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.

 

4 Comments

  1. Bob Vance on September 12, 2012 at 2:04 am

    Headline: “Tom Quiner practices deviant behavior.”

    “Mr. Tom Quiner, who admits being an active member of the Catholic Church, openly admits to attending said church on a regular basis. In Iowa, this is clearly not the norm. The majority of Iowans are Protestant. A local member of the Methodist church who has requested not to be named here, claims to actually know Tom and admits that, even though he is Catholic, Tom seems to be a nice guy.” 🙂



    • quinersdiner on September 12, 2012 at 6:05 am

      Hey, thank-you!



  2. Shawn Pavlik on September 13, 2012 at 10:35 am

    The homosexual lobby is doing their best to normalize homosexual behavior. Look at this fall’s lineup on television. There are at least 2 or 3 sitcoms where the major theme is “Hey, I’m gay!”. I watched Glee a bit because I am a music lover, and their advocacy for the gay agenda almost made me stop watching.

    They want to label me as a bigot, but it’s not that simple. As a Christian, I have a certain world view, and homosexuality doesn’t really fit that world view. God told us to leave our mother and father and “cleave unto your wife” not “spouse”, not “wife or husband”. It is pretty clear that the union God intends is one man and one woman.

    I am not in favor of sodomy laws or any such, as I believe we should just stay out of the issue altogether. But I also don’t believe we should subsidize or legalize any attempts at gay “marriage”. Normalizing such behavior turns our back on the Judeo-Christian principles that this country was founded on, and the family is the very foundation that this country is built upon.