Abraham Lincoln was amazing. He shouldered such an incredible weight during such an uncertain time. The way he wrote about the role of God in the civil war continues to astound me.

After an uncomfortable evening of political discussions regarding the fate of our nation, often cast in terms of an internal, invisible war, I am reminded of what he said at the moment the Civil War of the United States was on the knife edge. This election doesn't have anything to do with slavery, but the emotions and philosophical issues that Lincoln was grappling with are relevant this hour.

"One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether"

President Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address was delivered March 5, 1865 before the end of the Civil War. Lincoln was assassinated a few weeks later on April 14, 1865.

(text copied from here)

Source:United Stated National Debt

"Look around you: Everything you see is God's—the heavens above and beyond, the Earth, and everything on it. But it was your ancestors who God fell in love with; he picked their children—that's you!—out of all the other peoples. That's where we are right now. So cut away the thick calluses from your heart and stop being so willfully hardheaded. God, your God, is the God of all gods, he's the Master of all masters, a God immense and powerful and awesome. He doesn't play favorites, takes no bribes, makes sure orphans and widows are treated fairly, takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing.

You must treat foreigners with the same loving care—
remember, you were once foreigners in Egypt.
Reverently respect God, your God, serve him, hold tight to him,
back up your promises with the authority of his name.
He's your praise! He's your God!
He did all these tremendous, these staggering things
that you saw with your own eyes. "
Deut. 10:17-20

Now that I have successfully pissed off a ton of people with my last abortion related post, I will continue on...

Today I am musing about whether it is possible to be "anti-abortion" and not actually be "pro-life". I wonder this because I see a lot of people that are really happy to make abortion illegal (something for which I would vote for if was ever asked), but not particularly active in helping to alleviate the pain associated with poverty, war and disease. So, great, we bring a lot of kids into the world and leave them to suffer? That is lame.

I am adamantly pro-life. There is no other issue with which I align more closely to the traditional conservative platform than this one. I also like to think I am completely pro-life. To the point of almost being a pacifist. I don't think war, nuclear weapons, or poverty should be treated differently than abortion when it comes to pro-life thinking.

My foundation for pro-life thinking comes from my relationship with Christ, who I believe had the most radical and high-level understanding of being pro-life when he died on the cross to give us all life.

Risking life and limb, some mysterious stranger has taken the "liberty" to post a campaign sign from a co-named candidate. Awesome! Thanks mysterious electoral phantom.

By the way, Prof. Don Patterson of UCI does *not* have the bandwidth to be a political candidate. I am not running for office.

A talk I gave at Microsoft Research was recently posted on the web. You need a Microsoft platform in order to view it.

ResearchChannel - From Sensors to Semantics: Intelligent Context for Situated Computing

Produced by: Microsoft Research 10/01/2007

Note to self: When people tell you that there is an alien fungus growing in your office, do not blow them off with some vague statement about the reproductive cycle of tropical plants. Instead put on your Sigourney Weaver and get fierce...