Some of us have had discussions over this past week about Justice Prosser's reflexes. We now have video proof. When Justice Prosser is angry and sees a neck, he can reach out and throttle it like a diving falcon.
This was diaried just over a day ago, but the daily turnover on DKos is such that I think it bears repetition as we move into a holiday weekend, especially because TPM last night posted a nice story linking to the video. Besides, as you'll see below the fold, I'm "adding value."
Embedding the video, from Fox's Madison-area affiliate, seems not to work well on DKos, but go ahead and give TPM a hit; Josh's babies need a new pair of shoes. You don't need to watch more than the first 50 seconds or so if all you want to see is Prosser's ninja moves; they don't repeat them. Continue on and you see the Fox reporter being a pain in the butt to Justices, but offering a mildly plausible justification for it at the end.
I don't want to trot out my credentials as a Ph.D. social psychologist (back in the day), but I think I know a thing or two about the manifestations of anger, which is part of our basic curriculum. In making decisions about what Prosser might have done to Justice Bradley in her chambers, it's good to get a sense of his ninja moves. If you haven't looked at that video, please try it now.
Done? It seems clear to me that Prosser reacts to environmental threats the way he writes his opinions: from the spinal cord. Central nervous processes barely need to get involved at all. He sees the threatening object -- apparently, his defense reflexes are stimulated by necks, whether female human or microphonic -- and out goes the hand like a frog's tongue after a fly. It's really pretty impressive, in an "Animal Planet" kind of way.
Some of you out there will be able to do all sorts of impressive screen captures and can no doubt improve on this diary, but let's let mine be the sort of "grainy Zapruder film" prior to all of your fancy NCIS techniques. I have five frames to offer you, four based on my working off of a full-screen streaming of the Fox News tape and one just swiped from TPM.
First photo: I attempted to get a shot of Prosser while he was standing next to the reporter and not reacting at all, but I'm telling you, this monster moves so fast that I was unable to do so (or at least I quit trying after a while because my wife was coming home and I didn't want her to see me trying and cursing my repeated failure because she's understanding and all that but maybe not that understanding, so this pic will have to do.)
Note two things: Prosser's mouth has opened -- my hypothesis is that he is emitting a high-pitched ninja scream that does not appear in the audio but perhaps someone with the capability can slow it down from its ultrosonic frequency so we can hear it -- and, while his body continues in a "walking forward" position his right arm is already snaking out towards its target, in a Dr. Strangelovian fashion, directed by his spinal chord towards its prey: A NECK! A NECK! A NECK! True, this is only the neck of a microphone, but it gives you some sense of what he might do with a meatier target.
Again, my apologies for the equipment, which gives me a blurry second photo. This appears to be from, by my estimate, no more than 1 millisecond later (give or take 250 msec or so). Note that Prosser's open mouth has, if anything, widened slightly (I imagine the sound as a "kiiii-YIIIIIIIII!!!!), but his torso has pivoted and his hand has made contact with the microphone neck. The Fox reporter has barely moved, except that his backbone -- strong enough to transmit his spinal reflexes although too weak to lead him to work somewhere other than Fox News -- has caused him to withdraw his left arm abruptly, because who knows what that thing in front of him was going to do. (Not a conscious thought, of course. Who has time?)
In the third photo, his head and his left shoulder has not moved, but his right shoulder has moved back as he jerks back the reporter's arm like the handle of a slot machine. (His name is Mike Lowe, but I'm going to continue calling him "The Reporter" because it sounds more Kafkaesque.) Prosser's mouth has relaxed slightly, but if it had been in this position previously and had opened now, I would posit that he was about to swallow the microphone whole. The reporter's left arm has continued its backwards motion, possibly positioning itself to protect the reporter's private parts with the sheaf of paper. Good luck, buddy. You're up against an elemental force.
By the fourth photo, by my calculation, about 3 msec have passed since the first one, but to be honest I get so freaked out whenever I play the video that I can't claim that my error is under even 2.5 orders of magnitude. It's quick, though. This is the photo that I took from the TPM site, which is the only one clear enough that it allows you to make better sense of the others. As you can see, the reporter's higher brain functions have by now kicked in, and he has let go of the mic and is checking to see whether his hand is still there. The fact that in one frame of videotape the microphone's head appears in -- not one, not two, but three different positions gives you a sense of the speed with which the remorseless Prosser killing machine operates. That mic is moving.
Serious point here: someone with the skills can calculate the speed of these actions and the speed with which the microphone neck is flying around in this frame of the tape and ask the question: do we really think that a startled onlooking judge would be able to tell whether there was "pressure" on her neck or not? Does that look like "no pressure" to you? Are we really shocked that Justice Bradley might herself not have known for a moment whether she had been choked or not? Frankly, Justice Prosser looked like he'd be able to reach into her throat and tie her uvula into a knot before she could realize what had hit her.
Fifth photo: Justice Prosser has his prize and he's not giving it back!!! Of course the funniest thing (except for the gaping maw of a mouth in the second photo) is that of course, just after this, he turned slightly and saw that he was on Candid Camera, and he did give the mic back to the reporter -- much as if he had plucked out his heart, held it for a couple of beats, and then replaced it just so he could make a point without perhaps doing too much damage. I'll spare you the photos; someone else can find them and post them. Frankly, this was draining enough.
So there you have it -- evidence of Justice Prosser's superhuman split second neck-locating-and-throttling power. Does this work on human necks as well as electronic ones? The question is a fair one! Another fair question is this: is this son of the North actually a distant relative of a Swede whose ancestors also populated the U.S. northern plains states: Tor Johnson?
Probably not: Tor Johnson was rumored to have a sweet and mild disposition off-camera. Still, the similarities -- especially around the mouth -- are striking. Can't you imagine one of Tor's movie monsters screaming "NECK!!!"?
4:56 PM PT: I cannot believe that I left out the already-queued-up Tor Johnson photo! No wonder this didn't make the Rec List.