Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 8/24

[SVPete]

ENES GETS TOSSED

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/08/enes-gets-tossed.php

Last night, Enes Kanter Freedom attended a WNBA game between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky. (The WNBA doesn’t use the traditional fierce animal names.) A Sky player named Natasha Cloud confronted Kanter, who was sitting near courtside:
...

“I’m a huge fan of basketball. I’m a huge fan of women’s basketball and I was there to watch the game and I was really excited because I’m a huge fan of the Fever. I was literally there to watch the game and then the first half went amazing,” Freedom told Fox News. “I was having so much fun with my friends and stuff. And then it was towards the end of the third quarter, Sophie Cunningham shot a three and I put my hands up to celebrate.

“Literally a couple of possessions later, Natasha [Cloud] came back and started screaming and yelling and said ‘She’s not going to sleep with you.’ And I was like ‘I’m not trying to sleep with her. I’m just here to protect women and support her.’ And then obviously after that she started yappin’ and she started to walk towards me and literally I just got up and I was like ‘I’m just here to protect women and that’s all.’”

...
Maybe the whole story hasn’t yet been told, but it is hard to see what Kanter did to justify being kicked out of the arena. Mostly, it reflects the  political stance the WNBA is taking. They want men playing in their league, only not Enes Kanter. And not, presumably, Royce White.

Gee, a couple weeks ago, WNBA security harassed two girls wearing XX/XY T-shirts. Now WNBA security ejected a fan for cheering Sophie Cunningham and standing up when an activist player started yelling insults at him. Once may be a coincidence; twice means a probable pattern.

[SVPete]

More about the above:
Enes Kanter Freedom opens up on confrontation with Natasha Cloud that led to ejection, WNBA pursuit

https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/enes-kanter-freedom-opens-confrontation-natasha-cloud-led-ejection-wnba-pursuit

And I was like, ‘I am not trying to sleep with her. I’m just here to protect women and support her.’ And then, obviously, after that she started yapping, and she started to walk towards me, and literally I just got up, and then I was like, ‘I’m just here to protect women, and that’s all.’"

Video of the incident showed Cloud walking toward Freedom, yelling and pointing at him late in the third quarter. Freedom stood, extended his arms and took a step onto the court as security and Sky players moved between them.

Freedom said Cloud then began using profanity in front of young fans.

"She started to yell. She started to use some very heavy language. She started to actually cuss, and I was very shocked that there were a lot of kids and that there were a lot of teenagers at that game," Freedom said.

"I just cannot believe that she was just cussing and using those F-bombs in front of all these kids. I’m sure she’s loved in Chicago and many kids are idolizing her and stuff, but that’s not how a WNBA athlete should react."

The confrontation came with 1:22 remaining in the third quarter, after Cloud scored inside and celebrated with teammate Aicha Coulibaly. Cloud then turned and approached Freedom, who was wearing a black shirt that read, "WOMAN noun. adult human female."

Another T-shirt incident?    

[SVPete]

Federal Appeals Court Rules in Favor of James O'Keefe Over Undercover Reporting

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/federal-appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-james-okeefe-over-undercover-reporting-6078852

A U.S. appeals court has entered a judgment in favor of James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas, and a Project Veritas reporter.

A split panel of U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit judges said on Aug. 21 that a district court judge had erroneously kept in place $130,000 in damages against O’Keefe over an undercover operation that targeted Democratic strategists.

“The principal question in this appeal is whether the jury’s damages award violated the First Amendment by punishing the defendants for publishing a news story,” Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, writing for the majority, said. “We conclude that it did.”

The case was brought after Project Veritas released a video showing conversations with strategist Robert Creamer and other Democratic operatives, including discussions secretly recorded by Allison Maass, a Project Veritas reporter, while she spent eight days as an unpaid intern at the Democracy Partners firm in 2016.

Creamer, who owned a consulting organization that was part of the firm, said two other groups canceled contracts with his organization because of footage Maass illegally obtained inside Democracy Partners. The contracts were primarily canceled because of footage of conversations with another Democratic strategist that was recorded by other Project Veritas personnel in public places, the appeals court majority said. That footage is protected under the First Amendment, Henderson said.

“The First Amendment required Creamer to show that the defendants’ unlawful conduct, rather than protected speech, was the prevailing cause of his damages,” the majority said. “But the record proved the opposite. Because the protected content of the Rigging the Election video was the principal cause of Creamer’s lost contracts, the resulting damages award impinges on the First Amendment.”

[Ptarmigan]

More about the above:
Enes Kanter Freedom opens up on confrontation with Natasha Cloud that led to ejection, WNBA pursuit

https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/enes-kanter-freedom-opens-confrontation-natasha-cloud-led-ejection-wnba-pursuit

Another T-shirt incident?    

Talk about a major league Charlie Foxtrot. 

[Ptarmigan]

North Carolina doctor accused of shooting 2 sisters in alleged interstate road rage attack
https://www.foxnews.com/us/north-carolina-doctor-accused-shooting-2-sisters-alleged-interstate-road-rage-attack

A North Carolina doctor was arrested Aug. 22 after he allegedly fired into a Jeep during an interstate road rage incident, wounding two sisters, ages 12 and 20, according to Virginia State Police.

Dr. Richard Thomas Arriviello, 61, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was driving north on Interstate 77 in his Mercedes-Benz around 8:50 a.m. when gunfire erupted about three miles north of the North Carolina-Virginia state line.

State police said in a press release that Arriviello fired into the moving Jeep, striking both sisters in the legs.

Doctor, doctor, gimme the news
I got a bad case of road rage
No pill's gonna cure my ill
I've got a bad case of road rage

The doctor got a bad case of road rage.