June 28, 2011

Local journalist Bill Wineke demagogues the Wisconsin Supreme Court story... and slimes me.

This, published at channel3000, is so lame I hate to send it any traffic, but I want you to see the kind of thing that passes for mainstream media commentary in this town:
In one narrative, Bradley rushed Prosser with her fists up and Prosser managed to touch her neck while defending himself. It is, my colleagues in the press now say, a classic “he said/she said” controversy. No, it's not. It is a controversy only if Prosser's hands were nowhere near Bradley's neck. I mean, come on!
There follows a tirade about what we teach our sons about violence against women, as if, in a face to face physical encounter, the man is always wrong. So, as a woman in the work place, can I get right up in any man's face, get as angry as I want, shake my fist right by his big old glasses, and the moment he flinches, if his hand touches me, I get to shout "violence against women" and he's the one who's screwed? As a feminist, I would just love to have power like that. That's sarcasm, I hope you're not too far gone to realize.

What I want, and what I think good feminists should want, is to be treated as an equal in a sane workplace, where nobody gets in anybody's face, and nobody thinks they can taunt or threaten or hit — or choke! — anybody. Ironically, Wineke is spouting sexism. If men and women are really governed by such different standards, that would be sex discrimination. And on the whole, it would hurt the advancement of women in the workplace. We are not fragile flowers in need of old-school chivalry. If we were, it would justify discrimination.
You would tell your own son that if his hands touched the neck of a girl -- no matter what the cause -- he would be in big, big trouble. Big, big trouble.
He's right that the boy would be in trouble, but that doesn't make it obvious that the boy would always be wrong. In fact, most men are so familiar with that form of trouble that they resist responding physically to any physical aggression by a woman. It's one thing to warn a man in advance that he'd better be aware of the trouble that may follow if he's laid hands on a woman, quite another to enthuse over punishing any man who is accused. What matters is the truth.
And if your son's defense was that he wasn't trying to choke the woman but just defending himself by putting his hands around her neck? You know what you would say.

Of course, that's not what everyone says.

For example, Professor Ann Althouse, of the University of Wisconsin Law School, a distinguished, tenured, named professor on the Madison campus, published a blog entry over the weekend suggesting the real culprit here is the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism for publishing the story in the first place and for not discovering the alternative narrative.

In fact, she says, it may be Bradley who should be investigated, perhaps arrested, perhaps thrown off the bench.
He doesn't link to the post or quote it. Not surprising, considering how much he distorts it. (When did I say Bradley should be "perhaps arrested"?!) (Here's the post he didn't bother to represent with any precision. Here's my follow-up post which he also might be referring to.)

Notice the sleazy sleight of hand in that question above. He's got "your son's... hands around her neck" — not merely making contact with the neck of a woman who thrust herself into the place where he'd flung his hands defensively. Wineke is assuming a set of facts — hands around her neck — and saying in that situation, you wouldn't defend your son. Actually, there are some situations in which you clearly would defend your son, even if his hands were "around" her neck. Picture a woman larger than your son, pinning him down, choking him
Her comments are being picked up by all sorts of “conservative” blogs around the country and are surrounded by comments suggesting Prosser's only problem is that he didn't squeeze harder. 
My "comments" are "surrounded by comments"? I have a long blog post, below which are hundreds of comments that you have to click to see. These comments are not around me, like hands around a neck.

What did Wineke do, comb through the comments, looking for the meanest ones? He found many that said "Prosser's only problem is that he didn't squeeze harder"? How many? He doesn't link or quote. There are 362 comments on that first post, and I'm not finding the word "squeeze" or "harder" in any of them. And there are plenty of great comments (along with snark). Wineke shamelessly mischaracterizes the conversation he doesn't have the decency to link to. How embarrassing!
I don't blame Althouse for that, but I do kind of shudder to think we have people in this country who advocate murdering those with whom they disagree.
Oh, bullshit! No one seriously advocated murder. What, did one guy snark in bad taste? Why don't you you shudder at your own propensity to misstate what people say and mean?
But even the sane commentary on the right insists this is a two-side story and that it shouldn't be reported until a full investigation is completed.
Again, misstated! Who said nothing should be reported "until a full investigation is completed." I said that the story was obviously a snapshot of a moment in a longer incident that needed context and that Lueders looks biased and/or inept in not probing with the kinds of questions that would have turned up the more complex narrative that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel managed to discover within a few hours after the Lueders story came out.
Who knows? Perhaps Althouse is right. If it turns out that Bradley did attack Prosser -- fists raised -- that wouldn't be very judicial.

I'll leave that question up to the official investigators. I'm still stuck on that “alternative”, the one that has Prosser raising his arms in self defense and accidentally touching Bradley's neck.

If his hands were around her throat, I don't care who charged whom. If that is the case, there are not two sides to this story.
What?  First of all, once again, you shift from "touching" her neck to "around" her neck. I've agreed all along that if Prosser throttled Bradley, he should resign. But his misdeeds wouldn't eradicate hers. If she initiated the physical aggression and behaved in the manner described in the worst version of the allegations, then she too should resign. Why would his bad action undo hers?

If women and men are equal, both are governed by the same standards of behavior.

177 comments:

YoungHegelian said...

Well, Althouse, you deserve it! You big conservative meanie, you!

Do you ever wonder how some journalists managed the neat trick of learning to write without having the capability to read?

Irene said...

He is Facebook friends with Bill Lueders.

Seeing Red said...

I don't blame Althouse for that, but I do kind of shudder to think we have people in this country who advocate murdering those with whom they disagree.


OF COURSE he wrote a column defending Henry Hyde, was it against Alec Baldwin & Sarah Palin against their vicious attacks.


We have an abusive female beating up on a defenseless senior citizen.

Where's his compassion?

Martin L. Shoemaker said...

It is a controversy only if Prosser's hands were nowhere near Bradley's neck. I mean, come on!

Yeah, that's a substantive argument: "I mean, come on!"

Seeing Red said...

And OF COURSE he wrote a column decrying that movie about Bush #43.



More bullshit.

flenser said...

And if your son's defense was that he wasn't trying to choke the woman but just defending himself by putting his hands around her neck? You know what you would say.

Good for you, son, I'm glad you stood up for yourself?

I'm unimpressed with the way the left switches back and forth between women being mens equal in every respect, buster, and don't you dare forget it, and women being so delicate that men dare not touch them even in self-defense.

Should these fragile creatures really be employed as police, let alone as soldiers?

TMink said...

"If women and men are equal, both are governed by the same standards of behavior."

And, if you wish women and men to be equal, you will judge both by the same standard of behavior. If you want one to be superior, you will rig the standards.

You decide what Wineke and his ilk are doing.

Trey

Ah Pooh said...

If women and men are equal, both are governed by the same standards of behavior.
Yes, yes and yes!

edutcher said...

I love that line "named professor". Why not just say, "We know where you live, bitch"?

"Her comments are being picked up by all sorts of 'conservative' blogs around the country and are surrounded by comments suggesting Prosser's only problem is that he didn't squeeze harder."

How dast she write something the Conservatives blogs would copy?

She ought to be chained to the stove like a good Democrat slave.

Seeing Red said...

I don't blame Althouse for that, but I do kind of shudder to think we have people in this country who advocate murdering those with whom they disagree.

Read about what happened to Glenn Beck and his family over the weekend.

I'm sure Alpha will be here to tell us it was "isolated", but this sort of thing has been happening for the last 45 years.

Anonymous said...

"There follows a tirade about what we teach our sons about violence against women ..."

Son, sometimes you gotta choke a bitch. It's hard out there for a pimp.

Song won the Academy Award.

The producer of that song donated to Barack Obama's presidential campaign and also voted for him.

flenser said...

We do try to teach our sons that violence against women is never acceptable.

Then perhaps it's time they taught their daughters that violence against men is never acceptable.

1775OGG said...

We left Whitefishbay just over 30-years ago. Little did we realize then that that was just in time to avoid the chaos that became Wisconsin. Of course we went back to a suburb of Mpls, that current bastion of something called Rainbow mania.

Still, you Wisconsites lead an interesting life these days. But at least your Bucky Badger types aren't trying to blow up people these days.
Good luck to you all over there and please stay on your side of the St. Croix / Mississippi river boundaries.

Anonymous said...

What I teach my son: If a Democrat Supreme Court ragebitch charges at you with fists raised intent on committing a hate crime against you, punch that cunt twice as hard right in her fucking trachea.

Then call the police and have her arrested for assaulting you because otherwise, 10 days later, she'll be conspiring with George Soros to get you involuntarily committed to anger management.

S. said...

I have yet to read anything from Bill Wineke that isn't utter tripe.

Stupidity runs rampant.

windbag said...

@Althouse

If women and men are equal, both are governed by the same standards of behavior.

But, some are more equal than others. Someone should write a book and use that phrase. I'd read it.

Grady's Dad said...

Ann,

Sounds like panic to me. Now it's not "who attacked whom" but "whoever touched the other person's neck needs to go". They're tacitly admitting that the "she charged him" story has basis, and legs.

So it's time to redraw the criteria for who gets fired. Change it from "The attacker must go" to "She was just exercising physical rhetoric, and since he's a boy, he's not allowed to touch her."

Basically, neck contact is the new threshold, as opposed to initiating violence. And we're going to hear for weeks that it was a Macho Man Randy Savage chokehold, until that gets knocked down, and then even THE LIGHTEST of contact by a man against a woman will be grounds for termination, regardless of what the woman did. She could have pulled a gun and she'd still be an innocent.

Why?

Because.

Pettifogger said...

I've tried to put myself in Prosser's position and imagine what I would have done. Fortunately, I've never been in that situation, so I am not sure. But I am inclined to think I would protect my eyes and take what she could dish out, especially if as seems likely she couldn't dish out a lot. Even so, Prosser's response, as I now understand it to have been, was reasonable, though less protective of himself in the long run.

If the aggressor were male, it would be an entirely different ball game. But, and perhaps I am revealing some sexism here, it is almost inconceivable to me that a male Supreme Court Justice would behave as Bradley did in the circumstances in which the behavior occurred.

Conserve Liberty said...

I've made comments along the following line on many posts on this and other blogs recently. It certainly applies here.

As a society, as people who live within an expected set of mutual and beneficial behaviors and expectations of each other, we need to return to behaving as ladies and gentlemen.

We all know what that means; we all know what to do.

Had Prosser behaved as a gentleman in February, 2010 when he was alleged to have addressed justice Bradley by a pejorative epithet, perhaps today Bradley wouldn't be quite so deranged (perhaps, regardless, she might be, but that would be her behavior, not Prosser's). Were Bradley to behave as a lady, a disagreement on principle would not devolve into such un-collegial behavior.

Had Prosser not raised his voice, had he stood his ground this June and let her slap him, without a reaction (as a gentleman would), and then walked away, who would be the anti-social party? Who would be "in trouble" now?

Bradley's actions are perfect Alinsky tactics - force the other party to act according to his behavioral standard; refuse to uphold the social compact of the behavioral standard; goad the other party thus to behave outside the accepted standard; vilify the other party for the unacceptable behavior.

We must not allow ourselves to fall into the trap. Prosser did.

He should have let her hit him.

Rose said...

I thought all violence was Sarah's fault. Now it's Ann's. These media people are seriously deranged and lacking in thinking skills.

george said...

Apparently Bradley is not even alleging that Prosser choked her anymore if recent articles are to be believed. She is now claiming he intended to choke her but was prevented from doing so because someone pulled HER back.

So I guess the point I am making is that all of Wineke's whinging has been overtaken and made irrelevant by recent events.

Paddy O said...

Interesting of all the various bloggers Wineke chooses Althouse.

I wonder if he feels more like a man with his rhetorical hands around Althouse's blogging neck? Probably so, with all his posting. But real men don't pen literal attacks like this, they just don't.

Sure, he might say that Althouse started the kerfuffle by getting up and writing a long post about the incident. But what kind of cad puts his verbal hands up against a woman? Why does Wineke want to throttle women? Now it's verbal, but maybe there's a deeper misogynistic tendency there.

He's very aggressive against women, and real men don't do that.

WV: alintsx

Brennan said...

I have a new justification for Pauline Kael's famous quote about knowing nobody that voted for Nixon.

She wanted to stay alive for knowing a Nixon voted was certain doom.

Tom Spaulding said...

Wineke/Leuders? Public self-emasculation is not an honorable trait, gentlemen, despite what your womyn tell you. It's the response of real Progressive men like these two that adds a dollop of rich, creamy schadenfreude to the events in Wisconsin for me. I only regret I no longer live there to see it with my own eyes...well, that and that I can't get a slice of Rocky's Sausage and Roni in Tennessee.

rhhardin said...

Men and women being equal sounds like a bad theory.

You make allowances.

The delicate-flower perspective is anti-woman, though.

I don't know if you make allowances for that when it's played on you. If you're a gentleman, you do.

The Drill SGT said...

You would tell your own son that if his hands touched the neck of a girl -- no matter what the cause -- he would be in big, big trouble. Big, big trouble.

If it were a guy coming at you, the natural response would be to push off his chest. That strategy would have been a larger cultural taboo and would have caused Prosser more grief.

flenser said...

Bradley's actions are perfect Alinsky tactics - force the other party to act according to his behavioral standard

I see no reason to believe that Prosser's standards include "never touch a woman even if she's attacking you". If you have any information to the contrary ...

Shouting Thomas said...

What I want, and what I think good feminists should want, is to be treated as an equal in a sane workplace...

That may be what you want, but I've never noticed that that was the feminist agenda, especially as it is interpreted in practice in the corporate or academic world.

Male notions of chivalry get in the way. I think that's what you're encountering with Wineke.

In my experience, feminism as it is applied always fails in the face of old fashioned notions of chivalry.

Conserve Liberty said...

HT Grady's Dad:

OTOH, since this was merely a Kinetic Rhetorical Action the Supreme Collegiality Compact doesn't apply to Justice Bradley. She can do whatever she wants because there is no controlling social authority.

walter said...

"I have yet to read anything from Bill Wineke that isn't utter tripe."

But he's a lot easier to take in text form as opposed to that voyyyyyce.

Hagar said...

When we were little - well not little, but young - my dear sister would grab my arm, twist it and slam me to the floor, and then sit on me and rock back and forth until I cried uncle. This went on until I grew tall enough to get the reach on her, and of course, as soon as that happened we were too big to fight like that anymore, but I still don't like for her to get so close that she could get hold of my arm.

Mr. Wineke does not have an older sister?

traditionalguy said...

That's a way Professor. Choke the spin expert Wineke with the plain truth. What's wrong with these leftists who think we are so stupid that we can only imagine a two handed choke with fingers squeezing a thin neck to stop her breathing? The witnesses quoted saw Prosser's hands push back on Bradley's aggressive move on her shoulders and neck. The squeezing "Choke Hold" meme is nowhere in any reported witness testimony, except when Abrahamson says to imagine it was about to happen if the sweet Justice Bradley had not been restrained and pulled back off the mouthy little man Prosser. But Prosser really is in need of a strategy session to teach him to never touch a woman unless he wants the Patriarchy, of all people, turning against him.

Anonymous said...

"Apparently Bradley is not even alleging that Prosser choked her anymore if recent articles are to be believed. She is now claiming he intended to choke her but was prevented from doing so because someone pulled HER back."

It's a hilarious episode in left-wing incompetence writ large.

It's pretty clear that the liberal justices Wisconsin Supreme Court are trying as hard as they can to provoke any sort of physical confrontation they can gin up so that they can file some sort of harassment claim against Prosser to get him off the Court.

They're framing him.

It's an absolute conspiracy to frame him that includes members of the media and affiliated Democrat Party front groups financed by George Soros.

Prosser is in dire legal straights. I'd demand from now on every encounter with these people be videotaped.

Because pretty soon they'll just allege a rape or other sexual assault and it will be "he-said versus she-said" and probably never amount to anything, but they'll succeed in ruining his judicial career. That's what they're after.

They're pissed off they lost the Kleptoberg election and they're intent on getting revenge in any way they can - including conspiring with George Soros to libel Judge Prosser.

They'll stop at nothing.

If they were competent, it would be serious ... but since they're a bunch of fucking morons and can't even put together a two-bit con job, it's just laughable.

But mark my words. Couple of weeks, someone will file a sexual assault claim against Prosser to frame him.

Insufficiently Sensitive said...

Prosser stands outside Bradley's office door, and enters discussion. Bradley charges Prosser in full-hostile mode, until pulled back by a Justice behind her. Meanwhile, Prosser raises hands to fend her off. Where to put them? Not on her center of gravity, the most effective location to stop a charge, that's where her sacred breasts are. So up to collarbone level, which launches her mendacious choke-trumpeting.

Mark O said...

As with Weiner, lying is tough sledding. It takes a lot of work.

Charlie said...

This all (going back to the absent senators and the events following) reminds me of V. I. Lenin. He would be proud.

James said...

Had Prosser behaved as a gentleman in February, 2010 when he was alleged to have addressed justice Bradley by a pejorative epithet, perhaps today Bradley wouldn't be quite so deranged (perhaps, regardless, she might be, but that would be her behavior, not Prosser's). Were Bradley to behave as a lady, a disagreement on principle would not devolve into such un-collegial behavior.

Had Prosser not raised his voice, had he stood his ground this June and let her slap him, without a reaction (as a gentleman would), and then walked away, who would be the anti-social party? Who would be "in trouble" now?



That's gold, Jerry. Gold!

William said...

Life is unfair. If a man ends up with his hands on a woman's neck, the optics are bad. However, this seems to have been a transient contact, and surely Bradley has to take some responsibility for charging him. It was a bad moment, but, whatever the underlyingg malice, it was spontaneous and unplanned....As Althouse points out, however, the leaking of the story seems vindictive in a cold blooded way. From the info given, it doesn't appear that either of these two justices deserve to keep their seats. Also, the Chief Justice seems to be acting more like a cheerleader than a soother for the passions of her subordinates. She is neither a leader, nor an effective manager. A pox on all of them.

flenser said...

Male notions of chivalry get in the way. I think that's what you're encountering with Wineke.

I'm pretty sure that what we see with Winke is more progressive notions of what's good for progressives than male notions of chivalry. I can't be bothered to check his treatment of Palin or his reaction to Bill Clinton but I'm confident of what I'd find.

Clive Staples said...

Geez, it's almost like some people who are supposedly feminist aren't actually for gender equality...good thing a woman's here to point it out, that way we can really be sure of it.

windbag said...

@Joe

I've tried to put myself in Prosser's position and imagine what I would have done.

Laughing in her face would probably produce a core meltdown, so that's the first thing I'd try for. If an outburst of laughter didn't push her over the edge, I'd go for open mockery of her. Childish? Yes. Violent? No.

If she's crossed the line into violence, almost anything is justified as a means of self-defense. So, engaging in some sophomoric taunting would be entertaining, if nothing else.

If it were a guy, I'd hit him three ways: hard, fast, and continuously.

Anonymous said...

BATTLE....

Jeff with one 'f' said...

"What I want, and what I think good feminists should want, is to be treated as an equal in a sane workplace, where nobody gets in anybody's face, and nobody thinks they can taunt or threaten or hit — or choke! — anybody."

I hate to tell you but the only screaming and physical acting-out that I've ever seen or been subjected to in a workplace was comitted by women. They either lack aawareness of proper behavior and boundaries or believe that they are exempt- as women- from the rules that govern men. Screaming inches away from the man's face, waving hands close to other's faces, slapping hands on other's desks, throwing papers around, etc.

None of which is particularly violent or damaging, but try to picture it if a man was doing that to a female colleague. They would be reprimanded, fired or even arrested. A man doing it to another man would be risking a pop in the mouth- and he would know it, too. But as long as women are doing the abusing to men no one says boo, let alone responds in kind.

And believe me, these empowered white-collar Manhattan career women consider themselves feminist!

I do too.

Carol_Herman said...

First, off, outside of Bradley's quirky temper, I've never seen such a miscarriage of information that Wineke's attempting. Does he think he's gonna end your traffic?

My guess is that the left's having fits, now!

Man, can you imagine the confusion of dealing with so many people chiming in!

The whole lot of em have been driven bat shit crazy.

Perhaps, career-wise, Bradley's being put in a vise, and being asked to "quietly" resign?

It's a car wreck where the doctors gotta determine if it pays to cut off one or both legs? The family must have all been called in.

Alex said...

When interviewed in March 2011, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley acknowledged Prosser had had outbursts over the years, but said there had not been one of significant magnitude since February 2010. She also commented that, "he is a good man - but you cannot accurately say he has a steady, even temperament." [34]

Wow - what a crime! Worthy of execution no doubt.

Alex said...

Look if anyone is charging at me, I'm going to push them back forcefully. That's called compassion. When did it get to be called "assault" when you engage in a purely defensive reaction? It's not like he face-planted the be-yotch.

george said...

Who do you pull back when you break up a fight? The aggressor or the victim?

That seems to be the most telling detail garnered from the recent incident reports.

If Prosser were the aggressor the other justice would have grabbed him or grabbed his arms. I have never seen or heard of someone being choked who was rescued when an onlooker grabbed them and pulled them away. How would you even go about such a thing with both parties standing as they were?

If I am deciding based on the preponderance of the evidence then this fact would be key for me.

Alex said...

Because pretty soon they'll just allege a rape or other sexual assault...

Gross nevadabob, just gross.

JimMuy said...

Study out of Texas Tech University found that around 50% of domestic violence is initiated by the woman.
Someone is still living in an outdated, sexist past.

alan markus said...

I went to the link and counted the word "neck" used 6 times. The last time I recall seeing the left this excited about someone's "neck" was the Bill Sparkman case - the guy found dead with rope around his "neck" and "FED" written on his chest. Anyone else remember the original speculation by the left(murder induced by right-wing rhetoric)versus the actual outcome of that story (suicide)?

Left sure likes to take their "leaps of faith" when things like this come up.

Grady's Dad said...

Conserve Liberty,

"Kinetic Rhetorical Action the Supreme Collegiality Compact"

Hilarious. Have you ever played a little video game called "Portal"? That sounded disturbingly like the villainous supercomputer, GlaDOS, who used terms like "Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid" (that was for a disintigrator).

Sounds much nicer than it really is :) Bravo.

paminwi said...

For those of you who do not live in the Madison area, Channel3000.com, where this article is posted, is part of our local CBS channel, WISC. This is also the local channel that is generally known to have the largest viewership in the area. (I don't have #). This article follows the type of slanted television coverage we get in the Madison area. This is the TV station hung up on me when I called to ask if they were going to cover the moonbat zombies that interrupted the Special Olympics ceremony at our capitol.

Just info for you all to know.

ndspinelli said...

He's a recovering alcoholic and his brother[?], Joe, is 2 time zones away from recovery. The entire fam have serious issues and like many folks of that genre, like to project their demons on others. Just tell him to go fuck himself and then let it go.

Roger J. said...

This whole kerfluffle has cleary turned into farce-

A sad commentary on the politics of Wisconsin--Shame on all you cheese and road kill eating bastards

You are some sick mother fuckers

The Crack Emcee said...

If women and men are equal, both are governed by the same standards of behavior.

But, as his comments make clear, they aren't. There is a portion of this country - including it's men - who have bought into the idea that men are wrong, pretty much, no matter what.

Eradicating that silly idea is but one of the challenges of our time.

garage mahal said...

Why didn't Prosser PRESS CHARGES if he was brutally attacked?

Bradley is a 25 foot tall Avatar isn't she? /Althouse

Peter said...

If Bill Wenke ever gets sick of journalism, he'd make a fine Diversity Trainer.

Somehow, you can just see him badgering some hapless non-protected-class member, until his target finally admitted to being guilty of all manner of impure thoughts and questionable past activities ...

The important thing to remember is, McCarthyists are always (by definition?) of the Right. They are never of the Left, because it is not possible for a Leftist to use McCarthyist tactics.

Is it?

Roger J. said...

Oops--AllenS nothwithstanding--the only person in Wisconsin that appears to have a usable brain.

traditionalguy said...

Actually, to control a charging person a defender does not push them back. Instead a defender redirects the momentum and side steps the charging one. A quick head shove will redirect a human because Where the head goes, the body follows. The head and the neck are one piece. An aggressor could grab a head lock and hold on, which may result in a choke as the two struggled for balance. But none of this happened because some spoil sport spectator pulled her back. I say put them back into a neutral position and re-start the clock. As Sarah The Palinizer likes to say, " Fight Like a Girl."

Carol_Herman said...

Oh, don't forget that Chief TUBBS got called in! He met all the justices. Who were sitting in chairs around the room. Ad, then this scene "by the door. Near the door." Flew to the door. Etc." Was played out for him.

He didn't see the need to have charges pressed.

He tried to walk out the door. And, back to his own office. As if nothing happened.

Nothing really did.

Where, until now, only Jerry Seinfeld could make a living using "nothing."

If Bradley were not actually a seated justice, she'd be in a loony bin. Where her paranoid symptoms would be better controlled.

AllenS said...

If anybody, male or female, comes at you with fists raised, do not turn around and try to walk away, because you will be Sunday punched.

Lessoned learned.

Shouting Thomas said...

Dear Woman: I apologize for everything!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Wow. The channel3000 idiot is an embarrassment to himself.

Methadras said...

Ann, you should headlock Wineke and give him a noogie.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Poor Ann, if she is to be judged by her commentors, over whom she has really no control, she is in trouble because we are all a bunch of loons.

SunnyJ said...

Nevadabob...couldn't help it, LOL...really hard. I grew up with a sister just like Bradley and Abrahmson. She'd go off like a rocket, face contorted, teeth gritted, 1" finger nails coming at me...swear to God, I'd laugh. Curl up on the floor laughing while she beat me while in full rant. My Dad always told me, if I didn't quit laughing she was going to kill me. Could not help it, they're damn funny in full blaze skull cracking hair on fire hissy fit!!!!

I'm not a son, but over the years I've seen this done to guys and my best advice was just don't laugh man, just don't laugh.

Roger J. said...

DBQ--sweet thing--except for me, of course

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Not only is 3000 dude sexist, he's wish-facting the whole thing.
Prosser must be guilty no matter what... because we say so!

mesquito said...

We'll have a long, tedious, bad-faith National Conversation about Violence In The Workplace.

Just like the one we had in the 1990s about sexual predation in the workplce, which ended abruptly when Bill Clinton was found to be draining his lizard into the mouths of young interns.

Tom Spaulding said...

WISC hasn't been worth watching since Howie Olson had his hand around Cowboy Eddie's neck string.

Trooper York said...

This post proves one thing.

The only thing worse than a journalist is a lawyer.

Geoff Matthews said...

Meanwhile, Bill "Better put some ice on that" Clinton gets a free pass.
For keeping abortion legal.

Trooper York said...

I resent that remark DSQ. We are not all loons. Rhhardin is an odd duck,
The Crack Emcee is cult hating black crow. Titus is a yellow bellied sap sucker. And I am big turkey. Just sayn'

Anonymous said...

"Why didn't Prosser PRESS CHARGES if he was brutally attacked?"

He did. He immediately filed a professional conduct complaint with the Wisconsin bar for Judge Bradley's reprehensible professional conduct.

That conduct - physically intimidating other judges, coordinating with outside media to slime other justices, conspiring with George Soros to frame Judge Prosser, has brought the court itself into disrepute.

Judge Bradley's actions cast serious doubt on the impartiality of the court. Worse, she's involved in an illegal conspiracy to frame Judge Prosser.

She should be disbarred and impeaached.

The Drill SGT said...

AllenS said...
If anybody, male or female, comes at you with fists raised, do not turn around and try to walk away, because you will be Sunday punched.


sounds like a lesson Allen learned in a Fayetteville dive more than 40 years ago :)

Was that before or after the MP's rolled in with the batons?

Seeing Red said...

Mr. Wineke really needs to start living in the now.


Young Womyn today are predators.

Shouting Thomas said...

Just like the one we had in the 1990s about sexual predation in the workplce, which ended abruptly when Bill Clinton was found to be draining his lizard into the mouths of young interns.

Yes, but he stood up for a woman's right to choose! To kill her baby!

Feminists volunteered to blow him in gratitude!

"Draining the lizard" is pretty graphic, and I appreciate that, but I believe that usually refers to urination.

But, maybe he was into golden showers, too. Wouldn't surprise me.

Ex-Dissident said...

It doesn't matter who charged first. Only thing that matters is that we get this bill is defeated and all conservatives are unseated. Any way possible.

Trooper York said...

Like many men I have often been struck by women. They know that they can get away with it and there is really nothing you can do.

I knew this one guy who was consistently beaten up by his wife. She was about a hundred pounds soaking wet and he was a six footer. But she would hit him and not just with her fists. Telephones, pots and pans and books were all used to smash him. He came into the bar with a shiner a few times. Nobody really believed him when he would shamefacedly say his wife did it. We would all laugh at him. Then one night at the Christmass party she hauled off and hit in the face with a beer mug. We all stood there speechless.

And then one of the Irish waitresses beat the living shit out of her.

He divorced his wife and married the Irish girl and they lived happily ever after.

Jack Miller said...

"Vilification is often a more potent weapon than argumentation" (G.W. Bromily)...

As the left becomes more and more bankrupt of ideas and logic, it seems that is all they have left.

walter said...

"she is now claiming he intended to choke"
Who knew the notion "It's the thought that counts" would lead to this?
I'm starting to feel like I want to spank all of them. And we all know know..that's a gateway to choking. We need some Zapruder-esque footage to give this thing some visuals. Maybe there were multiple chokers.

Shouting Thomas said...

And then one of the Irish waitresses beat the living shit out of her.

He divorced his wife and married the Irish girl and they lived happily ever after.


That's an inspirational story, Trooper.

Roger J. said...

Trooper is nothing but inspirational--Captain Nathan Briddles--no finer epitome.

WV: coidl---something to do with interruptus

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Was Prosser "brutally attacked"? "Brutally"? The left sure have a precision deficiency.

The female democrat judge acted inappropriate by getting in Prosser’s face with her fists. Prosser may have acted oddly too, but only in response. The other judges in the room back Prosser up. No way was Prosser going for a choke hold.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin leftists are so desperate to score with a reality-bending cheat-to-win fabrication, honest reporting goes out the window.

Anonymous said...

"If it were a guy coming at you, the natural response would be to push off his chest. That strategy would have been a larger cultural taboo and would have caused Prosser more grief."

How hard would it be for one of the liberal justices to just make up a sexual assault allegation out of whole cloth?

Just make it up? He said, she said type of deal. Just call the police and tell them Judge Prosser grabbed her tits?

I'm telling you that thought is already occurring to them and they're likely already laying plans along these lines.

They'll stop at nothing.

Remember what Russ Feingold told us?

It's not over until they win.

Trooper York said...

It really is Shouting. They have four kids now and are very happy.

I think the ex wife went to law school out in the Midwest somewhere....hey ....do you think....nah....it couldn't be...could it?

flenser said...

Like many men I have often been struck by women.

Damn, son, what sort of man did your daddy raise?

They know that they can get away with it

I guess you give off that vibe. I really don't get hit by women (or by men either for the most part) but if I do, the hitter should very much expect to be hit back.

I see you've got a picture of John Wayne. Let me leave you with these words

"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, I require the same from them."

Roger J. said...

Nevada Bob--if prosser grabbed her tits, they had to be low hangers--I mean at her age--like down around her waist--so without Titus here to confirm thats my speculation.

This whole thing is so fucking stupid

garage mahal said...

Oops--AllenS nothwithstanding--the only person in Wisconsin that appears to have a usable brain.

Having and using are two different things. Haha AllenS. ZING!

Angie Schultz said...

I love that line "named professor". Why not just say, "We know where you live, bitch"?

Because "named professor" means she is the Robert W. & Irma M. Arthur-Bascom Professor of Law.

Roger J. said...

AllenS can speak for himself--as it is now we have the testimony from a self confessed road kill poacher--nice going garage--and garage even takes road kill out of season.

you folks in wisconsin are really fucked

get off the road kill garage--chronic wasting disease is not pretty

BJM said...

Wineke's punching waaaaay above his weight.


I'm gonna need more popcorn.

AllenS said...

Drill,

Something that I learned in grade school.

Anonymous said...

"And then one of the Irish waitresses beat the living shit out of her."

So the solution is obvious. Justice Prosser is accompanied by another justice, a female justice, of his persuasion at all times and if Justice Bradley rushes him again the female justice can beat the living shit out of her. A female would be allowed to do that. It's just one of those things.

Shouting Thomas said...

So the solution is obvious. Justice Prosser is accompanied by another justice, a female justice, of his persuasion at all times and if Justice Bradley rushes him again the female justice can beat the living shit out of her. A female would be allowed to do that. It's just one of those things.

The perfect solution.

I'm programming a new video game: Fighting Wisconsin Judges!

garage mahal said...

You must be a city boy Roger. You and quite a few other tough guy rugged types here that think the roadkill joke is a gold mine, don't know fuck all about hunting or fishing, or how to handle wild game. I do, sorry asshole. Thousands of deer get hit in Wisconsin and some frugal people eat them. I think I've hit 4 or 5, although I admit I wasn't in the car that hit this particular one. I grew up in the sticks.

Steve Austin said...

Memo to Madison residents and leaders. The free money is gone. You've spent it all over the last 50 years.

There is no more left to take. The sooner you recognize this and start trying produce things the world values, the faster this State can recover.

Bradley, Sumi, Ozanne, Abrahamson, etc. need to understand this.

BJM said...

When interviewed in March 2011, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley acknowledged Prosser had had outbursts over the years, but said there had not been one of significant magnitude since February 2010. She also commented that, "he is a good man - but you cannot accurately say he has a steady, even temperament." [34]

Setting the stage?

Roger J. said...

Actually garage--born and raised in Miami and spent 25 years in the army--West Point, ranger school August-Oct 1967

two silver stars, three bronze stars and a purple heart from viet nam--and if you want more detail google my name

so tell me about your exploits--what the fuck have you done other than snark on a blog--

but please go on--

Mike said...

Let's just say that I doubt Justice Bradley would have rushed almost (just 7,000 teensy weensy little votes short) Justice Kloppenberg.

You would not expect this sort of conduct to occur in a State Supreme Court's chambers. Maybe down at the local redneck saloon on a Saturday night--but not in the inner sanctum of a courthouse.

That said, I've seen women in office settings say and do things that--were they male--would wind up in a suggestion that both parties take it ouside--and settle it.

There are aggressive and abusive women--just as there are aggressive and abusive men. And if Justice Bradley is manipulating this story, color me "Shocked, just Shocked!!!" to discover that a woman may be manipulative for her own advantage.

dbp said...

He really gives away his bias with this, "Who knows? Perhaps Althouse is right. If it turns out that Bradley did attack Prosser -- fists raised -- that wouldn't be very judicial."

So even if Bradly assaults Prosser AND Prosser refrains from lifting a finger in self-defense, it is merely "not very judicial". But if Prosser justifiably defends himself from attack then he is guilty, guilty, guilty and Bradly is (of course)absolved.

Big Mike said...

See if Prosser had studied aikido, then he could have used the force of her attack to leave her crippled for life, and a whole bunch of senior black belt aikidokas (4th and up) would testify that aikido is purely a defensive martial art.

(And so it is, but some of the techniques are pretty close to lethal. If fact would be lethal if you didn't know how to fall face downward from 4 or 5 feet in the air without hurting yourself.)

At any rate, I can see where Wineke is coming from. If short, elderly men are not allowed to defend themselves in any way shape or form from attacking postmenopausal women, then eventually all the old men will be dead and Social Security won't have to pay out to them.

See how easy it is to fix Social Security!!!

Big Mike said...

I might add, that it looks like posts about the shenanigans at the Wisconsin Supreme Court beat even Sarah Palin for traffic generation.

Madam, you are a genius.

mesquito said...

I comment at Winek's place:

"Why don't you respond to Althouse's comment? Why won't you quote her properly, or link to her post?"

Wineke responds:

"Here's a hint: Google Ann Althouse. Don't be so lazy.

And I did respond. My response is that if Prosser's hands touched Bradley's neck, there are not two sides to the story."

David said...

A former spouse used to haul off and slug me when she got particularly angry. She got particularly angry failrly often. She was almost as tall as me, and strong.

After scores of incidents I told her that tif she hit me again, I would hit her back just as hard. She did. I did. To her credit, that caused her to reevaluate.

That was way back in the day. Nowadays that response would be somewhere between foolish and suicidal.

Roger J. said...

BTW Garage--this "city boy" has hunted elk, mule deer, and moose--he knows how to kill them,field dress them and transport them out--you ever transported a 2000 moose out of saskatchewan? didnt think so

its a lot easier to go the road kill route that you do--nothing involved other than butchering a car killed animal

so I am a city boy? really

your are such an idiot. Stay on the porch and dont try to run with the big dogs

mike said...

Holy Smokes. Is this guy Wineke really a journalist? Who would hire this tool? His writing is childish and he makes no sense whatsoever. Just horrible. Whatever he's getting paid, it's definitely too much.

The Dude said...

Hey, Garbage, why were you disparaging the guy in the wheel chair the other day - as a motorcyclist he has provided you with tons of venison. You sure are a stupid little shit, aren't you?

Michael Haz said...

I s he actually paid to write that poorly, or does he just get some free weed?

Seriously, I've seen better writing in high school yearbooks. On the autograph pages.

Roger J. said...

garage--waiting for a link so I can google your accomplishments--I have given you mine--you?

Michael Haz said...

Wait. He's actually AlphaLiberal, isn't he? I recognize the thoughtful reasoning.

Anonymous said...

I don't know...

It seems like women hauling off and slugging men went out with the '80's...

At least that's when it happened for me...

At least with men, you can hit back-

Bryan C said...

The lesson Wineke apparently feels men should learn is that they might as well be hanged for a goat as a lamb: If a woman attacks you, there's no reason to use any restraint in your response because any physical contact, no matter how fleeting or ineffectual, will be construed as an vicious assault against the woman. A touch is a punch is a stranglehold is a sexual assault.

I'm not sure how this works out to the benefit of women or the interests of equality, but it sure seems to be his goal.

Trooper York said...

The thing is when you are a big chooch like me the girls feel they can haul off and slug you and when you complain that it hurts they say stuff "Don't be such a baby" or "I couldn't hurt you if I tried."

Back in my bouncing around days I would always hang out with waitresses and hit on them and stuff since I always ended up doing their taxes and what not. They would go and seat their customers and go "Crap I just got a table full of German tourists" and haul off and slug me one.

The two groups they hated the most to serve: tables of women or blacks.

I wanted to write a headline "Women and minorities served at the Pub....Trooper York hurt most."

Trooper York said...

The Irish girls weren't racists. Most of them loved to go out with black dudes. It's just that black people don't tip for shit. Just sayn'

Roger J. said...

Garage: at the end of the day, you are fucking coward--full of bullshit but unwilling to back it up

go away little man just go away

you epitomise (big word, look it up) the idiot posters here

go fuck yourself--a coward and and a loser

garage mahal said...

your are such an idiot. Stay on the porch and dont try to run with the big dogs

If you were a big dog you wouldn't think humanely dispatching an injured deer and consuming it the butt of an endless joke.

mrs whatsit said...

I don't know who did what to whom in those chambers, but I do think Wisconsin had better do something, fast, to fix the bitter politicization that's destroying its highest court and the whole state's respect for the law. I have worked in the court systems of various states during a long legal career and have never, ever, ever, seen judges behave in anything like the manner that judges apparently act in Wisconsin -- gathering up gangs of justices to wander through the courthouse confronting other justices about the date when a decision will or will not be released, calling each other "bitch," charging each other with fists raised, choking or pushing or touching one another at all -- these people are entirely dysfunctional, if not deranged. When judges show this kind of disrespect for their own court, it's no wonder there's such widespread disrespect for the law and legal and legislative processes in the state.

Wisconsin is the best argument against electing judges that I've ever seen. I'm not normally a big fan of New York's way of doing anything, but here's what we do here to try to insulate judges from partisan political pressure. New York judges are elected to positions in the state's trial courts -- that is, its town and village courts, its county and family courts, and what we call the "Supreme Court" which is the state-wide trial court system. (Yes, I know it's Byzantine. I didn't say we do EVERYTHING right.) Judicial campaigns are certainly partisan in the sense that they are run by the parties, and it matters which party a candidate belongs to. However, candidates and campaigns are carefully policed to keep politics in the sense of predicting how candidates will or won't vote on particular legal issues out of the campaign, as much as possible. A partisan circus like that which took place during Kloppenburg's campaign would be swiftly stopped here. Once a judge is elected, he or she serves a long term -- 10 years for County or Family Court, 14 for Supreme -- in order to limit political pressure on judges to decide cases with an eye to re-election rather than according to the law.

As for the State's appellate courts -- the middle-tier Appellate Division, which has several panels of justices distributed around the state, and the Court of Appeals at the highest level, New York's equivalent to Wisconsin's Supreme Court -- all justices are appointed by the Governor from the ranks of elected Supreme Court judges. If you are appointed to the Appellate Division, you must run for your seat again when the 14-year term runs out (though, if re-elected, you will return to the Appellate Division without having to be re-appointed by the Governor.) If you are appointed to the Court of Appeals, the seat belongs to you until you resign or reach the mandatory retirement age. Thus, unlike Wisconsin's warlike judiciary, judges in New York are insulated as completely as possible from political concerns that might affect their legal decision making. It seems to work. The result may or may not be collegiality or good law, but we certainly are more successful than Wisconsin at depoliticizing the courts and enabling politically diverse panels of judges to work together with respect for the law rather than rabid political partisanship. Heated intellectual disagreement certainly occurs here, but tends to take the form of strongly-worded dissents or the occasional impassioned verbal debate around the conference table not flying fists and chokeholds. If anybody's calling anybody else a bitch behind closed doors in chambers, nobody is telling the media about it. Really, Wisconsin, wake up and revisit the way you populate your highest courts. You are in rough shape, it's getting rougher, and it does not have to be this way.

Trooper York said...

The worst fight I ever saw was between two women. It was the War of the Rosies.

Roger J. said...

garage--is that the best you can do?

that is totally sad-you are justifying your penchant for eating road kill--OK--if that whats you do go for it

My thought is to kill the game that I hunt, dress them out, and get them back to butcher them

apparently you assholes in wisconsin have a whole different approach to hunting

KCFleming said...

Althouse is getting a taste of what Norman Podhoretz described in his 1967 memoir Making it, Breaking Ranks: A Political Memoir (1979), and then his 1999 book "Ex Friends: Falling Out with Allen Ginsberg, Lionel and Diana Trilling, Lillian Hellman, Hannah Arendt, and Norman Mailer'"

Podhoretz was once a force among intellectuals in the radical movement. He lost a lot of friends when he said the radicalism of those years grew "out of an infection of self-hatred and self-contempt" in which "the contemptuous repudiation of everything American and middle class was mistaken for a form of idealism."

In the first book he wrote, " “One of the longest journeys in the world is the journey from Brooklyn to Manhattan — or at least from certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn to certain parts of Manhattan.”

Now it's the other way around.
Althouse may be on a similar trek.
Godspeed.

rcocean said...

I wish the Taiwanese would do one of their Animated cartoons on this. They're very educational.

Anonymous said...

I married Satan's daughter.

Didn't mean to-

got her pregnant....

Yes, you can thank me for running interference for you poor souls...

Unfortunately, two behind me couldn't take a hint if it slapped them upside the head.....just sayin'

DADvocate said...

Prosser is 68 years old. Not exactly "your son." Judging from pictures I found in the Internet, he's a small man, about the same size as a female reporter interviewing him in one shot. If nearly anyone attacked him, he'd have trouble holding them off.

Due to the actions and words of lefties in Wisconsin and elsewhere, I have trouble giving any credence to what they say without solid evidence. Wineke grossly oversteps the bounds of reason.

Where are you going put your hands to hold off a woman attacking you? I like to hold one hand on their forehead which works well for me because I'm tall and long armed. Wouldn't work for Prosser. Prosser couldn't put his hands to her chest because of boobies. (That would be a controversy.)

Most logically, Prosser would put his hands on her shoulders, from which the neck sprouts. A lying, self-righteous sleazeball and her cohorts would then claim he was grabbing her neck. A leftie lie? Nah.

Carol_Herman said...

Ya know,I'd still bet that there are other people who work in the building. Not just the justices, alone.

When Prosser went looking for Abrahamson, I'm sure he was checking in other rooms, before he got to Bradley's door.

I'm sure every single person who has a desk nearby all these office doors. Plus, all the attorneys and visitors who may also have been in the bulding ...

Were alerted to the "hide and seek" game Ahbrahamson had staked out.

Nobody seems to want to comment that his lunatic for a chief justice, actually had an agreement going with her "collegial colleagues" about publishing a completed OPINION ... that had circulated round and round ... before all the OPINIONS were in and typed up. Votes were counted.

Then this story unfolds.

Prosser finds his quay. She's sitting in Bradley's office. Presumably, Bradley's at her desk ... when the "exchange" begins.

Suddenly, Bradley rises. But she doesn't slam the door shut!

And, Prosser doesn't move backwards. Because he's got 3 other justices behind him.

Bradley, swinging wildly is suddenly pulled off from behind!

So, right away, Loo-ders version is turned into garbage. According to Loo-der everybody just sat still.

According to updates by Christian Schneider ... there weren't enough shares in the room for everyone's tuchis.

But for some reason, the loon, Bradley, thought if she just went public. She'd get Prosser to resign.

Wow. What kind of crackpot idea was that?

bagoh20 said...

"We are not fragile flowers in need of old-school chivalry. If we were, it would justify discrimination. "

But women are clearly different in many ways, which require men to control their nature all the time or accept sever punishment, yet women have no restraint on their nature. There is clearly a double standard, and the currently favored class is running roughshod with it, and at the "highest" levels.

To put it bluntly: Women don't want equality, they want power, and superior rights are better than equal ones.

WV: "nuntsac" I Love that WV.

Anonymous said...

A couple of years ago, there was a mildly famous surveillance video of a city/county council meeting. The meeting was contentious. At some point, one of the participants got up to go the dunny or something, and passed by another member who was sitting next to the aisle. As the man passed by the woman, he gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder, as guys will often do to one another.

Don't quibble, ok, it was totally obvious that was the deal.

Here's what happened next. A full two seconds after the man passed by, the motionless lady has a full-on spaz attack, tumbling into the aisle and starts screaming bloody murder about assault.

What made it so funny was the lady was so dull-witted that it took her two seconds to respond in such a patently false manner. Which of course made it also obvious that it was a snow-job.

I will leave it to your googling skills to guess and then confirm the party affiliations and ethnicities of the participants. I will only say that stereotypes are useful hints.

Trooper York said...

Are you trying to say that the council woman was not a good tipper?

Trooper York said...

You knew that already because she is a broad. They don't tip for shit.

SecondComingOfBast said...

I don't think he should resign, and allow me to put my name to whatever list of comments there may or may not be that would assert that if she attacked him, or if any woman physically attacks any man, she shouldn't bitch if she gets her ass kicked. Or throttled.

What no one is seeing in the proper context here is the "heat of the moment". If you are in a room and suddenly someone unexpectedly and fiercely attacks you, there is an automatic response time involved. Unless you are a skilled street fighter or martial artist, that is what your automatic response is going to be based on, the sudden assault-not the sex of your assailant.

Carol_Herman said...

50 States. 50 different ways to do business. New York's system doesn't excite me. But I gotta tell ya, Wisconsin, starting with Kloppenhoppen, sure put itself on the map!

Of course, Justice Prosser won. His margin of victory was 7000 votes. While the democraps diddled. And, said there was "something wrong." A million, or millions of dollars later, taxpayers found out their votes were all counted. And, Prosser had won.

This is the current standoff.

The LOSERS want to change how Prosser won to keep his seat another ten years. Starting on August 1st.

And, the two lunatics, who aren't happy enough just to have sweet judges chambers ... are at a tear to reduce the election system to peanuts.

Now that Bradley kicked this story into national prominence ... exactly how does she claim victory, ahead?

Yeah, I know. Kloppenhoppen claimed victory. All you need is a press conference where no one comes into the room to ask questions.

But now? Gosh, you've got Police Chief Tubbs. You've got the other guy who actively backed Abrahamson. With Sumi thrown into the 30-second-spot for good measure.

And, for the "win" you just say so?

Does silly shirley abrahamson even begin to understand that her reputation, and all the time she's spent on the court, has been shot to hell?

Do you know she's left a trail of opinions?

Who in hell will go out, in the future, and dare quote from anything ever "opinionated" by Sumi, or Bradley, or Abrahamson ... In what court, and in what land, would this serve credence?

Man, somebody should have cut off Bradley's fingers, to prevent her from ever dialing her phone.

Now?

The story lept out of the bag. And, it's Humpty Dumpty time, watching all the incompetent journalists ... trying to put this mess back together, again.

Darleen said...

Don't be so surprised, Ann. Your authenticity as a woman (and therefore, deserving of not being lied about) rests solely on your ability to carry Leftist Revealed Truth(tm).

You know what happens to apostates, right?

windbag said...

@mrs whatsit

I'm not normally a big fan of New York's way of doing anything, but here's what we do here to try to insulate judges from partisan political pressure.

Wisconsin's Supreme Court has become the Poster Child for using a merit system over elections. Most people don't know anything about judges and throwing darts at a monkey (or something like that) could give you as good or better results as elections.

I have a lawyer friend whose opinion I seek out come election time. He's an admitted socialist, yet I take his recommendations as gospel, since it's in his realm of expertise. He takes my recommendations on booze.

Michael said...

Garage: "Why didn't Prosser PRESS CHARGES if he was brutally attacked?"

Maybe he didn't PRESS CHARGES because he is a GENTLEMAN and did not want to destroy the justice's reputation. This would be a concept available to most men outside of lunatic Wisconsin.

Anonymous said...

Men are different than women. Usually when a gal slugs a guy, the guy usually just shrugs it off with a smile and a wry comment about the butterfly wing that he just felt, and how he probably deserved it anyway.

When the lady (!) persists, another phase begins. No matter the softness of the blows, the man's lizard brain turns on and begins the preparation for battle mode. The civilized gentleman warns the woman to desist forthwith. The warning is made quietly, but with such controlled force, that any woman with wits recognizes the fair warning and immediate danger and backs off. Most women have never seen this reaction in their menfolk before, because we men work hard to keep it from coming to that.

The dullard-ette who ignores the immediate danger is usually quite surprised to find herself without warning knocked on her keister, or her flailing wrists suddenly locked in two crushing fists.

We are gentlemen, but we are also warriors. Do not turn on our warrior mode, because once activated, it is neither easily controlled, nor turned off until it is satisfied. You all depend on that warrior mode for the survival of our families, communities, and civilization.

Regardless of what happened between P & B, Abrahamson has got to go. The Exec and Legis leaders of both parties need to have a quiet come to Jesus meeting with Abrahamson, and let her know that it's time.

Ann Althouse said...

"Wait. He's actually AlphaLiberal, isn't he? I recognize the thoughtful reasoning."

Aw, come on. That's really unfair to Alpha.

The Drill SGT said...

Roger J. said...
BTW Garage--this "city boy" has hunted elk, mule deer, and moose


and people Garage, the most dangerous game, far more than a deer, cause you know, those guys in black PJ's had home field advantage and AK47s... a lot better equipped than your average deer.

Chip Ahoy said...

Hello, Darleen.

Anonymous said...

But a come-to-Jesus meeting between the three branches would of course first require men and women of honor and rectitude in the Legislature. Well, citizens of Wisconsin, have you done your duty and elected such?

garage mahal said...

RogerJ

I don't hunt *with* cars, meathead. Never have. Nobody I know ever has either. I turn down venison from my father in law, I don't even care for it anymore, if I ever did. I do not want to get into with you tonight Roger, and I hope you're doing well.

The Drill SGT said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Scott M said...

What is this "snark" of which she speaks?

Meade said...

Chip Ahoy said...
"Hello, Darleen."

What's that, Darleen? How's Chip doin?
He's doin' alright except he can't sleep
and he cries all night 'till dawn.
What he's tryin' to say is he loves you
and he misses you
And he's so sorry
that he did you wrong.

Sigivald said...

And if your son's defense was that he wasn't trying to choke the woman but just defending himself by putting his hands around her neck? You know what you would say.

Yeah, I'd say that self defense is okay even when men do it - and that attacking people (for no good reason) is wrong even when women do it.

SunnyJ said...

I do not think it is coincidental that there is this chaos in the WI Supreme Court and stories linking Soros to funding groups, like the Wis Center for Investigative Journalism, and leaks by anonymous sources to the Soros group, and the author is a facebook friend of the author that attacks Althouse for questioning Lueders.

It's like Mouse Trap run amok.

Sigivald said...

edutcher said: "Her comments are being picked up by all sorts of 'conservative' blogs around the country and are surrounded by comments suggesting Prosser's only problem is that he didn't squeeze harder."

How dast she write something the Conservatives blogs would copy?


More importantly, how dare she say something that someone, somewhere commented on with an unwholesome desire?

[And while no amount of "they did it first!" or "they do it more!" justifies threatening or wishing harm on someone for their political position*, I'd bet enough money to buy lunch that Wineke never even considered the rhetoric of the recent Walker Protestors as counting as a negative, no matter how nasty it got.

Or at very least, he didn't say it in print**.

[* There are exceptions, but none of them apply here.]

[** I made the mistake of trying to check this and found his archive of opinion posts. At least, in his favor, he doesn't seem to even pretend to not be partisan. Hack.])

rhhardin said...

The loon is a harsh mistress.

The Drill SGT said...

Two Silver Stars Roger? AllenS and I are impressed... Seriously, you must have deserved at least one...

Good Job Colonel

sometime we want to short version on both. you know:

No shit, we was...

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Great post Althouse.

SukieTawdry said...

Men Don't Tell

Rob Crawford said...

I do kind of shudder to think we have people in this country who advocate murdering those with whom they disagree.

Ya know, I doubt this fellow said this a few months ago when Wisconsin Republicans were getting death threats.

Dad29 said...

Why don't you you shudder at your own propensity to misstate what people say and mean?

Because the Left cannot deal with the truth, plain and simple.

Rob Crawford said...


Wisconsin's Supreme Court has become the Poster Child for using a merit system over elections.


No, because the "merit" system would be captured to define "merit" as "mouths the proper leftist platitudes".

The solution to this is honest reporting, which, clearly, Wisconsin is not getting.

Anonymous said...

rhhardin WROTE:

The loon is a harsh mistress.

OUCH! But pretty good ...

MadisonMan said...

Isn't Wineke the former Minister? Or am I confusing him with someone else?

Carol_Herman said...

You'll never have a merit system to judge judges compentence. One reason? Too many kids have seen it all when their parents get divorced.

Not one reputation isn't left tattered. Kids grow up having no faith in courts!

Call it the "injured parents" rule. And, why elections will remain better ... even if people have no idea what's being offered up for candidates.

It still beats all the other systems by miles.

Now, what about the future?

Well, let me point to the ZOMBIE ECONOMY. There's nothing left where you can go to make money. And, it's been noticed that government jobs pay well. Expect to see more people vying to get on board.

That's one cure.

Once people with abilities went out to work on Wall Street. Or selling cars. Or real estate. They're all flooding back, now.

And, running for election ... which means knocking yourself out knocking on doors ... may become an attractive means of finding work, ahead.

I don't expect to see the usual assortment of affirmative action hires doing all that well, anymore.

That's what happens when people become alert.

It changes how they're willing to vote.

Does this mean it will cost George Soros more? Yup. More. And, with less results.

Abrahamson was stupid to put this story into play. Didn't lay a glove on Prosser, either.

Don't let Madison fool ya. Inside the political structure people are now much more aware of shifting views.

Michael K said...

It is a controversy only if Prosser's hands were nowhere near Bradley's neck. I mean, come on!

You just have to grab her by the tits and you are safe.


Errr...

Holmes said...

After reading his article, I want to put my hands around my own neck.

kjbe said...

Isn't Wineke the former Minister?

I don't know about 'former', but, yes, the same.

Andy Johnson said...

Men and women are not equal. The man is -ALWAYS- wrong. The white man is especially always wrong. It is not a he said/she said issue. It is an OJ Simpson issue.

The man is supposed to leave whenever a woman raises her voice. Whenever a woman says "no" on any subject, but most particularly when it involves personal and private issues. A man may have private and personal issues, but a woman has political issues. Any comment may be taken out of context, may be raised beyond the level of anger, all a woman need do is throw her hear against a wall or door after he has left and he is automatically thrown in jail, forced to move, possibly even forced to give up his job and seek counseling... equal-? Ha-!

It was never about equality. It was about supremacy and dominance.

Wake up and look about...Go sit in a family or divorce court for a while... Your romantic notions of equality, fairness and so on are merely words that others hide behind to dominate and manipulate their environment...

Robert Burnham said...

Smoke/slime screen by Democrats.

Just remember the Golden Rule:
No Democrat. Any office. Ever.

California Exodus said...

Prosser shoulda grabbed he by the boobs.....assuming she had some

Anga2010 said...

I love the "more speech" message here. It makes no difference to Althouse how the media is misrepresenting her, she's gonna tell ya EXACTLY (gotta love law profs) what she said and how COMPLETELY wrong you are, citing chapter and verse.
I think I got sideways of Althouse once, but now I make a much better effort at writing.

Sigivald said...

Oh, Ann -

Since nobody else seems to have posted it, I think you might have misunderstood Wineke in at least one place.

"Her comments are being picked up by all sorts of “conservative” blogs around the country and are surrounded by comments suggesting Prosser's only problem is that he didn't squeeze harder."

I think what he means here is not that comments on your blog said that, or that comments here surround yours.

I think he means to refer to comments at other blogs entirely that have linked or quoted your original posts; the "surrounded by comments" refers thus to the comments on the "conservative blogs".

That is, as noted in other comments here, incredibly unfair as a reason for blaming you for any-God-Damned-thing.

Which seems to be par for the course for him, from my fortunately limited experience with his writings.

Carol_Herman said...

Abrahamson started a forest fire!

She thought she'd fan a few embers. And, Prosser would be cooked. He could take his 7000 vote victory at the polls and shove it up his ass.

Those are among the mistakes Abrahamson has made.

Wineke complaining that the Internet gives stories major lift ... means he's crying up a storm for what's been lost. Ya know, he sees his house up in flames.

Now, we're finding out he didn't even carry insurance.

And, abrahamson has no shot, ahead, at finding her dignity.

Long live the Internet!

Charlie Martin said...

If women and men are equal, both are governed by the same standards of behavior.

Modus tollens.

BJM said...

@Caro lHerman

The story lept out of the bag. And, it's Humpty Dumpty time, watching all the incompetent journalists ... trying to put this mess back together, again.

Yes! Watching the media realize that it wasn't going according to plan and begin to ass cover & deflect furiously as the story blew up in their faces is the most enjoyable part thus far.

pst314 said...

"I don't blame Althouse for that, but I do kind of shudder to think we have people in this country who advocate murdering those with whom they disagree."

Funny, that's the quickest route to tenure: You don't need academic qualifications. Just commit acts of terrorism for some far-left cause. Soon you'll get tenure offers, plus all the liberal adulation you can handle.

Anonymous said...

Ann, that was pithy, but . . .
Full-bodied!
Wineke may mutter . . .
"She tasks me!"

Tom Perkins said...

"He is Facebook friends with Bill Lueders."

Quite the JournoList.

Lisa said...

How do you put your hands up to protect yourself and somehow end up with them around the other person's neck involuntarily? That makes no sense.

Clearly, if she hit him, her behavior was unacceptable. I could even see him putting his hands out to push her if he THOUGHT she was going to hit her.

But that isn't the charge. The charge is he put his hands on her neck. Didn't you say she was physically bigger than he? To put his hands on her neck, he would be reaching up with them close together. Not with his hands flat to defend himself.

I see no way that his hands could end up on her neck (assuming that they did) accidentally. If he did put his hands on her neck, he should be removed from office.

If SHE was violent or threatened violence, she should also be removed.

technogypsy said...

I guess I'm a thug. A woman who attacks you physically deserves the same response as a man.

I think once a person moves into assault, you can defend yourself. And that's what I'd tell my kid. Of course, I also told him if he gets into a fight in self-defense, he better do damage because the teachers will screw him over even if innocent. Happily, his private school still believes that only the guilty should be punished.

WV: ablood - oddly apt for this topic

Writ Small said...

Her comments are being picked up by all sorts of “conservative” blogs around the country and are surrounded by comments suggesting Prosser's only problem is that he didn't squeeze harder.

I read this initially as meaning the conservative blogs that are linking to Ann's post are surrounded by the offending comments. That makes his statement more likely to be true, so perhaps that's what he meant. Some commenter on some linking blog may have said something like that.

But just think about the implication. Not only is Ann tied to her own commenters, she's responsible for the comments on other bloggs. With the most generous interpretation, Wineke is a fool.

Holmes said...

@Lisa- really? That's what passes for forensic analysis? You can't imagine someone's hands touching someone's neck in that circumstance? Have a female with her fists up run at you 10 times in sudden fashion to catch you by surprise. Now see where your hands go. Can't touch her chest; fists up probably means the shoulders are blocked. The only open area is between her chest and neck. And realize this probably happened in an instant.

Holmes said...

My feeling is that women know they can make false accusations against men and usually get away with it. It has even been aided by the judiciary. And a liberal judiciary that knows men are inherently bad people, while women are not responsible for their actions as even their own acts of violence are because of their longtime victimhood at the hands of men. Just file an EEO claim at any time at work. Cry in the HR Manager's office about how horrible and awful that mean dirty man is. And see how the two parties are treated.

David R. Graham said...

I think this is much ado about nothing. More rice bowls for lawyers. Very few anywhere are interested in equality of anything and likely most of those who are are thinking about cloud castles. The analytical matrix of American society today is built by and for lawyers and is otherwise disjoined from facts and compassion.

Akai_Tsuki said...

Study out of Texas Tech University found that around 50% of domestic violence is initiated by the woman.
Someone is still living in an outdated, sexist past.
hampersmessages on hold

Akai_Tsuki said...

"If women and men are equal, both are governed by the same standards of behavior."
KUsed Boats Phuket