(Click to invert colors, weenie.)
(Requires JavaScript.)
Scroll down for Prelinger stuff Email: darkblogules at yahoo dot com
All email will be assumed to be for publication unless otherwise requested.
What's in the banner?
Father of Bloggers
InstaPundit We. Are. Not. Worthy. James Lileks Your Tour Guides to the Abyss Charles Johnson Damian Penny Intel Rantburg Aussie Oppressor Team Bleah! Punk Author Dr. Frank Insolent Woman Natalie Solent People who still read this blog for some reason Alien Corn Gother than thou Ghost of a Flea Prelinger Stuff Introducing the Prelinger Archive Tuesday in November Make Mine Freedom Prelinger Writes In! Freedom Highway Mental Hygiene The Snob Prelinger's web site The on-line Prelinger Archives Mental Hygiene by Ken Smith |
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Posted
11:49 AM
by Angie Schultz
Moonbat Patrol!This William Safire column explores the etymology of "moonbat". He correctly ascribes it to Perry de Havilland of Samizdata (see here), but I believe that he errs in writing:
I thought it was the other way around, that "wingnut" began to be used in response to "moonbat". I'm afraid that as a put-down, "wingnut" simply doesn't have the cachet that "moonbat" has. Wingnuts have always been with us. A wingnut might be anybody -- a genuine loon, or just someone with whom you stupidly disagree. But being a "moonbat" means a special quality of lunacy, above and beyond the call of the wild. By the way, Perry insists that he did not mean for "moonbat" to be applied solely to lefties, but does name Noam Chomsky as the ur-moonbat. After getting that sorted out, Safire slogs on, determined to discover the source of the River Moonbat -- that is to say, the first use of the word itself. He finds it (provisionally) in the Robert Heinlein story "Space Jockey" (Saturday Evening Post, April 26, 1947), where it was a rocket stage. BUT, Heinlein also used the word a year later in "The Black Pits of Luna" (Saturday Evening Post, Jan. 10, 1948; both were subsequently collected in The Green Hills of Earth), where the "Moonbat Patrol" was apparently a scout troop. "Moonbat Patrol" would be a killer name for a blog. Exploring the Black Pits of Lunacy! I'd do it, but I've got my hands full, what with my constant posting on this one. Anyone who wants to take it, be my guest. Anyhow, congratulations to Perry on his etymmortality. Bonus linky: The Heinlein Society.
|