Per Wikipedia:

Moonbat is a political epithet popularized in 2002 by Perry de Havilland of Samizdata, a libertarian weblog. 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. 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).

However, I was recently reading the Robert Heinlein short story collection "The Green Hills of Earth", and noticed that the story "Space Jockey" (published in 1947) featured a rocket ship on the Earth-Moon run called the "Moonbat".

So the word has apparently been around for a long time, although the meaning has obviously changed.

Posted by: Harvey at 08:32 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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