Posted on 02/19/2006 10:19:33 AM PST by summer
Every walk of life and field of endeavor generates its own insiders' lingo. Those of us in the MSM — that's the superannuated, archaic mainstream media — have our own jargon, of which the first sentence of an article is the lede, the early edition is the bulldog and the guys working into the wee hours make up the lobster shift.
Some of our special vocabulary is being stolen from us by the denizens of the world of Web logs. Above the fold — the top half of a standard-size newspaper page, where the major stories begin — now, in "blargon," is what we see on a blog's screen before we begin to scroll down. The jump — the continuation of an article on an inside page — is now a place to which the blog's readership is referred inside the Web site. A sidebar — which we fondly remember as a boxed, related article alongside the main newspaper article — is, to a blogger, a column down one side of the screen displaying advertisements, archived links or a list of other blogs called a blogroll. Even the reporter's byline, that coveted assertion of journalistic authorship, has been snatched by the writers derogated as "guys in pajamas" and changed to bye-line, an adios or similar farewell at the end of the blogger's politely expressed opinion or angry screed. (The prevailing put-down of right-wing bloggers is wingnuts; this has recently been countered by the vilification of left-wing partisans who use the Web as moonbats, the origin of which I currently seek.)....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
From Wikipedia: "Moonbat is a political epithet coined in 2002 by Perry de Havilland of "Samizdata," a libertarian weblog. Contrary to some speculation, de Havilland has stated it was 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 terms was originally rendered as 'Barking Moonbat', suggesting that certain issue 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). It now enjoys great currency in the conservative and libertarian blogosphere as an all-purpose insult for modern liberals (in the American sense of the word), war protestors, and other ideological opponents
Well, I do not consider Wikipedia a 100% reliable source, so, I am still open to hearing from others on this. But, thank you for your post. :)
OK. Visuals are good. I guess that's a start.
I heard the "Monbiot/Moonbat" explanation elsewhere, though Wiki seems to doubt that was the origin.
I don't know where it came from, but it sure fits.
Moonbat is as moonbat does.....hope that helps.
I just know I can recall a time when I never heard it on FR. Then, suddenly, it seemed like everyone was writinig it. So, I always thought it was related to some recent event due to its sudden popularity.
Yes, thank you. Big help, you guys. LOL... :)
He will never understand it, even if it is couched in simple language. It is much more fun to watch him stew in his own juices!
ROTFMAO... but, maybe he wants to use it, too. No? :)
Maybe "barks at the moon" really is part of it...
Thank you.
It may be an updated derivation of "Gov. Moonbeam" taken from Jerry Brown's national appearence when running for office. As I recall, somehow through a satellite glitch the ultra liberal Gov.go the moon superimmposed on his head during his talk or Q and A. Hence the out there lefty was called Gov. Moonbeam. I suspect "Moonbat" might be related in some way???
I thought the term was coined by Rush Limbaugh. If he didn't originate it, he certainly has made it part of the partisan lexicon. For which I thank him, by the way, since it is a wonderfully evocative epithet.
You might have something there...
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