My wife and I will finally be welcoming a new dog into the family tomorrow. It’s been more than a year since we lost Rugby, and it was time–for me, way past time. We met “Spuds” yesterday, who was being cared for by a wonderful woman who rescues and fosters abused and neglected dogs. Poor Spuds was given up to one rescue organization by his owner as a puppy, then adopted by a horrible woman who kept him in a tiny room and seldom fed him. A month ago, when he was removed from this monster’s home, he was about 20 pound underweight and suffering from malnutrition. You wouldn’t know it to meet him. Spuds is all white with a brown spot over one eye and flip-over ears, obviously some kind of pitbull-terrier mix.  He’s 2 and a half year’s old, and, incredibly, trusting and eager to make friends with all dogs and people. He still has some rehabilitation to go through, but he’s a lively, athletic, loving dog with a sweet temperament, almost Rugby-like, but twice the size. Perfect.

1. “Nah, teachers aren’t out to indoctrinate children!”  Matthew Kay, who teaches English at Philadelphia’s Science Leadership Academy, wrote on Twitter that he is concerned about parents over-hearing their children’s Zoomed instruction from teachers like him:

“So, this fall, virtual class discussion will have many potential spectators — parents, siblings, etc. — in the same room. We’ll never be quite sure who is overhearing the discourse. What does this do for our equity/inclusion work? How much have students depended on the (somewhat) secure barriers of our physical classrooms to encourage vulnerability? How many of us have installed some version of ‘what happens here stays here’ to help this? While conversations about race are in my wheelhouse, and remain a concern in this no-walls environment — I am most intrigued by the damage that ‘helicopter/snowplow’ parents can do in the host conversations about gender/sexuality.” And while ‘conservative’ parents are my chief concern — I know that the damage can come from the left too. If we are engaged in the messy work of destabilizing a kid’s racism or homophobia or transphobia — how much do we want their classmates’ parents piling on?”

I have long advocated parents auditing their child’s classes just to prevent the kind of “teaching” Kay apparently engages in. It’s a basic tenet of practical ethics that if someone is a afraid of conduct becoming known, they know what the are doing is wrong, or may be viewed as wrong. Teachers have no justification for hiding the content of their classes from parents.

When Kay’s sinister comments prompted what should have been predictable criticism, he made his Twitter account private. Of course he did.

2. I saw this, thought it was too silly for words, then reader Michael sent me a link, and now I have to flag it.   I’ve seen “Kindergarten Cop” several times; it’s one of my wife’s favorites, and one of “Ahnold’s” best. The unlikely story of a huge police detective with an Austrian accent going undercover as a kindergarten teacher to catch a criminal before he can  kidnap and harm his estranged wife and their child, it’s funny and sweet, and intermittently exciting. However police-o-phobia is rampant during The Great Stupid, especially among hysterics and anarchists. So now that benign film has been declared dangerous.

Willamette Week reported that the movie was pulled from its slot at the Northwest Film Center’s drive-in summer cinema series in Portland after it was called offensive by deranged local author Lois Leveen. “There’s nothing entertaining about the presence of police in schools, which feeds the school-to-prison pipeline” she tweeted. Yes, that’s all it takes now for spineless administrators to cancel people, art, entertainment, anything.

Leveen even provided a perfect opening to shut her down with a curt, “You need help, Lois. Really. Trust us on this. This is pathetic” when, in an email, she compared “Kindergarten Cop” to “The Birth of a Nation.”

Right, Lois. And “Toy Story” is like “Triumph of the Will.”

3. Fortunately, though our teachers aren’t making teaching English to our children a priority, at least kids are getting lessons from their role models. Here’s Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard replying to criticism by an ESPN sports pundit on Twitter, in a tweet “loved” by 194,000 followers.

“I have never been buying nothing about you fam. You a joke. And after our private convo full of back pedaling you will never have my respect.”

I guess all of his young fans should plan on attending Rutgers.

4. Not only does bias make you stupid, but being stupid makes you biased! CNN White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond wrote that President Trump’s suggestion that he might give his GOP nomination acceptance speech at Gettysburg is motivated by Trump’s  admiration for the Confederacy.He said,

“We’ve reported that President Trump is considering his GOP nomination acceptance speech from the White House, but amid some criticism of that potential venue, the president is now floating another one,. This time he’s talking about the hallowed Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, but that could be controversial too particularly because this is a President who has consistently positions himself as a defender of Confederate symbols and monuments to Confederate generals.”

Wow.

Do I really have to explain why this is head-explodingly cretinous? I’m sure I don’t, but it will be fun…

• As we all know, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address to express his admiration of the Confederacy.
• The Union victory at Gettysburg is widely regarded as the pivotal, tide-turning moment when the Confederacy’s chances of prevailing became practically hopeless. The town and the battlefield are associated, correctly, with American triumph and courage, and  Confederate defeat. The town also was the long-time home of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. There are few places in America with more patriotic credentials—unless you work for CNN.
• President Trump has never uttered a word or tweeted a sentence in support of the Confederacy. He has opposed the removal of memorials to Confederate figures like Robert E. Lee.  Many, like me, agree with him.

This is the quality of thinking, historical perspective and analysis CNN inflicts on its audience. “That’s a fair point to make,” CNN anchor Pamela Brown said in response to this Diamonds’ ignorant statement.