Alert on the latest racist trigger word--field

Part of Wokeism is to gain power (it's a type of colonialism and the invading country is called Woke) and control over the language. Now they've come for the word "field" because . . .are you ready for this?--slaves used to go in the field to harvest? That's why there are so many people in the D.I.E. departments at universities soaking up the tuition money--someone is hired to sift through the dictionary, idioms, music, slang and comedy routines and find racist language.

USC will no longer use the word 'field' over racist 'connotations' (nypost.com)

Obesity in children--drugs and surgery?

Since drugs and surgery are working so well for the wallets of medical centers and Big Pharma for "treating" gender confusion in children, now "they" (probably 2 people with a government grant) want the same treatment for children who are overweight or obese. "They" want to skip right over stop eating garbage and get off your butt, and go right to surgery. Children don't buy the family's groceries, adults do that. And really, how many people who've had that drastic surgery as adults have slipped back after 5 or 10 years? It's a very hard and difficult decision, but now they want to get their hands and knives on children who can't fight back.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/wellness/american-academy-of-pediatrics-shredded-for-pushing-surgery-to-fight-childhood-obesity-questionable-at-best/ar-AA169xkb

I sure hope there are doctors with common sense who push back. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" needs to be brought back and brushed off.

A good Climate year

"2022 has been a good year in terms of climate, and it also reaffirms the positive trends toward a reduction in the intensity of climate change in many of the main indicators: temperature, Arctic sea-ice extent, sea level, and extreme phenomena. Let us not be fooled by those supported by our taxes. We have nothing to fear from climate change now or in the foreseeable future. Richard Feynman, one of the best physicists of the 20th century, said in 1966 that “science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts”, and Stuart Firestein teaches us that ignorance is the fuel that makes science advance. Those who believe they know what is wrong with the climate, who refuse to accept their ignorance, are not advancing science, but hindering its progress by slowing it down. They do not deserve to be called scientists because they do not serve the cause of science, which is to increase knowledge. They are only trying to line their pockets by defending an orthodoxy of clear political interest. It is clear why the climate panel is called “intergovernmental.” https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/07/2022-seventh-warmest-year-warming-slows-down/

I'm no scientist, but then neither are a lot of those who claim the title. Here's my take as a retired librarian; when there's drought in California, they whine climate change, and when it rains too much, they cry climate change, and when they have no plan to keep the reservoirs full, they blame climate change. It keeps the bureaucrats fat and the professors published.

How is the University of Pennsylvania involved in the latest Biden document scandal?

University that housed Biden center pressed to end FBI China spy probe after big Beijing donations | Just The News

Big China connection during the years UPenn was paying Biden almost a million to be "faculty."

"The University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy League institution which collected tens of millions of dollars from China while paying Joe Biden and hosting his foreign policy think tank, successfully pressured the Biden Justice Department to end an FBI counterespionage program targeting Beijing's increasing influence within U.S. academia.

Attorney General Merrick Garland shut down the FBI's so-called China initiative in February 2022 shortly after more than 160 members of the University of Pennsylvania faculty signed and made public an open letter demanding the program be shuttered, on the grounds that it amounted to racial profiling. The faculty letter was part of a larger university battle against the program. "

https://youtu.be/pZJftHe7byo Tucker Carlson on the Penn Biden Center.

ALA again touts banned books

 The ALA is The American Library Association. LJ (Library Journal) is its publication. It's one of the many professional and non-profit organizations on the left that drum up support by claiming the USA is racist and corrupt and only their members can save it. ALA is right up there with ACLU and George Soros' Open Society. Once a year ALA does a Banned Books week/month (I've forgotten) in the fall, but now with all the trans and LGBT hoopla, it's expanded to Winter. No books are ever banned by a public library except by their own staff in the back room, even if parents parade and riot, they wouldn't do it. Plus there are many ways to get books in this country--just ask a drag queen, for instance, or even local churches sponsor pride events. I picked up a card game at Marc's this morning and put it back when I saw it was promoting rainbow LGBT values on the box cover. It's not like it's a hidden topic. It's 2% of the population getting 30% of the news, art, school curriculum, movies, fashion and advertising/graphics for packaging and selling everything from tooth paste to dog food.

What does happen at the library is something like this: a tax paying parent or other adult may ask why such a book or subscription has been purchased when Christian books are excluded. Or why when a pornographic title is taking up shelf space is patron's favorite hobby considered too esoteric or little used for purchase. The one title most consistently "banned" is the Bible.

Complaining is not banning. Asking for proportion or fairness is not banning. Advocating for children not to be abused with surgery or hormones is not banning information. Requesting that U.S. history not be defamed and ridiculed is not racial discrimination. And right-wing activists have the same rights as the Green-go climate activists, the BLM supporters, and the remove the borders advocates. They pay taxes too.

"Brooklyn Public Library’s Nick Higgins, Amy Mikel, Karen Keys, Jackson Gomes, and Leigh Hurwitz have been named LJ’s 2023 Librarians of the Year for their work on Books Unbanned, providing free ebook access to teens and young adults nationwide to help defy rising book challenges across the country. In 2022 Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned Team began providing free ebook access to teens and young adults nationwide, defying rising book challenges across the count. In the past year, book challenges became part of the national discourse. Efforts to censor what materials U.S. kids, teens, and young adults can access—primarily content about race and LGBTQIA+ issues—are increasing, often in the places those resources are needed most. From January to August 2022, the American Library Association (ALA) logged 681 attempts to ban or restrict access to 1,651 unique titles—the highest number of challenges since ALA began tracking them. From July 2021 to June 2022, the freedom of expression nonprofit PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans listed 2,532 instances of individual books being banned, affecting 1,648 titles. It has become increasingly clear to many that these censorship efforts go beyond complaints from individual concerned parents. Libraries and classrooms have become the targets of coordinated political campaigns frequently led and/or funded by right-wing activists. As a large and well-resourced institution in the relatively liberal jurisdiction of New York City, Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is well positioned to ensure access to the full range of books it deems valuable for its community of readers. The library also provides free digital cards to New York State residents, and previously offered out-of-state cards for a fee. But several staff members, as well as President and CEO Linda E. Johnson, felt that BPL could—and should—do more for those beyond the borough’s borders.” (Library Journal, Jan. 3, 2023)

How to lie with statistics. 2022 showed a 23% decease in Black characters in children's "best sellers." Duh. Look what happened in 2020. All the publishers (that's the key--it's money) and all the librarians (they can make or break a publisher's decision) rushed to stock up on titles with black face/black characters, no matter the quality of illustration or writing style. After the media began running other stories (like hate Trump, or Covid), the choices dropped as did demand. So by 2022, the unusually high number had dropped.

Here's another one: Only 12.12% of children’s books are about black or African characters. Hmm. 18.7% of the population are Hispanic/Latino. Black is between 12% and 14% depending on how mixed race is counted. White is between 60-70%, depending on how mixed race is counted. Also only about 7.64% of children's books have black authors; so that means white authors are incorporating more black characters. White authors of children's books write about all topics, but black authors write over 91% about back characters, Is that good or racist? (Wordsrated. com Mar. 22, 2022).

Fairfax County schools aren't Fair, they are woke

Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax, VA is an outstanding school with competition to enroll. Now its reputation is besmirched by some equity administrators who decided they could help black students by hurting Asian students. Why are there no calls for equity in sports? What if only 13% of all football scholarships could go to blacks and 7% had to be Asians? Now they are finding out it might be "systemic," with more than TJ administrators in on the game. https://wjla.com/news/local/thomas-jefferson-high-school-miyares-fairfax-county-schools-investigation-fcps-tj-controversy-award-national-merit-scholarship-delay-governor-glenn-youngkin-launch-attorney-general-ann-bonitatibus-parents-students-virginia-education

Racism is ugly. It's ugly when it's used against blacks and Mexicans and it's ugly when it's used against Whites and Asians. When we allow these D.I.E. mission and goals to infect our schools, businesses, military, award shows, investments, and churches it's just Jim Crow 2.0 in black face. And Jim Crow laws from the 1880s to the 1960s were a Democrat party method to choose winners and losers on the basis of race. Now the anti-white, anti-Asian push is being used to divide our nation and to make others sit in the back of the bus.

So long, Joe

It looks like Democrats (whoever is in charge) will use the hidden documents in the closets to bring down Biden. They didn't want him running in 2024. Too much a liability. When CBS breaks with a story that makes Trump look good and Biden bad, and the night time vigilante comedians turn on him, it's just starting to look painful. The way these guys do business, those documents that vice presidents can't even have, could have been planted. After all, it's been going on over 6 years, and no one wondered where they were? NARA, DoJ, CIA, and his handlers?

He'll retire to spend more time with his family--many of whom should be in prison.

Twitter, Big Government, Big Pharma and J-6

With all we've learned from the recent Twitter dumps about the 2016 and 2020 elections and Covid vaccine and the role of Big Pharma and the government have had in stomping on the First Amendment and the enormity and seriousness of how that destroys our nation, it's time for all the J-6 people to be freed, exonerated and paid reparations. A group of angry citizens infiltrated by the corrupt FBI, CIA, DoJ, and the role of Nancy Pelosi, the DC police and mayor puts the U.S. beyond the 3rd world or Soviet justice system.

 
And the citizens and the media already knew about the laptop and how the gov't spread the rumors with media's cooperation that it was Russian "disinformation." So now we find out Joe Biden's personal guards and lackeys found top secret documents in his clocked closet before the mid-terms and kept it quiet. To add the the alphabet soup departments, that escape involves yet another swamp creature, the NARA (national archives), which apparently in 6 years had never noticed they were missing, yet jumped all over the Mar-a-lago documents in a closet. I've often told you how left leaning librarians are, but they are nothing compared to archivists.

 
This smells worse than a street in Pelosi's district in San Francisco. And no matter how they try to flush it into the ocean, I think some of this is going to stick.

Summer School of Faith 2022, Vatican II

This would have been the 10th year of this series, however it didn't meet in 2020 because of Covid.  It is excellent, and Charles Craigmile is always interesting and entertaining.

https://youtu.be/Zb19B8uHOTU Vatican II, 60 years With Charles Craigmile

"Explore the documents of Vatican II, the institution of reforms, the ideal and the real regarding Vatican II. You've heard a lot about it--now dive into what the council was all about!
Class 1: Dei Verbum – Dogmatic Constitution On Revelation (Persons and Propositions)
Class 2: Lumen Gentium – Dogmatic Constitution On the Church (True and False Reform)
Class 3: Sacrosanctum Concilium – Constitution On the Liturgy (Active Participation)
Class 4: Gaudium et Spes – Pastoral Constitution on The Church in the Modern World (Nature and Grace)
Class 5: Other Topics from the Council Theological themes – interpretation and development of doctrine Ecumenism Religious Liberty 

Recommended Bibliography:

 
The Documents of Vatican II, Walter Abbott, SJ, 1966
An Introduction to Vatican II, Matthew Levering, 2017 (Excellent!)
Vatican II Collection, Word on Fire, Bishop Barron, 2021
Reclaiming Vatican II, Father Blake Britton, 2021
The Disputed Teachings of Vatican II, Thomas G. Guarino, 2018
The Rhine Flows into the Tiber, Father Ralph Wiltgen, SVD, 1966
Introduction to Christianity, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 1968

I'll add the other links as I find them.

Norma’s ABC’s of Democrat corruption

Abortion
Border
CIA censorship and collusion
Diversity Inclusion and Equity
Education, Department of
FBI
Green New Deal
Homeland Security, Department of
Interference, Election
Justice, Department of
Kerry, John
Laptop, Hunter Biden’s
Mail in Ballots
National Security Council, Biden’s
Open Society Foundation—George Soros’ grants 
Perkins Coie
Questions, Biden answering
Russia, Russia, Russia
Surveillance
Transagenda
Ukraine—VP leveraged $1 billion in aid and Hunter gets $83,000/month from Burisma
Vaccine mandates
Woke
Xi Jingping
You Tube, Google, Facebook, Twitter social media collusion with government
Zuckerberg

Dr. Aaron Kheriaty , former hero of the pandemic,

Jeffrey Tucker comments on our intellectual class: "It’s a terrible reality now that you are far more likely to get clear thought from anyone who is not dependent on the system they are denouncing. A chef at a restaurant, a specialist in dry-wall installation, a barber, or a bartender is freer to tell the truth than the faculty of Harvard, Yale, and Oxford. I have no fix for this problem. I’m merely observing it."

https://aaronkheriaty.substack.com/p/what-has-the-last-three-years-done?

Epiphany of the Lord

Happy Epiphany of the Lord. Epiphany is one of the big three in Christian celebrations, but not all Christians have the same day and some fundamentalists think it's not in the Bible (it is), and don't have a special day. We also sing about it in the familiar song, "The 12 days of Christmas." Technically, the 12th day was January 5, and the actual celebration is January 6. But some feast days are "moveable" and you'll need to check your calendar all year for Ash Wednesday, Lent, Easter, Pentecost and Advent. This holy day celebrates the appearance of the Wise Men from the East described in Matt. 2 bearing gifts (also a prophecy in Isaiah 60). Some Eastern traditions also commemorate Jesus' Baptism and his first miracle at Cana on this day. No one really knows how many kings there were, the three Magi comes from the 3 gifts. There could have been 25 or 50 or 100. That's not the point--they came to worship a king. Here's what I found at Christian Post, Jan. 6, 2023.

"Epiphany, otherwise known as Feast of the Epiphany or Three Kings’ Day, is, along with Christmas and Easter, one of the three principal and oldest festival days in the Church. Traditionally marked on Jan. 6, Epiphany — which comes from epiphaneia, Greek for “manifestation" — is typically celebrated by Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans and some Eastern Orthodox churches.

While some traditions link Epiphany with the “wise men” from the East who sojourned to Bethlehem for Jesus’ birth, some Orthodox traditions say it’s more aligned with the baptism of Christ,"

Is this a thrill killing asks Judge Jeanine of Fox

 I heard Judge Jeanine Pirro of The Five on Fox mention suspected killer of 4 students, Bryan Kohberger, in a comment about the thrill killing of Bobby Frank by Leopold and Loeb in 1924. Loeb was killed in prison, but Leopold was paroled in 1958 to the Church of the Brethren Service commission and served in Puerto Rico. My memory is a little fuzzy after 65 years, but a young man I was dating in college served with him the summer of 1958.  I remember when he returned and came to see me in Mt. Morris he brought me a long play record of Puerto Rican music.

A Second Chance at Life: From Convicted Murderer to Brethren Service Volunteer – Brethren Historical Library and Archives

Identity politics and the Left

I subscribe to "New Criterion," and it must have had a great ad, because I doubt I've read more than 2-3 articles in my first 6 issues. But Roger Kimball has a good editorial in January 2023 issue, that I'll just give a tease:

"If chattel slavery hadn’t existed in the United States, the Left would have had to invent it. What we mean is that the idea of slavery has become so dear to the disciples of identity politics that without its moral sanction they would be lost. Absent the original sin of slavery, the entire racialist racket that holds our society hostage would sputter to an inglorious halt. The race hustlers promoting 'affirmative action' (i.e., race- or sex-based discrimination) would be out of business, as would the real-estate magnates and firebugs of Black Lives Matter. Ditto the angry historical fantasists behind The 1619 Project.. . .  https://newcriterion.com/issues/2023/1/the-mob-comes-for-madison

Anti-racism, microaggression, knocking down statues of saints, white supremacy--you know the deal. Yet slavery has existed since the beginning of history, and particularly flourished in Africa, and still does. Even Biden's administration looks away while women and children enter servitude to pay their passage across the border in sex slavery. People anxious to make a new life come from all over the world to flood our borders.

And I've said something similar about poverty. We have so many programs to fight poverty from the government and non-profits (including churches) that if poverty disappeared tomorrow, we'd have to reinvent it or have millions of unemployed staffers and CEOs who would be out of work. Race hustlers and poverty pimps. It's far more than a cottage industry--it's big business.

Happy 180th Anniversary

When John William Corbett was born in 1816, in Jefferson City, Jefferson, Tennessee, United States, his father, James Corbett, was 32 and his mother, Mary Polly GRISHAM, was 24. He married Elizabeth Eudaley on 5 January 1843, in Jefferson, Tennessee, United States. They were the parents of at least 5 sons and 7 daughters. He lived in Jefferson, Tennessee, United States in 1860 and Tennessee, United States in 1870. He died on 9 April 1907, at the age of 91, and was buried in Jefferson, Tennessee, United States. John Patton Corbett was the 11th of his 12 children.

History of this name: This is the name of a family descended from Hugh Corbet, a Norman baron who settled in Shropshire following the Norman Conquest. One of his descendants, Sir Richard Corbet, was granted land near Shrewsbury in 1223; since the 13th century, this place has been known as Moreton Corbet. The name was taken from Shropshire to Scotland in the 12th century and to northern Ireland in the 17th century, and thence to North America by at least one group of bearers of the name.

The radicalization of race

 https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/report/the-radicalization-race-philanthropy-and-dei?

Many of the practices and principles of DEI violate the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act. DEI suppresses rights of some while elevating the rights of others. Numerical quotas, government race-conscious policies, and speech codes do nothing to close the real disparities of achievement, because they do not address the root causes. Simon Fraser University professor Karen Ferguson had it right when she wrote that Bundy and his men dealt with the “psycho-cultural and therapeutic issue of black identity without having to deal with the structural and material issues that initially fostered the call for black self-determination.”

That is still the lethal charge against DEI. It works to eradicate all the best aspects of the American experiment that have brought prosperity and possibility to so many: the rule of law, respect for individual rights, and equal treatment under the law. DEI is leading the country to the tyranny of collective rights, where people’s fates are in the hands of elites.

Glossary and Definitions for Military Transgenderism

Note the definition for RLE. That means the male or female in their original sex as born, as created by God, may be sleeping, bathing, toileting with members of the other sex before taking hormones or surgery. The example I was reading was what the commanding officer does when HE becomes pregnant if he hasn't completed, or begun, the transition. This apparently is why we have birthing persons.

DoDI 1300.28, April 30, 2021 Change 1, December 20, 2022

GLOSSARY

G.1. ACRONYMS. ACRONYM MEANING

AC Active Component

BCA body composition assessment

DEERS Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System

DHA Defense Health Agency

DoDI DoD instruction

DSM-5 American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Fifth Edition

DTP Delayed Training Program

ETP exception to policy

HIPAA Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

MPDATP Military Personnel Drug Abuse Testing Program

MTF military medical treatment facility

PHI protected health information PII personally identifiable information

PRT physical readiness testing

RC Reserve Component

RLE real life experience

ROTC Reserve Officer Training Corps

SCCC Service Central Coordination Cell

TRICARE Military Health Care

USCG United States Coast Guard

USD(P&R) Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness



G.2. DEFINITIONS.


These terms and their definitions are for the purpose of this issuance.


TERM                                              DEFINITION
cross-sex hormone therapy The use of feminizing hormones in an individual assigned male at birth based on traditional biological indicators or the use of masculinizing hormones in an individual assigned female at birth. A common medical treatment associated with gender transition.
DTP A program established by the Secretary of the Army to provide a personnel accounting category for members of the Army Selected Reserve to be used for categorizing members of the Selected Reserve who have not completed the minimum training required for deployment or who are otherwise not available for deployment.
gender dysphoria A marked incongruence between one’s experienced or expressed gender and assigned gender of at least 6 months’ duration, as manifested by conditions specified in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Fifth Edition (DSM-5), page 452, which is associated with clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
gender identity An individual’s internal or personal sense of gender, which may or may not match the individual’s biological sex.
gender marker Data element in DEERS that identifies a Service member’s gender. Service members are expected to adhere to all military standards associated with their gender marker in DEERS and use military berthing, bathroom, and shower facilities in accordance with the DEERS gender marker.
gender transition is complete A Service member has completed the medical care identified or approved by a military medical provider in a documented medical treatment plan as necessary to achieve stability in the self-identified gender.
gender transition process Gender transition in the military begins when a Service member receives a diagnosis from a military medical provider indicating the Service member’s gender transition is medically necessary, and concludes when the Service member’s gender marker in DEERS is changed and the Service member is recognized in the self-identified gender.
human and functional support network Support network for a Service member that may be informal (e.g., friends, family, co-workers, social media.) or formal (e.g., medical professionals, counselors, clergy).
medically necessary Health-care services or supplies necessary to prevent, diagnose, or treat an illness, injury, condition, disease, or its symptoms, and that meet accepted standards of medicine.
mental health provider A medical provider who is licensed, credentialed, and experienced in the diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions and is privileged at a Military MTF (in the direct care system). Private care sector civilian TRICARE authorized mental health providers may be involved in a specific Active Duty Service member’s care. These providers are credentialed through the managed care support contractors.
military medical provider Any military, government service, or contract civilian health care professional who, in accordance with regulations of a Military Department or DHA, is credentialed and granted clinical practice privileges to provide health care services within the provider’s scope of practice in a Military MTF.
non-urgent medical treatment The care required to diagnose and treat problems that are not life or limb threatening or that do not require immediate attention.
PHI Individually identifiable health information (as defined in the HIPAA Privacy Rule) that, except as provided in this issuance, is transmitted or maintained by electronic or any other form or medium. PHI excludes individually identifiable health information in employment records held by a DoD covered entity in its role as employer. Information that has been de-identified in accordance with the HIPAA Privacy Rule is not PHI.
PII Information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, either alone or when combined with other information that is linked or linkable to a specific individual. Defined in OMB Circular No. A-130.
RLE The phase in the gender transition process during which the individual begins living socially in the gender role consistent with their self-identified gender. RLE may or may not be preceded by the commencement of cross-sex hormone therapy, depending on the medical treatment associated with the individual Service member, cadet, or midshipman’s gender transition. The RLE phase is also a necessary precursor to certain medical procedures, including gender transition surgery. RLE generally encompasses dressing in the new gender, as well as using self-identified gender berthing, bathroom, and shower facilities.
SCCC Service-level cell of experts created to provide multi-disciplinary (e.g., medical, legal) advice and assistance to commanders regarding service by transgender Service members, cadets, or midshipmen and gender transition in the military.
self-identified gender The gender with which an individual identifies.
stable in the self-identified gender The absence of clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning associated with a marked incongruence between an individual’s experienced or expressed gender and the individual’s biological sex. Continuing medical care including, but not limited to, cross-sex hormone therapy may be required to maintain a state of stability.
transgender Service member Service member who has received a medical diagnosis indicating that gender transition is medically necessary, including any Service member who intends to begin transition, is undergoing transition, or has completed transition and is stable in the self-identified gender.
transition Period of time when individuals change from the gender role associated with their sex assigned at birth to a different gender role. For many people, this involves learning how to live socially in another gender role. For others, this means finding a gender role and expression that are most comfortable for them. Transition may or may not include feminization or masculinization of the body through cross-sex hormone therapy or other medical procedures. The nature and duration of transition are variable and individualized.

A mother's love

I try to use Brave for my search engine, but occasionally I get thrown into an MSN site which feeds me all the latest dirt on celebrities. They seem to die awfully young--as was this announcement about a gay porn star who worked for oddly named studios--names I couldn't repeat here. In any case "a woman [who] identified herself as his mother . . . wrote, “Thank you for all of your kind words. [He] was a light in this world and he is now a light in Heaven…. He is also with all of his friends and family who went before him…. [When he died,] He was at someone’s home whom we don’t know where that was or who he was with. This is not a message of blame.” The announcement went on to say he'd been living in a medical care facility being treated for something not explained.

Really, life is hard on the wild side.

Time to declutter

 

What is the Average American?

We hear a lot about "the average American" but what exactly is that?

According to the Washington Post, the average American is a woman. 

50.8% of Americans are women.

is white and not Hispanic. 60.7%

is 52 years old.

has a bachelor’s degree.

works in health or education.

earns $889.62 per week (figures are from 2018).

lives in a city.

is politically independent but tends to vote Democrat.

has a 26.1 minute commute.

is married and living with spouse.

is an evangelical Baptist.

disapproves of Trump’s performance….(in 2018) but believes that he has strengthened the economy.

There are a few other points listed, but read the linked article and make up your own mind.

Footnotes

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/08/13/this-is-what-the-average-american-looks-like-in-2018/