THAT’S A RELIEF: New Study Proves Tyrannosaurus Rex Had Scaly Lizard Skin, Not Feathers.

WORD, JUST WORDS: J. Christian Adams visits Alexandra, spots plenty of lefty virtue signaling, and we all know it’s just a pose: “It’s hard to square all these calls for civility with the bullet holes and blood.”

ALLIES: Four U.S. soldiers killed in apparent insider attack in Afghanistan.

STELLA MORABITO: Rather Than Judging Fathers’ Household Labor, Let’s Appreciate It: As a tribute to Father’s Day, I’d like to describe the household labor of two fathers I’ve known: my own father and my husband, the father of my children.

My father was possibly the most cheerful person I’ve ever known. He worked long hours as a real estate agent, but I’ve no doubt he did way more than 50 percent of the housework. He shopped for groceries on his way home from work. He very often did the laundry, dishes, and cooking. He habitually brewed the morning coffee, put breakfast on the table, and got us kids off to school.

It wasn’t easy for my mother to keep up with four closely spaced children. I’d later come to truly appreciate her many sacrifices and deep love for us all. But she viewed housework as a total waste of time. Her primary concern was to write great poetry, which was often published in an Armenian literary journal.

As an adult I can appreciate the profound beauty of her poetry. As a child, though, I just remember her chain-smoking Kools and pounding at the typewriter. Her days were punctuated with passionate phone conversations in which she’d often rail against various Republicans as the source of all evil. She’d sometimes pause at the greasy stove, where she’d turn on a gas burner, bending sideways to light another cigarette.

The house could go to hell, as far as she was concerned. And it did. My father’s valiant daily efforts amounted to a bit of damage control. It got so bad that when I was about ten I asked my mom why the house was always so messy. Appalled, she said, “If you want a clean house, go ahead and clean it yourself!” . . .

But long live traditionally male household labor, too. Maybe part of the reason I grew up in a house without the so-called gendered division of labor is because my father was not a handyman.

My husband, by contrast, has been unbelievably handy. That’s despite his high-powered career as a national security expert on Capitol Hill, at the Pentagon, and in industry. When we married I was a career intelligence analyst. But once we had kids, I stayed home full-time and never returned to that career. I also did all of the housework. But I wouldn’t have had it any other way because my priority was to have him spend kids-awake time interacting with them (reading, playing, bathing, and diapering) rather than squandering any of that time on chores I was able to do myself.

In any case, why would I have wanted my husband to do housework instead of big-ticket projects I wasn’t as able to do? For example, here’s a partial list of what my husband contributed to our sweat equity over the years:

Built ceiling to floor bookshelf system across 80 square feet of wall
Gutted the old kitchen in our first house
Remodeled that kitchen, installing all cabinets, flooring, and appliances
Did demolition work to prep for kitchen remodel in second house
Installed seven ceiling fans
Installed landscape timbers, terraced, planted shrubs
Built and installed backyard fence and gate
Jackhammered broken up patio and took concrete to landfill
Jackhammered old driveway, and took concrete to landfill
Tore out old walkway, poured cement, installed flagstone walkway
Sanded and refinished about 1,000 square feet of oak flooring in the first house
Sanded and refinished about 2,000 square feet of oak flooring in the second house
Built a pergola and arbors in the backyard
Planted several trees, grapevines, and other cultivars
Installed ceiling insulation in attic
Installed insulation in crawl space (nasty job)
Over the course of 20 years painted about 20 rooms, at least two coats
Installed five toilets
Installed dozens of outlets and light fixtures
Shopped with me for furniture, appliances, draperies
Built custom sandbox for the kids, with built-in benches on the sides
Installed a ceramic tile floor in the laundry room
Installed two sinks and a granite countertop in the bathroom
Installed four large medicine cabinets
Replaced and hung 21 interior doors (which I sanded, stained, and finished)
Built a work station across the back wall of a two-car garage
Installed 12 replacement windows
Installed three exterior doors

That’s just what comes to mind at the moment. . . . If you’re going to put a price tag on the work mothers do, you need to also put a price tag on these “traditionally masculine” contractor tasks as well.

None of that counts because shut up. Also feminism.

SARAH HOYT: How We’re Losing the War to Save The Islamic World: Part II When Cultures Clash.

What most people mean when they talk about “a clash of cultures” is actually a clash between two subcultures, say corporate America and ghetto. This is difficult enough but can be overcome because one is at least aware of the other, even if the habits of one are completely different from the others.

When you’re dealing with completely different cultures suddenly clashing, it’s completely different. You see, the people in each of the cultures are not aware that they’re having a cultural conflict. They just interpret other people’s actions according to the norms of their culture. Internally, at a gut level, well before thought gets involved, we assume everyone has the same basic assumptions we have, and therefore we judge other cultures as we judge our own.

Read the whole thing.

JOBS WITH ANTIFA? Evergreen State Is Launching a Masters in Social Justice Program, With Guaranteed Jobs for Graduates.

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FAKE NEWS: Mattis Hasn’t Decided to Send 4K More Troops to Afghanistan.

A spokeswoman for Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday pushed back against news reports that he’s already approved sending 4,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

“Secretary Mattis has made no decisions on a troop increase for Afghanistan,” Dana White, an assistant to Mattis and the chief Pentagon spokesperson, said in a statement.

White noted that Mattis in testimony to Congress through this week had repeatedly said that decisions on troop increases would await the presentation to President Donald Trump of a new strategy for Afghanistan that would be ready in mid-July.

The Associated Press on Thursday reported that Mattis as early as next week may announce that he supports deploying 4,000 more troops in response to the request of Army Gen. John Nicholson, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, who had requested between 3,000 and 5,000 additional forces.

In her statement, White said that Trump had delegated authority to Mattis to set troop levels in Afghanistan, but any decision would have to await consultations with other government agencies, the Afghan government, NATO allies and other coalition members.

What happened to all those layers of editors and fact-checkers?

YOU WANT PRESIDENT DUTERTE? THIS IS HOW YOU GET PRESIDENT DUTERTE. Extremism Experts Warn: There’s ‘Something Coalescing On The Hard Left.’

LOST IN A SEA OF FAKE NEWS: Roger L. Simon notes a grim milestone.

WELL, THEY’VE ALWAYS BEEN MOSTLY A LEFTY PROPAGANDA OPERATION: Extremism experts are just starting to worry about the left now? Or in the case of the SPLC, entirely a lefty propaganda operation.

Related: This List Of Attacks Against Conservatives Is Mind Blowing.

WORM DIPLOMACY UPDATE: Dennis Rodman has returned from North Korea. He says his trip was “really good.”

“Everybody’s going to be happy. It was a good day. It was a good trip. A really good trip,” Rodman said.

Wearing black clothing with the PotCoin logo – a crypto-currency used by the legal marijuana industry – Rodman fended off questions from dozens of journalists at the arrival gate.

Asked repeatedly if he had met Kim, Rodman said: “You’ll find out.”

MORE:

Rodman, nicknamed “The Worm” during his playing career and known for his tattoos, body piercings and multicolored hair, is considered one of the best defensive players and rebounders in NBA history.

Rodman gave the Kim regime a copy of Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal. I guess we could call it very special delivery.

RELATED: Very very very special delivery. In case North Korea ignores The Worm.

PEOPLE NEED TO BE ABLE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES. YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN A BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER MIGHT COME ALONG: Republicans Target D.C. Gun Laws in Wake of Shooting: GOP lawmakers want reciprocity for concealed carry permit.

SOUTH CHINA SEA: The U.S. and Japan have conducted a joint naval exercise.

The Japanese newspaper and All-Nippon News Network reported the exercises mark the first time a U.S. aircraft carrier and Japan’s maritime SDF trained together in waters where China has been flexing its muscles with the rapid militarization of disputed islands in the South China Sea.

Nope, Beijing isn’t pleased.

RELATED: China’s slow and deliberate imperial war in the South China Sea.

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: 171 House Dems slam Trump’s Paris agreement withdrawal.

ACTUAL MALICE: WaPo Fact-Check: ‘Not A Good Sign’ That NYT Editors Used Lie To Smear Palin.

IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD WARNED THEM: Restaurant die-off is first course of California’s $15 minimum wage.

In a pair of affluent coastal California counties, the canary in the mineshaft has gotten splayed, spatchcocked and plated over a bed of unintended consequences, garnished with sprigs of locally sourced economic distortion and non-GMO, “What the heck were they thinking?”

The result of one early experiment in a citywide $15 minimum wage is an ominous sign for the state’s poorer inland counties as the statewide wage floor creeps toward the mark.

Consider San Francisco, an early adopter of the $15 wage. It’s now experiencing a restaurant die-off, minting jobless hash-slingers, cashiers, busboys, scullery engineers and line cooks as they get pink-slipped in increasing numbers. And the wage there hasn’t yet hit $15.

As the East Bay Times reported in January, at least 60 restaurants around the Bay Area had closed since September alone.

A recent study by Michael Luca at Harvard Business School and Dara Lee Luca at Mathematica Policy Research found that every $1 hike in the minimum wage brings a 14 percent increase in the likelihood of a 3.5-star restaurant on Yelp! closing.

Another telltale is San Diego, where voters approved increasing the city’s minimum wage to $11.50 per hour from $10.50, this after the minimum wage was increased from $8 an hour in 2015 – meaning hourly costs have risen 43 percent in two years.

The cost increases have pushed San Diego restaurants to the brink, Stephen Zolezzi, president of the Food and Beverage Association of San Diego County, told the San Diego Business Journal. Watch for the next mass die-off there.

But what of California’s less affluent inland counties? How will they fare?

Worse.

THAT SEEMS SENSIBLE: Mattis Told Generals To Abandon Obama Anti-ISIS Strategy, Start ‘Annihilating The Enemy.’

LEFTIES AREN’T GOING TO LIKE THE NEW RULES: BREAKING: Right-Wing Activists Jack Posobiec and Laura Loomer Rush Stage, Disrupt Controversial Rendition of ‘Julius Caesar.’ Is this dumb? Yeah, but that never stopped lefties and now they’re getting to see what it feels like to have your hair pulled.

Related: Ace: It is imperative we begin emulating the left in its tactics.

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SHE’S GOT A DECENT CLAIM HERE, EVEN WITH THE “ACTUAL MALICE” RULE: Palin Might Lawyer Up After NYT Correction.

RUSSIA IS ABOUT AS ACCURATE AS RACHEL MADDOW: The Middle East Institute evaluates Russia’s claim that it killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an airstrike.

Key observation:

Russia has a long track record of issuing fake claims and deliberate misinformation during its campaign in Syria.

I’ll wager Instapundit commenters will get my drift.

WELL, I WASN’T ON THE JURY BUT THIS SEEMS LIKE A BAD VERDICT TO ME: Philando Castile shooting: Officer Yanez acquitted of manslaughter, dismissed from police force. I still don’t see any good reason for shooting Castile, much less for firing his gun into a car containing a woman and her child. For that he was also charged, but acquitted.

“Yanez, who is Latino, ‘did what he had to do’ when he shot Castile, a defense attorney argued during the trial. Yanez testified that he feared for his life after Castile refused to not pull out his gun, despite the officer’s commands. Prosecutors argued that Yanez never saw the gun, and that he overreacted to a non-threat. The trial included squad-car video of the traffic stop between the two, but footage did not show what happened in Castile’s car, leaving it up to the jury to believe Yanez’s testimony.”

“Refused to not pull out his gun” is, I think, incorrect. Castile never pulled a gun; according to his girlfriend he was pulling out his ID as ordered.

Of course, the fact that Yanez is a Latino means this doesn’t fit the standard racial narrative, but I doubt that will matter.

HMM: Consumer Reports says liquid laundry detergent packets pose risk for people with dementia. “The nonprofit organization Consumer Reports stated the popular liquid laundry detergent packets, sometimes referred to as ‘pods,’ may pose a ‘lethal risk’ for adults with dementia, who may mistake the highly concentrated detergent packets for food.”