I've been wondering since I've been following your blog... what does moonbat exactly mean and where did the term come from?

Actually that's not "the" Watcher who asked that question... but I have wondered the same thing myself from time to time.

Watcher--for the quintessential moonbat which makes the derangement, loss of perspective and incipient violence immediatly clear--look in these eyes- http://inhonor.net/pictures/Rachel%20Corrie%20burning%20us%20flag.htm

Bill, wearying, yes, but after a Bush win, I can't see the hard Left's vitriol lessening. The DNC is now clearly split among centrists and the Angries and no amount of stitching is going to make these two whole cloth. With no obvious candidate with enough charisma to unite them, the fissure will continue. The larger question is, as the Boomers influence declines, the Left sundereds, much of their platform outdated--will they continue to be a political force as we know it? Can they wait for the dream of Hillary 2008? They have some serious pondering to do- a return to the DLC centrist strategy is necessary. The only thing is, this may no longer be viable even for a candidate like Hillary if the hard left wallows in the same early 70's antics (SLA, Panthers, etc.) that seem to be taking shape.

"The term is typically employed to describe nutty leftists that can vary from common and harmless (Macroglossius lunarius commonus), to extremely dangerous (Desmodus lunarius nihilista)."

Heh, that's good.

And I agree with TMarcell. If the Democrats continue to divide themselves between the centrists and the hardcore leftists, then they cannot hold any real political power. The Democrats will either a) overcome their anger and return to more sensible positions (doesn't matter if I agree with those positions or not), or b) they will continue to be violently angry and self-destruct, at which point another party will take over (probably the Reform party). Likely option A will happen.

By the way, the woman in that picture with the sign - is she saying she wants to fuck Bush? She must like him a lot.

Civility in Public Discourse is a 20th century phenomenon. It's certainly not ingrained into the American psyche. In fact, I'd say we're simply seeing a return to the passionate politics that came with the birth of this country.

The Corrupt Bargain?

Lincoln disparagingly being called "The Negro President?"

And I know you guys have read about "Ma, ma, where's my pa?"

Heck, just look at how the American Revolution started. What the Sons of Liberty did to Thomas Hutchinson makes all of this look like hugs and kisses.

Thanks, Bill. You definitely excerpted the key points.

And for all the hate, sometimes it morphs into laughable silliness... especially when it comes from a politician. Tex. Congressman Frost is charging his Republican opponent Pete Sessions with "exposing himself to children"......

when Trenchcoat Pete was 18 y/o and was one of 300 college students streaking in 1974!

You just can't make up stuff like this!

LOL

Darleen -- how long until Sessions is accused of matriculating while he was in college?

Robert

Well, I know I can't run for office. It would come out that I was a practicing thespian in college.

That girl's cute.

Is there a scientific name for the variety of moonbat whose females attract otherwise-disinterested males to moonbat gatherings?

I recall reading an exchange between a woman women calling herself 'Pie' on Atrios and somone she determined was a troll on the subject of Kerry's activities post-vietnam. As far as I could gather from what I read, the troll came off as a reasonable moderate or even slightly left democrat. He/she wasn't far enough to the left for 'Pie'.

If memory serves, Pie repeatedly denigrated the other person as a 'small man'. She boasted that her spelling was better since she taught English for a number of years and this was somehow supposed to confer more legitimacy to a position that she could not even be bothered to articulate to a troll. She took great umbrage to the suggestion that she was mistaken that the mood of the country in 1971 was wholly in line with Kerry's philosophy in 1971. Her vehement response to the suggestion was to declare that she had marched in many demonstrations and knew what she was talking about.

The point is that 'Pie' is a typical representative of the folks commenting at Atrios and Kos and by extension the 'moonbat' angry left online. She is educated, reasonably articulate as a writer, and utterly numb to the disconnect between her memories of relevancy in 1970, at least as she fondly remembers it, and the world today. There was no hint of substance or analysis in 'Pie's' dialogue. Just the conviction that anyone supporting Bush is stupid and that anyone seeing things her way is not.

She represents the boomers that never moved beyond the euphoria of winning the culture war and can not see the attendant downsides that went hand in hand with that victory. Folks like that are not going to change at this point in their lives. Joe McCarthy violating the very ideals he was claiming to protect images this lady nicely.

If Bush wins the election, the moonbat left is going to become more vitrolic and elitest and the thought that perhaps new ideas for the democrats appropriate to the 21st century are called for will never occur or be accepted by them.

The constant emphasis on her debater being a 'little' and 'small' nan was telling also. But that's another analysis for another day.

Speaking of moonbats, didja see their latest conspiracy theory? Bush had some kind of hidden cheating device at the first debate! Yup, and they've got a photo to prove it.