1600s was jeopardized by the Old Believer schism, because Old Believers favored her. She was canonized in 1649 following a miraculous deliverance of Kashin from siege in 1611, but she was decanonized in 1678, and then recanonized in only in 1908!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_of_Kashin


41/?

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

Julian of Norwich (d. after 1416) was an "anchoress" (a hermit permanently enclosed in a cell in an urban setting) and known for recording visions which came to her when she was very sick. Her writings are apparently the earliest English-language texts known to be authored by a woman. Her writings were less important during her lifetime than her advice, and she was sought out by leaders, as well as by Margery Kempe (see next).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_of_Norwich

42/?

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

Margery Kempe (d. after 1438) was another English credited with writing the first in . But first, she was a businesswoman and mother, who later wrote frankly of her failed business ventures, stylish clothes, her loathing of sex with her husband, and her desire for an extra-marital affair. She went on long-distance pilgrimages to , , etc. She was repeatedly tried for heresy but never convicted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margery_Kempe

43/?

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

A very complex figure is Joan of Arc (d.1431), who claimed to be inspired by the archangel Michael & conversations with St. Margaret & St. Catherine to drive the English occupation out of France. At age 17, she inspired the French army to victory over the English at Orleans, where she was called "la Pucelle" ("the Maiden") by the French, and "la Putain" ("the whore") by the English. She was later captured by the Burgundians & sold to the English.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc

44/?

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

The English put 19-year-old Joan of Arc on trial, & she was convicted of the of [checks notes] cross-dressing. She abjured that heresy & promised to wear only women's clothes, but then her captors took away her clothes and provided her with men's clothes. When she put them on, then she was convicted of relapsed heresy and burnt at the stake. She was canonized a almost 500 years later, in 1920, and ironically is now commemorated in the Church of England.

45/?

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@strypey
I didn't say "the Anglican church" put Joan on trial, but "the English," referring to a party in the Hundred Years' War.

One could split hairs: the "English" king was the young Henry VI, whose mother was a French princess & who had also been crowned King of France in Paris in 1431, so how English were he? The trial was conducted by mostly French clergy (largely from the University of Paris), but they favored the "English" side of the war, & she was imprisoned by the "English."

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@strypey
You are right to reject the notion of a "nation-state," which did not exist in the medieval period! But "the English people" certainly existed before the nation-state, and "the English king" also existed before the nation-state.

I think you credit the medieval papacy with more power than it in fact possessed. The pope was not a sovereign over the rulers of Europe. Sometimes in fact the pope was a captive of European rulers (e.g. Boniface VIII at the end of his reign).

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@strypey
It's important not to mistake the pope's propaganda from neutral statements of fact. The pope certainly claimed to be sovereign over secular kings, and of course rulers claimed to rule by divine right, but in practice "the Church" was a hotbed of intrigue, popes often didn't get what they wanted, and the long history of rival simultaneous popes (all but one labeled "antipope" but only ex post facto) reveal times when the papacy was unable to rule all Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipope
1/2

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@strypey
I don't think you're splitting hairs, but I suspect you are misunderstanding medieval Europe through essentializing "the Church" (while avoiding nationalism).

Re: Joan of Arc, "the Church" was split: pro-English clergy (including pro-English French clergy) were against her, while the pro-Charles VII clergy were for her.

The people who ransomed her from her captors and arranged her show-trial were English people, so I think it makes sense to say "The English put Joan of Arc on trial."

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@strypey
Technically almost all of the clergy involved were French (but were not representative of all French clergy, however defined). But the impetus for the trial came from the English nobility who were trying to conquer France in the name of their boy-king Henry VI.

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@strypey
Language is hard. You pick your battles. The further back into the past you go, the harder it is to speak meaningfully about it.

But there are some common misunderstandings, such as the idea that "the English" were always a cohesive "nation" (which both of us reject) and conversely that "the Church" was always a cohesive organization (which I can likewise demonstrate to be false).

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@strypey
Sure, I accept Durkheim's framework of "social facts." And I fully accept "The English nobility put Joan of Arc on trial" (grrr, character limits).

Joan wouldn't have been tried for heresy if she hadn't led forces into battle. Whatever the "useful" charges were, the military context of the Hundred Years' War (understood without nationalist subtexts) seems to me the dominant social fact, which moved (part of) the Church to act as it did. But the Church shaped the landscape of options.

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@strypey
What was a medieval European "state"? A gang with fancy titles.

> Back then the primary justifications, motivators and inhibitors of military action were theological, not political

This statement is fully false. The primary motivators were wealth, power, & political posturing. Crusades were few compared to contesting thrones. The main inhibitors were resource limits & threats of violence. The justifications varied with the audience. The Church shaped available options only partly.

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@strypey
As a historian rather familiar with both, I struggle to see any way that Islamist networks resemble feudal European politics. That's just silly.

You referenced justifications, motivators, and inhibitors, and I responded to all three.

> making sure the person supposedly anointed by God was in charge

This played only a small role in justifying warfare. More commonly, it was justified by "honor," claiming "rights" (usually to inheritance), or opposing "oppression." Not very theological

tawtovo,
@tawtovo@mastodon.social avatar

@strypey
One thing I've learned as a historian is that broad statements need to be based on evidence, because a priori reasoning from a few axioms will consistently mislead us. Human history was always messier than we expect today.

In this discussion, you've critiqued my evidence-based assertions without citing countervailing evidence, only broad theories of medieval religion/politics. That works in some social sciences, but it's backwards from a historical point of view.

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