Looniness is sweeping the country

By Tom Quiner

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcvXTSt4WdM]

There’s a great old Gershwin song called “Love is Sweeping the Country.” You can watch it performed above. I was thinking about it as I scanned today’s news.

The song was part of the George and Ira Gershwin 1931 musical, “Of Thee I Sing.”  It was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. George Gershwin is my favorite composer and brother Ira is one of my favorite lyricists.

Ira’s witty and urbane lyrics were particularly sharp in this song, although they might be read a little bit differently in this day and age:

Why are people gay
All the night and day,
Feeling as they never felt before?
What is the thing
That makes them sing?

Rich man, poor man, thief,
Doctor lawyer, chief,
Feel a feeling that they can’t ignore!
It plays a part
In ev’ry heart,
And ev’ry hearts is shouting “Encore!”

Love is sweeping the country!
Waves are hugging the shore;
All the sexes
From Maine to Texas
Have never known such love before.

See them billing and cooing
Like the birdies above!
Each girl and boy alike,*
Sharing joy alike,

Feels that passion’ll
Soon be national.
Love is sweeping the country!
There never was so much love!

Hmmm … how many of our friends on the left would read this song as an ode to gay love? The word “gay” certainly means something different than in the days of the Gershwins. Or am I being too sensitive?

I don’t think so.

Over in Steubenville, Ohio, a Catholic University ran afoul of liberal dogma now being imposed on secular and faith-based society regarding “gayness.”

The LifeSiteNews reported on it today:

“The national agency which grants accreditation to social work courses is questioning Franciscan University of Steubenville over a course which lists homosexuality as a deviant behavior.  Attention was drawn to the course by a group of homosexual Franciscan University alumni who are demanding publicly that the course be removed.”

Is homosexuality deviant? LifeSiteNews continues …

“In a written statement to NPR, the university explains that the course uses the term “deviant” in the sociological sense, to mean “different from the norm.” In addition, the university stated, “Franciscan University follows Catholic Church teaching in regard to homosexuality and treats homosexual persons with ‘respect, compassion, and sensitivity’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2358) while holding homosexual acts as ‘intrinsically disordered.’ “

It appears that Catholic orthodoxy is going to come under increasing fire from the forces on the left.

From Steubenville, let’s move to Sacramento (CA) where the Democratically-controlled legislature just rammed through an interesting bill. They don’t have enough doctors around who are willing to commit human abortions. The solution? Simply pass a law that says you don’t have to be a doctor to commit these procedures.

In other words, this law, should Governor Brown sign it, would permit nurse practitioners, midwives, and doctors’ assistants to be trained to perform human abortions without any further training in medicine. The mantra that abortion should be legal but safe and rare is exposed for the lie it always was. This law makes abortion unsafer in order to increase the quantity of human abortion providers, like Planned Parenthood. It will allow them to  hire “cheaper labor,” so to speak.

How about if we pass a law that allows undocumented workers to perform human abortions after attending an afternoon seminar at the local community college?

I bet we can really drive labor costs down. Here’s one time liberals hope they don’t unionize!

I harken back to Ira Gershwin’s lyrics. He lived in a different time. In a sense, it was a simpler time even though the times were tough.

“Love is sweeping the country” is a sweet sentiment. I long for it.

For now, we have to contend with looniness sweeping the country.