• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

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

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

This blog will pay for itself.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Hot air and ill-informed banter

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Let there be snark.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Montani Semper Liberi

Montani Semper Liberi

by John Cole|  August 4, 20056:49 pm| 14 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics

FacebookTweetEmail

Peggy Noonan comes to West Virginia:

I have just been there for the first time, and it is a jewel of a state. It is like an emerald you dig from a hill with your hands.

You know when you’ve passed into it from the east because suddenly things look more dramatic. You get the impression you’re in a real place. All around you are mountains and hills and gullies, gulches and streams. The woods wherever I went were thick and deep. From Morgantown to Ballengee a squirrel can jump from tree to tree. It is a tall state–the hills, trees and mountains–and shadowy-dark, with winding roads, except for where it’s broad and beige and full of highway, courtesy of Robert Byrd. The highways are perfect looking, unstained by wear and tear, and not many people seem to use them.

Nice story. And while she makes it sound like a conservative paradise that might strike you libs as hell on earth, it isn’t. People here are just, well, sensible and easygoing.

(Via Don Surber)

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Steroid Use- Clinton’s Fault
Next Post: Novak In A Huff »

Reader Interactions

14Comments

  1. 1.

    Steve

    August 4, 2005 at 7:07 pm

    There is a tendency for elites of whichever stripe to romanticize their party’s “base.” Visit The Corner sometime and listen to them elegize NASCAR watchers as the heart and soul of America, even though none of them would have the faintest clue if you asked them the number of Jeff Gordon’s car.

    One of the things that makes places like West Virginia pleasant is that people know better than to stand around talking politics.

  2. 2.

    demimondian

    August 4, 2005 at 7:13 pm

    Peggy Noonan has been one of my favorite fiction writers ever since she served Ronald Reagan as truth-blighter…err, I mean, speech-writer.

  3. 3.

    Mike S

    August 4, 2005 at 7:21 pm

    Are there a lot of dolphins in WV?

    Seriously though. I’ve been through WV and it is a beautiful state.

  4. 4.

    Doug

    August 4, 2005 at 7:22 pm

    She forgot to mention the tops blasted off the mountains. But, I don’t know if that’s a liberal or a conservative thing.

  5. 5.

    John S.

    August 4, 2005 at 8:00 pm

    She forgot to mention the tops blasted off the mountains. But, I don’t know if that’s a liberal or a conservative thing.

    You may (or may not) be surprised to learn that the Coal Mining industry has been giving nearly 90% of their contributions to the Republican Party for the past four years. The moving average for the last 15 years is around 80%.

    So blowing the tops off of mountains is definitely a conservative thing.

    Source: Open Secrets

  6. 6.

    Gary Farber

    August 4, 2005 at 8:17 pm

    Almost heaven? Mountain momma?

    Sorry. Sounds great. Each of our States has outstanding aspects. (As does most of the world, but these are mine and held together by a Constitution I would swear to whenever asked.)

    God save the United States of America. And what it stands for.

  7. 7.

    Don Surber

    August 4, 2005 at 8:29 pm

    John, thanks for the link.

    Apparently she drove from Morgantown to Charleston via the New River Gorge Bridge. This was not a day trip.

    My question: Did she go further south and have breakfast at the DQ in Hinton?

  8. 8.

    tBone

    August 4, 2005 at 9:19 pm

    Never been to WV, but I hope to visit there someday.

    And I hope I don’t bump into Peggy Noonan when I do. She gives me the serious heebie-jeebies.

  9. 9.

    Doug

    August 4, 2005 at 10:16 pm

    I went camping in W.V. a few years back. Beautiful territory. I hope to go rafting out there at some point. Hopefully the economics can be made to work where the state can wean itself off of extraction industries and make a long term profit through tourism and whatnot.

  10. 10.

    trembeling timberdoodle

    August 4, 2005 at 11:30 pm

    SIC SEMERUS TYRANUS SUPREUME COURTUS need i say more? NO MORE KELO CASES

  11. 11.

    norbizness

    August 5, 2005 at 12:19 am

    I liked Roy Edroso’s summary of the column: “Tourism copy like this can be yours for a mere $50,000 per assignment (kill fee 100%). Contact me at my New York office… what? Move to West Virginia? You gotta be kidding!”

  12. 12.

    DecidedFenceSitter

    August 5, 2005 at 7:59 am

    Parents live near New River Gorge. Beautiful, beautiful area there. They came down and stayed for a couple of weeks around my 21st, liked it and built a house down there.

    I’ve been down for a couple of Bridge Days, which are fun.

  13. 13.

    Luddite

    August 5, 2005 at 11:11 am

    “Each of our States has outstanding aspects. (As does most of the world, but these are mine and held together by a Constitution I would swear to whenever asked.)”

    Thank you Gary! I have done a lot of travelling in the USA and every state does have beautiful, often breath taking parts as well as some real shit holes too. Nothing wrong with being proud of your home state. That is actually a good thing. But all of this “my state rules, the other 49 suck” is really just BULLSHIT! (tip of the hat to Bob Novak for helping me with my post)

  14. 14.

    Wilhelm

    December 22, 2005 at 6:20 am

    HeHe! I’ve been down for a couple of Bridge Days, which are fun.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - BarcaChicago  - Off the Gunflint Trail/Boundary Waters 8
Image by BarcaChicago (7/11/25)

World Central Kitchen

Donate

Recent Comments

  • WereBear on Immigration Open Thread: ICE Is Wearing Out Its Welcome (Jul 11, 2025 @ 2:05pm)
  • brendancalling on Immigration Open Thread: ICE Is Wearing Out Its Welcome (Jul 11, 2025 @ 2:03pm)
  • TurnItOffAndOnAgain on Open Thread: ‘Look, Everyone Dies’ (Jul 11, 2025 @ 2:00pm)
  • WereBear on Immigration Open Thread: ICE Is Wearing Out Its Welcome (Jul 11, 2025 @ 1:58pm)
  • Doc Sardonic on Immigration Open Thread: ICE Is Wearing Out Its Welcome (Jul 11, 2025 @ 1:57pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Feeling Defeated?  If We Give Up, It's Game Over

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!