In the rest of the world, May 1st is Labor Day, however in the US, it’s Law Day. In 2002, President Bush released this proclamation about Law Day, saying, among other things:

“Our forefathers imagined a well-qualified judiciary put in place through a dynamic and constructive interaction between the executive and legislative branches of Government. Under our Constitution, the President selects individuals for nomination to the Federal judiciary and the Senate provides its advice and consent. In all cases, both branches of Government strive to make certain that only men and women of the highest intellect, character, integrity, judgment, and experience are appointed to serve our Nation and its citizens in these critical positions.”

Now, given this list of blocked judges (a scant 7 out of hundreds nominated), how many of them fit the qualification of being able to “render decisions that are based upon the law and facts of each case, without regard for popular opinion or political or other extraneous pressures?”

As I was searching for more information about these folks, I found the Department of Justice’s own website for Judicial Nominations. For example, on the page for Priscilla Owen, several links are provided to documents supporting her nomination (and none contesting it). The contradictory nature of these documents would be amusing if it weren’t so awful – for example, one justifies Owen’s unconstitutional stance on abortion by citing the percent of the population in Texas that supports the procedure. Fortunately, our rights are not determined by a majority vote (and especially not a majority vote in Texas).

As a side note, if the administration is so concerned with the public opinion and majority rule, why aren’t they listening to polls like this?

Aside from the appalling idea that Senate Republicans may exercise their “nuclear” option and push the nominees through, I was pretty surprised that there are documents from organizations like Concerned Women for America posted on the Department of Justice website without any disclaimer or counter-opinion. This group gave their America Patriot Award to Jesse Helms for his “fights against liberalism, abortion, and the homosexual agenda.” Can I post a rebuttal on the DoJ site? I gave Jesse Helms an award, too, but it didn’t have the word “patriot” in the title…

Dan and I went to Great Meadows again this morning. Though we stalked them for the better part of an hour, we never really got a good chance at taking pictures of the wood ducks that are hanging out there now. I did get a couple decent shots though – check ’em out here.

I put up some of the images from yesterday’s Great Meadows trip (and a couple from a photo outing a week or so ago) – check ’em out here

I made a bunch of progress on the light machine recently including designing in the ball bearings, installing the two motors, and locating weldable cellophane. Should be up and running in not too long.

This morning I met Dan at Concord Great Meadows for some wildlife photography. We saw red-winged blackbird (by the hundreds), Canada geese, a single great blue heron, two swans, a wood duck (briefly), and a muskrat. Getting the exposure right for the blackbirds was tough, but there were a few decent photos in the lot (I’ll put ’em up soon). I’m glad it’s spring and we can be outside again!

I did some experimenting with basic lighting for portraits over the weekend with my dad. Though we didn’t take a lot of pictures we did figure out it’s possible to get decent lighting for a simple portrait with inexpensive lights (think 100W bulbs). Definitely a lens with a larger aperture (like this one, which I’ve been coveting recently anyway) would make things easier (larger aperture means both better isolation of the subject from the background and a higher shutter speed), but this didn’t come out so bad considering we were just playing around.

I finally got a chance to check out Metro Rock Gym last night. It’d been almost two years since I’d climbed, and I’m a little surprised I’m not more sore this morning. I enjoyed it a lot, though, and found Metro to be much better than Boston Rock Gym in many respects – it seems roomier, the climbing routes seem better, and perhaps most importantly, the people are much nicer. It’s not in a great area, but it’s not hard to get to, either. I’ll have to go a couple more times before I leave town.

Gotta love spring in Boston – I scraped ice off my windshield this morning but could go out in a t-shirt for lunch.

As my dad and I were eating an early dinner at Johnny D’s, we heard The Bills warming up and doing their sound check. We couldn’t stay for the show, but I picked up a CD of theirs and have really been diggin’ it. Cross Moxy Fruvous with the Resophonics and you’ve got The Bills.