Learning New Things

We've all heard the term "moonbat", we've all used it to describe people like Cindy Sheehan and Kevin Barrett, but until now, I wasn't aware of where it all began. From Wikipedia:

Moonbat is a political epithet popular in the conservative and libertarian regions of the blogosphere (but not limited to it) used as a label for certain individuals on the far left (such as Noam Chomsky). The term is not a general epithet for those who disagree with the Bush administration's approach to the War on Terror, nor is it a purely American oriented term, but rather a term used against people who construct elaborate conspiracy theories ("9/11 was an inside job of the Bush administration") to explain the world. "Moonbat" is similar to the epithet Idiotarian and like that term can also be applied to people anywhere on the political spectrum (for example both terms have been used to describe US conservative Pat Buchanan). The phrase was popularized in 2002 by Perry de Havilland of Samizdata, a libertarian blog. The term was originally rendered as 'Barking Moonbat', suggesting that certain issues seem to trigger a reflexive response from some people much like wolves howl at the moon (i.e. the term evokes the traditional association between the moon and insanity). According to de Havilland, a moonbat is "someone on the extreme edge of whatever their -ism happens to be". Adriana Cronin-Lukas defines the term as "someone who sacrifices sanity for the sake of consistency". This term has long been used to describe protesters on the political Left, but was originally coined to also describe commentators on the political Right as well as certain libertarians. Contrary to some speculation, de Havilland has stated it was not originally a play on the last name of George Monbiot, a columnist for The Guardian, regardless of the fact he and Mr. Monbiot have appeared on the BBC together expressing politically opposed views. Lately the term has come into wider use appearing in political cartoons, political forums, and blogs, oftentimes as "moonbat crazy". Howie Carr uses the term regularly, both on the air, and in his Boston Herald columns.

It's fun to learn something new.