{"id":14523,"date":"2011-05-04T12:06:33","date_gmt":"2011-05-04T19:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=14523"},"modified":"2011-05-04T12:06:33","modified_gmt":"2011-05-04T19:06:33","slug":"my-senior-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14523\/my-senior-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"MY SENIOR MOMENT"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago I joined millions of other Americans in the last minute ritual of rushing to the post office on April 15th and filing\u2026 my tax extension.\u00a0 Brimming with pride over not procrastinating this year, a reward was in order.\u00a0 Now this is normally the realm of chocolate frozen yogurt, but I wanted something more appropriate, maybe even a little dangerous<\/em>; so I went down to the local Tea Party Rally<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though a newbie to the whole \u201cAstroturf<\/a>\u201d experience, I felt I had some<\/em> idea what to expect thanks to the fine, unbiased reporting of our main stream media.\u00a0 I braced myself for loud, selfish people who didn\u2019t give a damn about the less fortunate.\u00a0 I girded myself for cynical young radicals.\u00a0 I steeled myself for the subtle racism reportedly running just beneath the surface. In short, I entered the raucous Public Square of the Tea Party by embracing the Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared.<\/p>\n

Ha!\u00a0 Somebody \u2013 I\u2019m not sure if it\u2019s the Boy Scouts or the Fourth Estate \u2013 owes me an apology.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t hear any loud, selfish rhetoric.\u00a0 In fact, the speeches mainly concerned the social justice of liberty and even saving<\/em> public employee pensions!\u00a0 I did not see young radicals (though this was Oceanside, CA so distinguishing between subversive radicals and skateboarders is tricky).\u00a0 And any \u201csubtle racism\u201d must have been drowned out by Ted Hayes\u2019<\/a> standing ovation.<\/p>\n

I spent hours looking out over the nearly two thousand people who attended, and it\u2019s what I did<\/strong> see that surprised me: the predominate, if not prototypical<\/em>, Tea Party activist is a woman in her early fifties who is, or soon will be, a grandmother.<\/p>\n

Surprising, right?\u00a0\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t prepared either.\u00a0 (You see why I\u2019m looking for an apology from the main stream media\u2026 or is it the Boy Scouts?)\u00a0 The more I thought about it though, the more sense it made; who else would<\/em> it be?\u00a0 The Tea Party, at its heart, stands opposed to the generational transfer of financial devastation.\u00a0 Now granted, parents are generally more protective of children than anyone else.\u00a0 But most moms and dads Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I braced myself for loud, selfish people who didn\u2019t give a damn about the less fortunate. I girded myself for cynical young radicals. I steeled myself for the subtle racism reportedly running just beneath the surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251,2,29],"tags":[506,507,508],"class_list":{"0":"post-14523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-big-mother","7":"category-general","8":"category-group-therapy","9":"tag-grandma","10":"tag-grandmother","11":"tag-tea-party","13":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4927,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4927\/trulia-hires-lobbyists-while-others-contract-and-layoffhmmm\/","url_meta":{"origin":14523,"position":0},"title":"Trulia hires (Lobbyists?) while others contract and layoff…hmmm","author":"Eric Blackwell","date":"October 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been pondering something all weekend and now Greg's post about Redfin's layoff has changed my focus even further. Please allow me to explain: Saturday morning: I get an email from a blogger and friend telling me to check my email. In it comes a link to this post.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13840,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13840\/tea-party-santa-says-cut-taxes-spending-red-tape-or-youll-get-a-lump-of-coal-in-your-stocking\/","url_meta":{"origin":14523,"position":1},"title":"Tea Party Santa says, “Cut taxes, spending, red tape — or you’ll get a lump of coal in your stocking.”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14019,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14019\/a-rallying-cry-for-the-tea-party-rebellion-youre-not-the-boss-of-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":14523,"position":2},"title":"SplendorQuest: A rallying cry for the Tea Party rebellion: “You’re not the boss of me!”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm kicking this back to the top, which I think means no one will read it. ;) In fact, I'm moving stuff like this to SplendorQuest.com, going forward. I think this an insanely-great essay, but it reads better elsewhere. But: The comments to this post are amazing, BloodhoundBlog at its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3976,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3976\/i-cant-swim\/","url_meta":{"origin":14523,"position":3},"title":"I Can’t Swim","author":"Geno Petro","date":"August 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I can't swim; not a lick, stroke or otherwise. I got pulled out of the deep end for the first time when I was 4 years old and then again when I was 14. Both times I saw my quick, up-to-that-point-in-time life, unfold before me as I flailed wildly for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11430,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11430\/ubuntu-is-ready-for-prime-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":14523,"position":4},"title":"Ubuntu is Ready for Prime Time","author":"Eric Bramlett","date":"February 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been missing my Bloodhounds! \u00a0I reminded myself that arguing about politics is like arguing about religion, so logged in to push up a new post. About a year ago, I posted that the Android OS was going to free me from Windows (and Office.) \u00a0Unfortunately, the g1 was a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10953,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10953\/its-not-enough-for-the-tea-party-movement-to-throw-the-bums-out-to-contain-the-federal-government-we-have-to-cut-its-powers\/","url_meta":{"origin":14523,"position":5},"title":"It’s not enough for the tea party movement to throw the bums out. To contain the federal government, we have to cut its powers.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"[Back to the top from January 21, 2010. --GSS]\u00a0 What a delight it is that the citizens of Massachusetts have risen up against the federal leviathan. All across the country, the tea party movement is furiously aboil, angry Americans anxiously awaiting the opportunity to pull some levers in a voting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14523"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14528,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14523\/revisions\/14528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}