Man, every time the New York Times disappoints you, it’s like “HOLD MY BEER, I’LL SHOW YOU DISAPPOINTMENT,” and you’re like “you just did,” and they’re like “I’LL SHOW YOU AGAIN,” and you’re like “I believed you the first time,” and they’re like “I SAID HOLD MY BEER.”

Politico has a report out on what a petty snotnosed little twink the Grey Lady really is about Joe Biden. Literally. “The Petty Feud Between the NYT and the White House,” it’s called.

The Times comes off like a brat throughout, but they’re like NUH UH, the Biden White House is the real brat! They seem to have amnesia about the previous administration they spent four years sniffing the pantlegs of for access. Or rather, they’re still sniffing those pantlegs and fucking that chicken, like nothing has changed from one administration to the next. Meanwhile, the White House is — shockingly! — perturbed that the Times is like this.

Speaking of access, this is the anecdote that really stands out: The NYT is so bitchy about Joe Biden’s age because he hasn’t sat down with them for an interview, and their asses are sore about that. Wait, did we say their asses? We mean publisher AG Sulzberger’s delicate ass:

[T]he newspaper carries its own singular obsession with the president, aggrieved over his refusal to give the paper a sit-down interview that Publisher AG Sulzberger and other top editors believe to be its birthright.

Oh. Good. God.

It gets stupider:

In Sulzberger’s view, according to two people familiar with his private comments on the subject, only an interview with a paper like the Times can verify that the 81-year-old Biden is still fit to hold the presidency. […]

“All these Biden people think that the problem is Peter Baker or whatever reporter they’re mad at that day,” one Times journalist said. “It’s A.G. He’s the one who is pissed [that] Biden hasn’t done any interviews and quietly encourages all the tough reporting on his age.”

The Times is of course hitting the fainting couch with denials over this characterization, WELL I NEVER! and all that tomfoolery.

But Media Matters collected its nerd data and found that, over a five-month time period last year, the Times mentioned Biden’s oldness in 98 articles, and that they are about as shitty as Rupert Murdoch’s Republican mouthpiece Wall Street Journal when it comes to mentioning Biden’s age without also mentioning Donald Trump’s extremely similar age.

(By the way, secret Wonkette sources — a commenter, in the comments — say Biden is going to be at the Wall Street Journal today. We hope he is there to give them five interviews, and then give interviews to Fox News and the Daily Mail, just to really, super duper rub it in.)

And then of course, after Special Counsel Robert Hur slipped MAGA Republicans the tongue with his report on how Joe Biden Is Too Senile To Commit Crimes, the Times came all over itself writing 30 fucking articles in four days about Biden’s age/mental fitness/general oldness.

Politico goes through a bunch of the reasons the Biden White House isn’t in love with the New York Times — because it definitely ain’t just the age thing — specifically citing its ridiculously shitty and credulous reporting on whatever Russian talking points Republicans are serving up about Hunter Biden that day. Going WAAAAAAY back.

Oh, a box of Wonkette receipts on that? Here:

Just unbelievable garbage, and unbelievably poor judgment.

We don’t need to give you 1,000 more links demonstrating what terrible journalistic decisions the NYT makes on a weekly basis, particularly when it comes to how to cover Donald Trump vs. anybody else who might be his current rival. Hit that search bar up top and look for “New York Times” to refresh yourself on this site’s coverage of their awfulness. Here’s a bit of what those search results look like:

And that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of how deranged their reporting about Hillary Clinton was.

Get bored with that? Go play on the New York Times Pitchbot Twitter account.

That account is even making fun of how very NOT MAD the Times is about that Politico article:

Jeezus.

Go read the whole Politico article. It’s just a bunch more stories about the New York Times being extreeeeeeeeeemely New York Timesy and utterly clueless about the proper role of journalists in the American age we live in.

We’ll be over here reading our morning Washington Post.

[Politico]

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It will come as a surprise to exactly zero regular readers that I have been contemplating the concept of obscenity lately. What may come as a surprise to you, however, is exactly why I have been thinking about that. And friends, it’s not because medieval people are being prudes – it’s because we are, now.

This actually comes up for me rather a lot because of my book. You see, the very excellent One and Future Sex (which is available now in paperback! So if you haven’t got a copy yet I am choosing to interpret this as a personal slight!) has a very gorgeous fifteenth-century image on it which features both the Virgin Mary and Eve. (Yeah, it’s that one up there at the top. Nice right?) I chose it because it does a great job encapsulating medieval and modern conceptions of women. In that we can either be perfect virgin mommies are we are temptress sinners who will drag all of humanity to its ruin. (Freud referred to this as the Madonna-Whore complex when it exhibits itself in individuals, but this is a Deulezian blog, and also I don’t believe in the individual, and society already expressed these concerns historically, so hey ho.)

Anyway, great image! Historical! Religious! It also means that I cannot advertise my book online, and that it gets flagged as obscene imagery on social media sights. I am being serious.

This has happened because of a really bad piece of legislation in the United States called FOSTA/SESTA. It’s one of those gross paternalistic attempts to “save” women from sex work, which of course only makes the lives of sex workers dramatically less safe.[1] As a part of this, anything that mentions sex, or any images which show nudity – more particularly nude women – get flagged as potentially part of a sex trafficking scheme or something. (Fun fact – most trafficked people work in the agricultural sector, or also very commonly in nail salons. But apparently that is all fine and we need to focus on what some idiot thinks sex trafficking is because they’ve seen Taken.)

I want to be as clear as possible – the primary victims of SESTA/FOSTA are sex workers, who have a harder time advertising, see themselves criminalised, and miss out on ways to organise, find each other, and work more safely as a result of it, but there are knock on effects as well. It is, for example, almost impossible to do online sex education. And also I can’t sell a book with a picture of Eve that is half a millennia old because it’s just TOO DAMN SEXY.

This would be incredibly funny if it wasn’t affecting my livelihood, because it just shows how here in the twenty first century, we are way more prudish than medieval people were. Medieval people a) can absolutely handle a picture of Eve being naked, and b) also understand it in a religious context which, in theory, should nullify the who sexy thing.

To be fair, this does not always work, and is part of the reason that Protestants went all iconoclast, but fundamentally medieval people erred on the side of “if you are finding yourself turned on by this painting of Eve that is a you problem.” We, apparently are unable to do that, and have decided that Eve must be protected from being sex trafficked and also your sensitive eyes must never behold her shameful sexy boobs.

So, obviously this is something that I think about a lot because I am constantly pinching the bridge of my nose as I am once again told that my attempts to promote my book have been flagged as a sensitive image. But, I thought about it again the other day when I was in Bologna.

One of the primary reasons I was eager to get back to Bologna was to see the so-called Chapel of the Magi in the Basilica of San Petronio. And, yes, the Magi are cool and stuff. But in my opinion? It has one of the most incredible Hell frescos ever created. Painted by Giovanni da Modena (c. 1379-c. 1455) in the fourteenth century, it is incredibly detailed, and features recognisable local figures. (LMAO, get their asses Giovanni.) They are all suffering ironic punishments in the hereafter based both on whether they fell prey to one of the seven deadly sins, or if they are one of the sinners against God.

For those not in the know, the seven deadly sins are of course, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, Pride, Wrath, Envy, and Greed. The more esoteric sins punished up top in the realm of sins against God include the punishment of the schismatics, idolaters, and enchanters.

If you are enjoying this post, why not support the blog by subscribing to the Patreon, from as little as  £ 1 per month? It keeps the blog going, and you also get extra content. If not, that is chill too.

Now this fresco made an incredible impression on me when I first saw it is a bright young thing back in the mists of time, and I was eager to get back and have a stare at it with the benefit of my big brain and a PhD in medieval history. After all, it played a role in my decision to ruin my life by dedicating it to the study of the medieval, so, surely, I should check back in with it these years later and see if it missed me.

In the intervening years, the good people at San Petronio had decided that a good way to make some extra money for the upkeep of their fine and excellent church was by cordoning it off and putting it behind a curtain. Fair enough, in my opinion! We are all out here trying to survive and keep ourselves afloat in late-stage capitalism, and medieval churches need to be maintained! If it was going to cost me five euro to visit my friend, five Euro they shall have! However, as I bought my ticket I was also informed that photos of the fresco weren’t allowed. This made me slightly sad, but once again I thought, well, fair enough! They want to sell me some postcards of it afterword, so I guess they win this round.

I am a bit of a stickler for rules at historical sights, so while I had photographed the fresco from the church floor outside the curtain which was allowed, I duly followed the rules inside the chapel. I was very very busy going “Oh! LOOK!” and pointing at various things anyway, so hey ho.

When I emerged half an hour later I popped back to the gift shop and bought a whole book on the fresco for a further sixteen Euro, so eager was I to get hold of an entire picture of the thing, and also contribute to its upkeep.

Anyway queue me and my charming boyfriend having an aperitivo outside the church afterwards, me pulling out the book to have a look, and flipping immediately to the close ups on the images of the sin of Lust, only to find that they are incomplete.

Readers, I lost it.

I mean, of course what I wanted to look at was the bit about Lust. That’s my whole job! That’s it! It dominates the bottom right corner of the fresco, so it’s closest to eye level for people actually in the chapel. It also means that when you are behind the curtain outside you can’t even see, let alone photograph, a little bit of it.

And baby let me tell you, it is worth photographing. See, you know how above, I was like “medieval people thought it was weird if you were turned on by a picture of Eve”? Well the painting of Lust is like, a dare. The sinners being tortured for it are all naked, as is standard for any soul being pictured after death, because souls don’t have clothes. What is not standard is that their ironic punishments for their sins could also be described as S&M. I am talking about spiked snakes coiling about thighs, or in one case a demon straddling a blond-haired beauty and choking her. This is interesting because it’s not a standard punishment of the lustful, who we often see just being boiled in cauldrons, though the also sometimes seem kinda into it. For example:

Now here you can say, “I mean sure Eleanor, but isn’t S&M a modern thing and aren’t you reading a lot into this?” To this I say, go read the blogs on medieval kink again if you are going to be contrary like that. And secondly, the thing about specifically the beautiful women who are being punished for lust is they are breaking the fourth wall, looking directly at the viewers, and smiling.

Obsessed doesn’t begin to cover it.

I absolutely love this because Giovanni da Modena is essentially engaged in a sort of dare with viewers. This was his chance to paint something sexy and … he has. And you as a viewer can’t admit that it is sexy because if you do then you yourself are falling prey to the sin of lust! It’s an elaborate bluff! If you think it’s sexy, then you have admitted to being a damnable pervert. So, you can’t. So, there it is, on the walls of the church.

Now of course plenty of people wouldn’t be aroused by this and can just relate to it as a beautiful piece of religious art and a stirring warning of those things that await the lustful. This is absolutely true. However, what is also true is that the church itself which has photographed every inch of this painting flat out refuses to allow you to take a picture of this section now. Because it’s hot. They don’t want people like me taking pictures and saying “AWOOOGA” online or something. So they have contrived to censor only the sexual bit of this painting.

This to me is very funny because there are plenty of bits that are incredibly violent and they are more than happy to provide you with detailed pictures of them. Personal favs of mine is the gluttonous guy who is impaling his head on a spike attempting to get to a roast chicken, as well as the greedy who are pushing each other out of the way to have molten gold poured down their throats. Violence? You can see that. Sex? Absolutely beyond the pale.

And here again we see the difference between medieval and modern attitudes to sex. Sure, yes, as I say, the reason that this image was allowed at all is that you would need to admit it was sexy to put a stop to it. However, there was also an understanding of it, as with the image of Eve, that sexiness was permissible to show as a part of spiritual exempla. You need to understand that Eve’s inherent sensuality and folly led to the downfall of all humans. You need to know if you go around thinking about sexual acts you will end up in Hell. Audiences were trusted to understand the message within the context.

Now, however, we can apparently not be trusted to see Eve or contemplate Lust because we must be protected from our unstoppable horniness. Someone – whether it’s the American federal government, or the officials in a church in Bologna has to save you from yourself and stop you from viewing what I cannot stress enough are religious images.

Anyway, guess what? I am very stubborn and I am afraid the nice people at San Petronio are gonna have to take an L this round. After having spent twenty-one Euro trying to photograph this thing so I could show you pictures I became incensed enough at the audacity of this censorship that I just went and bought a high-resolution image of it from Alamy, with the attendant rights to put it on the blog. So here it is in all its glory:

And, more particularly, here are the Lustful who are absolutely hoping you will notice them from across the church and dig their vibes.

And since I mentioned it? Here’s the gluttonous and their chickens and shish kababs.

The morals of this story are several. The most important is that paternalism like this can’t really succeed and is harmful in general. People don’t need to be protected from pictures of nudity and should instead be trusted to interact with art as they see fit because its none of your business how they feel about a particular piece of art.

A less important rule is that I am very strong willed, and if you tell me I can’t show people something medieval I will find a way to do so. …even to the detriment of my own bank account. So, uh, subscribe to the patreon I guess?

[1]  D Blunt and A Wolf, ‘Erased: The impact of FOSTA-SESTA and the removal of Backpage on sex workers’, Anti-Trafficking Review, issue 14, 2020, pp. 117-121.

For more on sexuality in the medieval period see, IDK the whole damn blog? Try these:
On medieval kink part 1 and part 2
On women, pleasure, and semen
On semen retention

Support the blog by subscribing to the Patreon, from as little as  £ 1 per month! It’s the cool thing to do!

My book, The Once And Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society, is out now.

© Eleanor Janega, 2024

While plaques featuring monarchs often commemorate significant events or contributions made by royalty, an unusual example of the opposite can be found in the center of Malmö. Situated in a region of southern Sweden that was once under Danish rule, a modern marker embedded in the pavement wryly mocks a 16th-century Swedish king: "During the peace meeting in August 1524, at this location, the foreign guest, Gustav Vasa, pulled a knife against the German merchant Herman Iserhel."

The visit of Gustav Vasa of Sweden to the Danish city of Malmö in 1524 was characterized by negotiations for peace with Frederik I of Denmark, mediated by Germans. Despite initially optimistic expectations, the Swedish king soon found himself outmaneuvered, resulting in Denmark reclaiming Blekinge County and retaining control of the Baltic island of Gotland.

Furthermore, the eagerly anticipated prospect of a favorable marriage with Frederik I’s daughter proved to be another disappointing setback for Vasa, as the arrangement failed to materialize.

Frustrated, the Swedish king confronted German diplomat and merchant Herman Iserhel, accusing him of manipulating the invasion of Gotland and deceitfully inviting him to Malmö. A scuffle erupted in the main square, during which the monarch drew his knife but was restrained by his entourage. Iserhel escaped with sheer terror and under threat: "You shall one day be ashamed for this, you wicked traitor!"

The royal blunder might have faded into obscurity as a trivial footnote in Vasa's records, had it not been for the diligent efforts of the king's chronicler, Peder Svart, and the decision of local newspaper Sydsvenskan in 1990 to humorously memorialize the embarrassing knife incident with a bronze plaque.

On the island of Tarout, atop a small hill overlooking the historical neighborhood of Al-Dirah, sits the Tarout Castle, a military fort of three towers. The fort is a testament to a period of Portuguese control in the Persian Gulf in the 16th century, but the hill houses a much older tale spanning 5,000 years.

The Portuguese Empire stretched its control from the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf, eventually reaching the coast of Arabia. The colonists would then fortify their new colonies with defensive forts, such as this one and the Qal'at al-Bahrain in Bahrain.

This Portuguese expansion culminated in a large naval war with the Ottoman Empire over control of the Persian Gulf. After five decades, the Portuguese finally lost control of Eastern Arabia, starting 300 years of Ottoman rule.

The hill has been occupied for over 5,000 years, as archaeological discoveries date to the Dilmun Civilization of the 3rd millennium. The fort may have been built on the ruins of an ancient temple, as many ancient religious statues were found in its vicinity. In particular, many relics have been linked to the ancient Semitic goddess Ishtarut or Ishtar, the patron goddess of her namesake, “Tarut” island.

Caitlin Clark has generated tons of interest in women’s basketball because of her long-range shooting and deft passing. She’s been likened to Golden State Warriors great Stephen Curry, and that comparison ain’t crazy...that’s how special Clark is.

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Epidemiologists have long been concerned that a type of influenza that mainly infects birds, called H5N1, could develop into the next pandemic. So far it has infected relatively few humans but has been devastating to wildlife in local incidents. So far it lacks the ability to attach easily to most human cells and to be transmitted human to human. But it is an influenza virus, and its cousins have those abilities.

Now it is being found in dairy cows in the US. The map above shows the states in which it has been confirmed. Additionally, virus particles have been found in milk in stores. Emphasize “particles.” These are pieces of virus that have been deactivated by pasteurization. (Another of the many reasons to avoid unpasteurized milk, if you’re inclined that way.) No live virus has been cultured from store milk.

The USDA, CDC, and FDA gave a closed briefing today. Eric Topol was there and reports.

Here are the key points:

1. Confirmation of H5N1 infected dairy cattle herds in 8 states. But the FDA report yesterday of commerical milk PCR positivity strongly supports that the cattle spread is far wider than these 8 states. Important to emphasize that (PCR) is testing for remnants of virus, not live virus, which would be unlikely with pasteurization. Other tests, assessing potential evidence for any live virus (egg viability and culture), are to be reported by the FDA going forward. Limited culture tests are all negative to date for any live virus in milk.
2. From the great work of U Arizona evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey who (heroically) analyzed the 239 H5N1 sequences that were released Sunday night for the first time, it was likely a single initiation of transmission from bird to cows. USDA stated they believe teh outbreak in dairy cattle in the US began in late 2023, initially inTexas.
3. There is confirmation from sequencing of cattle to cattle and cattle to poultry back transmission. Also there is confirmation of asymptomatic dairy cattle with H5N1 infections but the extent of testing is unclear. The cows that have been infected appear to have a mild illness lasting about 2 weeks with discoloration of their milk. More information on the natural history of illness in cows and the proportion who remain asymptomatic are needed. The only documented human case to date was a dairy worker through direct contact that resulted in conjunctivitis.
4. For the readiness plan in case human transmission does occur, the public officials asserted that Tamiflu would be effective and it has been stockpiled, that gearing up testing would be done and, if necessary, the US could fully shift its annual flu vaccine production to make H5N1 shots at scale. They have 2 candidate H5N1 vaccines in hand that are well matched to the current sequence and there is the possibility to augment vaccine supply via mRNA-nanoparticle production. Nicely summarized by Helen Branswell at STATnews here.It appears very unlikely, but the more the H5N1 is spread unchecked, the bigger the reservoirs and chances for further functional mutations to take hold. So better to plan for a worst case scenario.
5. A Federal order was put out this morning to mandate testing and reporting of cattle infected, measures to avoid further spread.
6. Routine testing of pigs, which is important due to their potential facilitation of spread to humans, has been negative to date. To date, data we have are based on dairy cattle; little is known or available about beef cattle, but occupational exposure notifications have been put out to dairy farms and slaughterhouses.

In the US, one person, a farm worker, has been infected with the virus, which caused conjunctivitis (“pink eye”). It’s good to see the federal agencies getting on this and getting information out.

The post Bird Flu – H5N1 – Status appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.