Buried several paragraphs into a NY Daily News story on the Tiger Woods soap opera:
Us Weekly magazine, citing a source who spoke with other pro golfers, reported that Nordegren was told by a friend her husband was having an affair.
She then roused Woods from an Ambien-enhanced sleep by whacking him with a golf club.
“At that point, he ran out of the home barefoot and tried to drive away,” the source told Us.
It’s the first explanation for the crash that makes any sense, which is why I’m passing along a tabloid’s second-hand reporting of a story from a gossip rag.
Lawprof Ann Althouse says, “If it’s true, then Nordegren committed a very serious criminal attack. Attempted murder, perhaps.”
This sets off a series of puns and wisecracks in the commentariat, to which Althouse reponds,
Now, I was going to use a “wake-up call” wisecrack in the original post. Why did I reject it? Because it would signal that women’s violence against men isn’t really dangerous, isn’t really a crime. It would say that when a woman has a righteous reason to be angry at her man, what would otherwise be a crime is not a crime. Think about how ugly it is to hit someone with a golf club while he is asleep. Did she know it was an Ambien-induced sleep — from which it will be very difficult to wake up and defend himself? How hard a swing did she take at him? It seems it was scary enough to make him run out of the house and attempt to drive — quickly — when he was in no condition to drive.
Indeed. One can certainly understand Nordegren’s anger. Attacking someone in their sleep, however, is beyond the pale.
