Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

No one could have predicted…

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

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Reader Interactions

114Comments

  2. 2.

    Rosalita

    looks like a hunting type puppy…thanksgiving is going to be wild when you all get together this year, huh?

  7. 7.

    Phil

    Sorry John but blogging about cute dogs doesn’t excuse your apologist remarks for the now publically disgraced Helen Thomas’ Israeli annihilation-ism.

    Lots of anti Semitic scumbags have pets too. Looks like your views on Jews will only be allowed to fester on far Left blogs.

    Enjoy irrelevancy come November.

  8. 8.

    Ash Can

    @Rosalita: I predict that John will offer to host Thanksgiving in his new home, and Tunch will be crapping in his shoes until February after that.

    (ETA: Speaking of turds, no thread is complete without at least one floater, is it?)

  9. 9.

    Randy P

    @Mary: My guess was English Springer Spaniel.

    What’s the definitive answer, John? And what do we win?

    Oops. I see John already answered. Huh. Doesn’t look like a gryphon.

  10. 10.

    The Dangerman

    Shouldn’t it be spelled:

    bloghanshotfirst

    Speaking of which, I don’t get the reference; please tell me it isn’t a Star Wars thing…

  11. 11.

    Phil

    Oh…I guess you can add one more lost job to Barry’s track record.

    But I hear the census is hiring. In fact, 411,000 temp guv’mint jobs just last month!

    Too bad no one else is hiring.

  12. 12.

    John Cole

    @Phil: Who has excused her remarks? Could you point to where I have excused them? Pretty sure I’ve stated they were obnoxious and disgusting numerous times.

    On the upside, I am pleased to learn that after several weeks of tossing the term around, you appear to be much closer to spelling “anti-Semitic” correctly.

    Troll.

  13. 13.

    Violet

    Oh, so cute! That sideways picture shows just much of a puppy he still is. Aww…. Adorable.

  15. 15.

    licensed to kill time

    So bloody cute, that puppy. Your brother will be calling him Boggy in a nanosecond.

    ETA: which makes me picture him standing on his porch in his boxers calling “Here boggy boggy boggy!”

  16. 16.

    eemom

    what an interesting little critter. Do all that breed come with that sort of coloring?

  17. 17.

    dmsilev

    @John Cole: You have to be impressed, sort of, at the sheer dedication that it takes to carp about anti-Semitism in a thread about puppies.

    (Obligatory: You know who else liked puppies but hated Jews?)

    dms

  22. 22.

    demo woman

    What a fine dog and although not a rescue, he does look like he’s in need of a good home.

  24. 24.

    Quaker in a Basement

    Boghan? Guesely?

    What does your family have against innocent, unoffending dogs?

    Also, there’s no way in hell that pup is half dragon.

  26. 26.

    Phil

    Sorry dmsilev but John had a very nasty break up with the right where he parted ways because he had too much integrity. Or something.

    Now he gets more upset about those who disassociate themselves from Jewish annihilationism that he does about those spouting Jewish annihilation.

    I’m more than happy to dump on John Coles integrity except I can’t find it. Puppy blog posts will do just fine.

    Lie with dogs, wake up with fleas. I repeatedly warned John both seriously and sarcastically not to play intellectual footsie with Andrew Sullivan who is nothing more than a whackjob with a moderately well read blog.

    That John chose to follow Sullivan into open Jew hatred shows I was right all along. Sorry John. Now your views are no longer welcome in polite society.

  27. 27.

    BC

    Phil – there’s a decided difference in anti-Semitism and criticizing Israel for its deficiencies. Especially when American taxpayers are funding Israel to the tune of about $3B per year. Any country that is occupying another country needs to do it within the established international norms, which Israel hasn’t been doing for quite awhile. If you really care about long-term Israeli survival, then you should also be concerned that they not alienate themselves from the international community. Remember the apartheid-era South Africa? See how well it worked out for them to isolate themselves?

    Oh, and cute dog. Wonder how Lily, the two JRTs, and your sister’s dogs will get along with him?

  30. 30.

    beltane

    Where is BOB? I don’t like the replacement troll; he says that John Cole and Andrew Sullivan and all dog owners everywhere are anti-Semites because they love dogs more than they love the Rapture. Woof woof.

  31. 31.

    licensed to kill time

    __

    Sorry John. Now your views are no longer welcome in polite society.

    John Cole will be {{{shattered}}} to hear this, I am certain. Shunned! Clutch your pearls and hit the fainting couch!

  34. 34.

    Libby

    Aw, what a sweet little puppy face. I have to say I love these pet threads but they break my heart too because I’m not in a position to have a cute little doggie of my own.

  35. 35.

    beltane

    @licensed to kill time: He’s blown his chance to be invited to one of Sally Quinn’s soirees. Now he will never be able to chat up David Broder over a plate of cocktail weenies. I haz a sad thinking of the great sacrifice he has made for us, almost like Jesus.

  37. 37.

    Josie

    @Phil: After reading a number of your comments, I seriously question your qualifications for manning the gateway of polite society.

  38. 38.

    licensed to kill time

    @beltane:
    I’m envisioning John being “cut” in polite society:

    Upon approach of the offender, a simple stare of silent iciness should suffice; followed, if necessary, by a “cold bow, which discourages familiarity without insult…”

    The death of a thousand cuts. Oh, the humanity.

  39. 39.

    Howlin Wolfe

    @Phil: Uh oh, an asshole troll decides to disrupt the cute dog thread. Well, what do you expect from a supporter of the Asshole Party?

  41. 41.

    jibeaux

    @beltane:

    Yup. Good thing this ain’t polite society, huh?

    Treating this like an open thread, some dummy who was selling allegedly “gluten-free” baked goods was facing criminal charges because they weren’t gluten-free at all, and naturally some folks got very sick. A pretty stupid scam. THEN, apparently he rejected a plea bargain and said that he would provide information about a high-profile murder that at the time had no suspects, for a better deal. In a pretty unsurprising result, he was making that up, and soon more charges were filed against him for implicating an innocent person in an attempt to get a better plea offer. I don’t know what that has to do with anything, other than reassuring you all that we still have stupid, stupid, people, running around. And maybe be suspicious if you have a gluten allergy and you manage to find gluten-free baked goods that don’t taste like cardboard.

  42. 42.

    Punchy

    Hey Tim F., anyone else in PA….any validity to this?

    I’m guessing it’s 90% hyperbole, 10% truthy, but WTHK?

  43. 43.

    Josie

    That puppy is seriously cute. You can barely see the round little puppy belly in the second picture. I would like to see him on his back getting a belly scratch.

  46. 46.

    QuaintIrene

    Boghan? Guesely?

    As P.G. Wodehouse would say, ‘there’s some raw work done at the baptismal font these days.’

  47. 47.

    frankdawg

    Please please please – just ignore Phil & any other moron that trolls here. You are not going to convince them & eventually they get bored when nobody will play with them. They eventually just go play with themselves which is all they are good for anyway.

    On the plus side that pup sure looks like a Boghan to me.

  50. 50.

    Damned at Random

    How do they make him hold still? I would question the health of a puppy that ISN’T wiggling.

    Sweet little face tho

  51. 51.

    Randy P

    @Punchy: First I’d heard of it, but that’s the opposite corner of PA from me.

    Here are some links on it, with two very different takes.

    http://www.alternet.org/water/147126/onshore_catastrophe_in_waiting%3A_two_natural_gas_drilling_accidents_in_the_last_week

    The gusher that shot drilling fluid and wet gas 75 feet into the air for 16 hours until it was brought under control but not until a million gallons of gas had made it to the floor of a Pennsylvania State forest, heading toward a tributary of the Susquehanna River, only 10 miles from the much traveled Interstate 80. Monday morning, at 8 am, a gas well in West Virginia’s Upper Panhandle in the same gas-rich Marcellus Shale exploded, and is still burning. Seven workers have been hospitalized for burns.

    http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/23793198/detail.html

    The extent of damage to the environment was still being assessed Friday night, but no waterways were believed to have been contaminated.

    But the Pittsburgh link is apparently earlier since it says that as of Friday night, environmental impact is still being assessed. I’m not sure where the million-gallon number is coming from.

    Edit: One more, from the PA Dept of Environmental Protection.
    http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/newsroom/14287?id=11925&typeid=1

    The Department of Environmental Protection today ordered EOG Resources Inc. to suspend its natural gas well drilling activities in Pennsylvania after a June 3 blowout at one of the company’s Clearfield County wells sent natural gas and at least 35,000 gallons of drilling wastewater into the sky and over the ground for 16 hours.

  52. 52.

    Elizabelle

    Puppy’s adorable.

    Is he going to hunter dog training school?

    Welcome, Boghan.

  53. 53.

    tim

    That’s a strange looking critter, but if I adopted him I would undoubtedly grow to believe he was the most beautiful hound on earth.

    My rescue, Helen, a true Heinz 97 who I’ve now had almost a year, is the absolute light of my daily life. When I went to pick her up from from the rescue people and she came out of the car, I thought, “what the hell IS that?” Now there are frequent moments when I look at her and think, how the hell can I be in love with a damn dog?

    And then I cuddle her and give her a treat.

    I’m fairly certain she is in love with me too. :D (First female I’ve ever connected with that way.)

    P.S. Our love is entirely chaste, in case anyone was concerned.

  55. 55.

    geg6

    @Punchy:

    Yes, some truth. I didn’t watch or listen to much news over the weekend, but I did catch a small item about an explosion at one of the Marcellus shale sites in Clearfield County (sort of in the center/north of the state). Nothing much in Clearfield but a PA Dept. of Corrections boot camp and a state forest. Oh, and a lot, lot, lot of Teabaggers. Teabagger heaven, actually.

    Which might be why I wasn’t more concerned about it. ;-)

  56. 56.

    Something Fabulous

    @Josie: I am finding it interesting how over the course of just a few days he seems to have gone from some attempt at barrages of high-minded rhetoric supposedly couched in some concern for Israel to open sneering about political annihilation of political parties in this country and invitations for readers here to “come” join… what was it now? Ace of Spades?

    Phil, your slip is showing.

  58. 58.

    frankdawg

    Now a smart troll (I know, oxymoron) would lead with a more appropriate line. Might I suggest:

    Meh, puppy – be at least 6-8 weeks before it gets eatin size.

  61. 61.

    Annie

    @Phil:

    Gee, Phil…Maybe we can go back to the 18th cent. and when John walks into a room, we can give him the “direct cut.”

    Way too cute pup….

  62. 62.

    Montysano

    @sukabi:

    puppies shouldn’t look like sad old men.

    Have you actually spent much time around puppies? We raised AKC beagles when I was young. It is unpossible that there is anything cuter than a beagle puppy, but at the same time they have that hound talent for affecting an air of deep sorrow and great tragedy.

  64. 64.

    danimal

    Boghan is very cute.

    OT, since this is a semi-open thread. I just spent a weekend with a my girlfriend’s family and friends, and if they’re any indication, the crazy has metastasized from the diseased brains of Republican propagandists to the whole body of conservatives. My GF is fairly apolitical, but the rest of ’em are graying, upper middle class white folks who believe all the Fox News/talk radio crap without hesitation or skepticism. It’s widespread and not limited to the usual wackos.

    Put them in a safe environment and all the racism, the birtherism, and the consipriacy mongering leaks out like a loud fart in the boys locker room. Smells as good, too.

    Given the demographic and economic realities, the crazies may win some battles in the next election, but unless the right seriously changes course, they’ll get slaughtered in 2012 and beyond. Unhinged, semi-racist conspiracy mongering can only take you so far.

  65. 65.

    John Cole

    I just can’t explain how tedious it is, as an atheist/indifferent/non-believer/individual who has no use for religion whatsoever, whatever label you want to use, to be called anti-Semitic. It’s like declaring you don’t watch baseball at all, then when you criticize the policies of New York City, having someone call you a Yankee hater.

  69. 69.

    Platonicspoof

    @Elie:
    Do you still have a problem with the comments’ text running over to the right side of the page? Is IE your browser?
    (Assuming I’m asking the Elie in a post from yesterday.)

  70. 70.

    licensed to kill time

    @John Cole:

    “TEDIUM, n. Ennui, the state or condition of one that is bored. Many fanciful derivations of the word have been affirmed, but so high an authority as Father Jape says that it comes from a very obvious source –the first words of the ancient Latin hymn _Te Deum Laudamus_. In this apparently natural derivation there is something that saddens.”
    __
    Ambrose Bierce

  71. 71.

    Lysana

    @John Cole:

    I just can’t explain how tedious it is, as an atheist/indifferent/non-believer/individual who has no use for religion whatsoever, whatever label you want to use, to be called anti-Semitic. It’s like declaring you don’t watch baseball at all, then when you criticize the policies of New York City, having someone call you a Yankee hater.

    Ah, but John, by having no use for religion, you are automatically one of the Other anyway. You must hate all religions since you have no use for them. (/snark)

  72. 72.

    Ash Can

    @John Cole: What corks me is that, by definition, not all Jews are Semites, but all Arabs are. Thus, this nation truly is rife with anti-Semitism, but not in the way AIPAC and other cement-headed Israeli-government apologists are constantly whining about.

  74. 74.

    eemom

    I think I’ll google “anti-semitism” and “puppy” and see if this thread is the only hit.

  75. 75.

    licensed to kill time

    @elmo:

    Here you go !

    ETA: I’m really not sure what this was from, seems to be some kind of game or maybe a bodice ripper site? But I remember all this stuff from reading novels set in the 17th/18th century.

  76. 76.

    burnspbesq

    If your brother needs extra cash he can rent that puppeh out to Polo or Hilfiger for use in their print ads. Classic American cool, four legs division. A nice change of pace from the endless procession of Golden Retrievers and Irish Setters.

  77. 77.

    Randy P

    @licensed to kill time: More recently than that, I remember trying to sort out the rules when reading “Daisy Miller” by Henry James, written in 1878. I think part of the point was that lovely innocent American Daisy doesn’t know all the rules of European society herself.

    @eemom: About 75000 hits. But this thread is number 1.

  79. 79.

    licensed to kill time

    @Randy P:

    I should have included the 19th century, as well. I am a bit nervous about certain forms of punctuation on this site nowadays because who knows what it will do?! A third slash might have turned the whole site inside out or set off an infinite slashloop of unintended consequences.

    Love Henry James :)

  80. 80.

    Jenn

    @tim:

    Bless you, thank you, for the laugh. I startled my own puppy (currently lying on my feet) with a stellar snort.

  81. 81.

    MattR

    Since this is a puppy thread, any advice for training a dog to stay out of gardens/flower beds? Ellie seems to have figured out where in my mom’s yard she is allowed to go, but if she is somewhere new then she will run any and everywhere.

  82. 82.

    Anne Laurie

    @tbogg:

    Your brother spelled my name wrong.

    No, I think he was trying for boggart:
    __
    “In English folklore, a boggart (or bogart) is a household fairy which causes things to disappear, milk to sour, and dogs to go lame. Always malevolent, the boggart will follow its family wherever they flee. In Northern England, at least, there was the belief that the boggart should never be named, for when the boggart was given a name, it would not be reasoned with nor persuaded, but would become uncontrollable and destructive.
    __
    It is said that the boggart crawls into people’s beds at night and puts a clammy hand on their faces. Sometimes he strips the bedsheets off them. Sometimes a boggart will also pull on a person’s ears.”

    Hmmm, no wonder the trolls were attracted to this thread.

  83. 83.

    QuaintIrene

    @sukabi:
    puppies shouldn’t look like sad old men.

    Just like new born babies shouldn’t look like Winston Churchill. ;-)

  84. 84.

    TrishB

    @Montysano:

    that hound talent for affecting an air of deep sorrow and great tragedy.

    I believe that talent has been aptly demonstrated by tbogg’s bassets over the years.

    However, I am a sucker for puppies with whiskers, so this one is right in that sweet spot.

  85. 85.

    trollhattan

    Wirehaired gryphon’s one of those breeds that is cute as a growed-up as it is a puppeh, on account of the embeardment they acquire (nobody tell Sully). And this puppeh is mightily cute already. A swell choice.

  86. 86.

    demkat620

    Aw man! Now I have puppy envy. Curse you Cole family and your adorable dogs!

  87. 87.

    SIA

    @ Anne Laurie

    “…Sometimes a boggart will also pull on a person’s ears.”

    I don’t know why, but that is very funny.

  89. 89.

    frankdawg

    @Ash Can:

    Win! I was going to post the same thing but thought to look first.

    Also too – this shit about ‘with us or against us’ has got to come to an end sooner or later. I wholeheartedly support Israel’s right to exist in a peaceful secure homeland. But I also realize that there is very little chance of that happening given their current polices.

    Its well beyond the “BUT HE STARTED IT” phase there are far too many sins on both sides.

  90. 90.

    Something Fabulous

    Oh yes! Forgot to lead with that: Cute! Cute! Puppy!!!!!!!!! Love the wire coat.

  91. 91.

    Anne Laurie

    @MattR:

    Since this is a puppy thread, any advice for training a dog to stay out of gardens/flower beds? Ellie seems to have figured out where in my mom’s yard she is allowed to go, but if she is somewhere new then she will run any and everywhere.

    One-word solution: Leash. Long-term refinement: Teach her a reliable recall, or at least a reliable DOWN.

    Explication: Figuring out which patches of dirt-with-plants are verboten and which are fungrounds requires a high level of dog sophistication. Your little girl has learned the territorial rules for her personal space, but she’s not experienced enough to work out a general Theory of Garden. Simplest way to avoid frustration for both of you, in the short term, is just to physically keep her from getting in trouble. And while you’re out together walking around the neighborhood, you can both work on the next level of dog/human communication, developing a common vocabulary that will let you use your voice instead of a cord to transmit your requirements.

    When you go walkies, especially around those tempting neighborhood gardens, prepare yourself with a pocketful of really delicious small treats. (I like Zuke’s Mini-Naturals because they’re convenient, but tiny cubes of cheese, chicken, or hot dog are also good.) After the first mad-dash, empty-bladder excitement, as Ellie ranges out sniffing madly, say “Ellie, come!” and show her the treat. (You don’t have to pull on the leash, just encourage her to come take the treat — reach it out to her if she doesn’t get the idea immediately.) Once she’s eaten the goody, keep walking for another minute or two, and then repeat the call-and-treat. If she’s not interested in the treat, next time upgrade to something more desirable, and keep upgrading as necessary until you find something delicious enough to get Ellie’s attention. Do the call-and-treat routine half a dozen times, every time you go out together, and it won’t take long for Ellie to associate your ‘command’ with something even more wonderful than diggable dirt. Once she’s reliably returning to you every time you say the magic word, you can work on weaning her off the treats, but it’s always better to ‘over-treat’ than to give Ellie the impression that treats are not reliable — you want her greedy puppy stomach to draw her back to you before her thinking dog brain can overrule it!

    The other option, if Ellie is too fast or too hard-headed for you to recall her in these situations, is to teach her to DOWN or DROP — to hit the floor immediately — when you say the magic word. You can teach this command any time, around the house, and ‘reinforce’ it multiple times per day. Have a handful of delicious goodies on your person, and when you see Ellie about to lie down, say DOWN (or whatever word you chose) and give her a treat as her tummy hits the floor. Do this “at random” for a while, and then test to see if you can say DOWN and have her lie down for her treat. Once she’s doing this reliably around the house, start trying out outside while she’s on leash, and work forward from there.

    Some dogs, especially hounds and other high-drive breeds, will never be 100% reliable on recall. When I started taking my first dog to training classes, the teacher told us about the time her beagle dug under the fence and ran straight into a busy street after a squirrel. She yelled “Charley, DOWN!”, and Charley dropped to the asphalt, while the cars swerved around him — if he’d kept running, or even turned to run back to her, he’d probably have been killed. Kind of the canine version of “Green Balloon”.

  93. 93.

    MattR

    @Anne Laurie: Thanks. I pretty much figured that was the general answer and appreciate the tips to help make it so. It is just a damn shame my dog is not food motivated (at least when she is outdoors) though I am hoping that will change once I buy a place with a fenced in yard and she can spend more time out doors. At the least it will make training her outdoors much more feasible.

  94. 94.

    asiangrrlMN

    Awwwwww! Boghan is so wee and cute. Happy sigh. Your brother done good. Tell him we demand weekly updates. Speaking of which…TUUUUUUUUUNCH!

    Can we go back to duels with gloves a’slapping? I wanna see Cole at ten paces.

  95. 95.

    WereBear

    Puppeh! I love the serious ones.

    @Anne Laurie: Just wanted to second Anne Laurie’s insightful training comments, and soothe anyone who thinks of treats as “bribes.”

    Yes, that’s exactly what they are.

    But what they also are is a “focuser.” And with puppies, you can’t have too many.

  97. 97.

    Keith G

    Yay. Thanks John for cute and funnies. Much needed.

    Now…..You were saying you have several rescue posts in the queue…..

  98. 98.

    asiangrrlMN

    @NeenerNeener: It works for me! He’s talking about his love of pie now (on Google Chrome, which was adapted by…I wanna say MikeJ, but I’m not positive. Just Googled it. MikeJ, indeed).

  99. 99.

    NeenerNeener

    Ok, I think I’ve got Phil all sorted out now; he’s rattling on and on about pie. Just typing “Phil” into my list didn’t work, but cut-and-paste from one of his comments did.

  103. 103.

    Anne Laurie

    It is just a damn shame my dog is not food motivated (at least when she is outdoors)

    ALL dogs are food-motivated — you just haven’t figured out what food will get her attention. Keep experimenting till you find the right stinky, delicious edible. If you’re using plain biscuits, move up to some kind of “training treat” like the Zuke’s Mini Naturals. If you’re already using chicken-flavored training treats, try switching to peanut butter or even salmon-flavored treats. (Zuke’s weren’t available 20 years ago, so my first obedience instructor used cat treats to get her beagle’s attention.) If commercial treats don’t work (or you’re worried about what’s in them), cut a hot dog into half-inch bits and microwave them until they’re dry enough to carry in your pocket or a baggie. Or do the same thing with a plain chicken breast, or a chunk of leftover roast beef.

    And cheese is exciting to practically every dog. I once had a human classmate compliment my ‘refined taste’ because his dog (who was doing her best to make me her new best friend) only responded to the finest asiago cheese. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I was actually using plebian Velveeta(tm), because that’s what got my rescue dog’s attention — and one refined little sheltie’s, too!

    (Cheap generic cheddar is easier to use, because the little cubes of velveeta tend to melt together in a baggie. But Sydney, bless his puppy-mill heart, liked the nasty processed stuff best, so that’s what he got.)

    Imagine your boss complaining that his workers “aren’t money motivated.” There’s plenty of things you wouldn’t do for an extra $10 in your paycheck that you would do for an extra $100… or $1,000… or $1,000,000. The issue is how much money your boss is willing to offer to get the results he wants, assuming he’s not asking for something physically impossible or morally wrong.

  104. 104.

    Ruckus

    @Anne Laurie:
    If commercial treats don’t work (or you’re worried about what’s in them)

    A neighbor (Bud adores this lady!) was giving him some Milk Bone treats. He acted like a 4 yr old in a candy store so I checked out the ingredients. Just like a lot of people crap food there is way too much sugar (of whatever type) in these. So now I check out all commercial product ingredients, just like for me. Pets don’t need all that sugar, but they sure like it. I provide her with his kibble and he’s fine with that as a treat. Not as expensive as Zukes (which he also loves) but he doesn’t know that.

  105. 105.

    Ruckus

    @Anne Laurie:
    Imagine your boss complaining that his workers “aren’t money motivated.” There’s plenty of things you wouldn’t do for an extra $10 in your paycheck that you would do for an extra $100… or $1,000… or $1,000,000. The issue is how much money your boss is willing to offer to get the results he wants, assuming he’s not asking for something physically impossible or morally wrong.

    Had this argument with an employee once. He stated that all jobs are money motivated. I said no, not all of them. My proof was the Marines. Crappy wages, OK benefits, can be lots of waiting around but usually first in when a bad situation arises. And they re-enlist. (E5 gets 2305.50/month after 3 yrs) Yes they now can get bonuses for re-enlisting, but when I had this argument they weren’t very much.
    BTW when I was in a long long time ago an E5 after 3 was making about $350/month. And people re-enlisted.

  106. 106.

    Anne Laurie

    @Ruckus: You’re right, there are plenty of motivators other than money. But too often, the people dispensing the money say “I can’t get my employees motivated with money” because they’re not willing to offer enough money to make up for the lack of alternative motivators, like the ones that make your fellow Marines re-up. And people say “My dog isn’t food-motivated” because they haven’t found a food that’s more interesting to their dog than the alternative motivator of digging the neighbors’ garden, or interacting with the other dogs in a training class, or just having the freedom to choose their own path.

    Food is a convenient and a reliable motivator for dogs, just like paychecks are for humans — the point of using treats as “bribes” while training is that it’s easy for both of you to make the connection between a desired action = an immediate reward. People worry that their dogs will get “hooked” on treats, that the dogs won’t ever respond unless they can count on getting their faces stuffed, but that doesn’t happen. Once you and your dog have worked out a common language, s/he will be motivated to respond to you just as your Marines were motivated to do hard / boring / dangerous tasks — because there is a joy in honest work, because their work supports their team, because they can see what needs to be done. But the paycheck doesn’t hurt, even if it’s no longer the primary reason for doing stuff.

  107. 107.

    Ecks

    @Ruckus: Which is why people who become unemployed often get really horribly depressed… They haven’t just lost money, they lost a chunk of their identity and (perceived) social respectability.

    Except for Chicago school economists. For them being unemployed is just not being willing to work for the available wages (the nerve).

  108. 108.

    RJ

    @Adam, @Tattoosydney

    I’m kinda surprised surprised it took 100 comments for that to come up. Clearly Australia isn’t at the forefront of BJ’s mind.

    (Of course, then there’s Bogan Pride, where the term would be complimentary. Sigh.)

  109. 109.

    Ruckus

    @Anne Laurie:
    Actually I think a lot of employers aren’t interested either in paying enough or making the job worth while for any other reasons. To me that’s why so many feel money is the sole motivator.
    BTW just for the record you misunderstood, I was in the navy, not the Marines. I was not real clear about that here and don’t think it’s proper not to be. Sorry.

    @Ecks:
    Yeah I understand depression from feeling worthless. Boy do I ever. We all need to feel, well needed, if not indispensable at least useful. That’s the downside of a lot of jobs, one feels like a number, a place holder, a door mat, dog crap on the bosses shoe.
    When I was in the navy I couldn’t figure out if they made me a damage control entry man because I was smart enough to do the job or because I was the most dispensable. I’ve always gone with smart because it made me feel better and didn’t hurt anyone, but that little voice whispering dispensable has long been in the back of my head.

    ETA
    In a prior small business that I owned I always paid towards the top of the pay scale and tried to get people to “own” any project they worked on. Figured it didn’t hurt to hit both sides of the like my job equation. I was right.

  110. 110.

    sebastian melmoth

    Shouldn’t his name be “get your damned finger out of my ass”?

  111. 111.

    sukabi

    @Montysano: yes, had a beagle pup many years ago… just a comment about the sorrowful look on pup’s face… I’m sure in time he’ll grow into a “wise old man”…

  113. 113.

    Xenos

    @Ash Can:

    What corks me is that, by definition, not all Jews are Semites, but all Arabs are.

    Any native speakers of Sicilian are also, by definition, Semites.

    ‘Anti-Semitism’ was supposed to be a euphemistic term that high-class Jew-haters adopted. It was an attempt to deny the German history of Yiddish speakers in order to lump them in with the Arabs as people who were obviously aliens in Europe and worthy of contempt and racial hostility. The sort of people you could legally deport from your racially pure country.

    To turn around a century later and accuse people who recognize as valid some of the claims made by Arabs of Anti-Semitism is a bit strange. Who is the Anti-Semite here?

  114. 114.

    rduclkham

    RULES FOR PUPPIES

    RULE # 1: Any pair of shoes over $75.00 will become nice gnawing tools for puppy

    RULE #2: Be ready to take puppy out every two hours.

    RULE # 3: Be ready for puppy energy equivalent to 100 hydrogen bombs of at least 145000 megatons each.

    RULE # 4: Buy all puppy supplies ( food, toys, bedding, etc)
    Before you pick up puppy, once you get him home, IT IS TOO LATE!

    RULE # 5: Crate training for puppy in an absolute necessity. It will make you later life with him so much easier.

    And, RULE # 6: Have a camera and plenty of film available at all times, they grow up so quickly. If you have not taken at least 10,000 pictures of your puppy by the time he is one year old, you are not a good puppy owner. :)

    Having been through “puppy hell” twice in my life I can say the three happiest days of your life will be: When you have him totally trained to do his “business” outside and he can hold his bladder all night long, and when you find little blood spots on some of his toys, which will mean that the VERY sharp puppy teeth will be replaced by the not so sharp adult teeth.

    Have a wonderful life with that VERY CUTE puppy!

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