CatHouse Chat

Glow-bull vormening in action

The Weather Channel website is sending an alert out for record low temperatures for the Roanoke/Danville area tonight.

Global Warming... I see how it works, now...

The Scream Team and the Mini CougarBots sweep (almost) the FIRST Lego League regionals!

I am so proud of the teams from my Munchkin's small school! They worked hard (OK, yeah, yeah, with more than a little "coaxing"), and each won FOUR First Place awards, including CHAMPIONSHIP in each division! (Make sure you go check out what FIRST Lego League is all about!)

We transported three of our four plaques home, and here they are:

So, congratulations to the Mini CougarBots (the younger, Division 1 team), and all hail my Darling Munchkin's team:

THE SCREAM TEAM!!!

(faces blurred to protect their privacy)

I'm an AUNTIE!!!

My bestest friend here where I live is a dear lady who breeds Arabian horses. Yesterday, her pregnant mare looked like she was ready to deliver an April Fool's Day baby - but the April Fool was on us, and the little one didn't arrive until about 3:30 this morning.

Look at this adorable little guy!

His momma, Chi, is a very good mom and a wonderful brood mare, so this little guy will grow up healthy and sweet natured - although my friend tells me he already has his own attitude going! I'm going to see him sometime tomorrow and take some pictures of my own.

Chi was originally scheduled to deliver on April 15th (and, yeah, all SORTS of tax names were considered, LOL), and this little man just missed April Fool's... I'm sure my friend (who is very creative) will come up with something to reflect that as well as his breeding ;-)

SB525 - the Uranium study bill - tables in the House of Delegates

Yeah, I know, I'm a couple of days late on this; mea culpa - I had guests!

But SB525 was tabled by the House Committee on Rules on Monday, which I find disappointing. It was apparently done by a voice vote, so we don't know which of the committee members voted for and against - that's also disappointing; if something comes up for vote, it ought to be on the record.

Jim Bacon has a post up (wish he'd made it clear where his quote came from - at least, I think he opens with a quote...) and comments:

...it makes sense for Virginia Uranium to do its own research, prepare a mining plan that it believes can extract uranium safely, and present it for consideration. A General Assembly study then could narrow its focus to the specific set of issues raised by the choice of mining methods. [...]

If Virginia Uranium wants to be taken seriously, it needs to put skin in the game by paying geologists and engineers to figure out which mining method would best suit the conditions of Pittsylvania County.

Well, yeah, I can see Jim's point on this, and it's an aspect I hadn't considered. I suppose I got too caught up with the people who were so vehement (and irrational, IMO) in their opposition to ANY sort of study. Of course, another blog-brother of mine, Jerry Fuhrman, considers the issue to be one of willful ignorance:

...we'll not know exactly which delegates were frightened by the notion that the people of Virginia might be exposed to additional knowledge - beyond the impartial and completely balanced study that came out in Jane Fonda's exhaustive work delivered in The Chinda Syndrome - on the subject.

varockstar at Uranium Mining in Virginia is extremely irritated and says

If we don't seize this opportunity to study what may be our economic salvation, then we will be dooming our entire region. This could be the boost we need, folks. This can be a great and wonderful blessing to our area, but we will never know unless we study it.

I feel as if sometimes I am preaching to the choir. The opposition no more wants to hear our side of the story than the man in the moon. They would rather put on their silly hats and parade their outdated half-truths around Richmond. The sad part is, our legislators bought it, and that is truly frightening. I hope those hats are paid for, and I hope you all carpooled to Richmond, because times are only going to get tougher.

Yeah, I hear you! How many times have I heard SCCC folks and their supporters say, "Chatham doesn't want to be a mining town!"? I think I'm going to start replying "I'm sure Chatham would prefer to be a mining town than a ghost town!" After all, a good part of SouthSide has been slowly but steadily losing population, hasn't it?

So, back to the bill: I don't know that "tabled in committee" is in fact the kiss of death for SB525, but maybe Virginia Uranium will now have a clearer vision on what they need to do to get a new, more viable bill drafted.

Good luck, guys...

You want common sense about the uranium issue?

Well then, you ought to make sure that Support An Independent Study is on your RSS feed. Walter Coles, Sr., is listed as one of the authors, and made the initial post, but varockstar (the other listed author) has been doing a great job researching articles, asking good questions, and voicing the benefits Pittsylvania County might reap if the study shows we can mine safely.

I particularly enjoyed Sunday's post, where varockstar took on an editorial from the Danville Register-Bee by Bill Spieden. varockstar says:

First, Speiden contends that the milling site in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (a place where I spent several summers with my sister’s godmother and her family) “has been stabilized…it contains 161,000 cubic yards of capsulated, potentially dangerous radioactive material that will have to be monitored at taxpayers’ expense in perpetuity.” What Mr. Speiden fails to mention is that this monitoring in “perpetuity” also applies to loosely-regulated landfills. How many batteries and aerosol cans and household chemicals have been dumped in our local landfills? Do the workers have a chance to check every bag of trash that is deposited into these landfills? Of course not, and that is why the quality of the environment around landfills is constantly monitored, and it will also be in “perpetuity,” because that trash will not biodegrade in our lifetime.

Make sure you read the whole thing, and put the blog on your feed reader!

More jobs coming to Danville

Well, I'd never heard of this company before, but if they're bringing jobs - and over 800, at that! - I'll welcome them with open arms; our area needs all the jobs we can get!

From the Danville Register-Bee:

A major manufacturer of mattresses and upholstered furniture [Com40] will invest $36.3 million to open a manufacturing plant in Danville, creating 813 jobs. [...]

The manufacturer, Com.40 Ltd, is a private company headquartered in Nowe Skalmierzyce, Poland. Com.40 is a key supplier to Swedish home furnishings retailer IKEA. This Com.40 project in Danville will help supply mattresses and upholstery to IKEA stores in North America.

Governor Tim Kaine was supposed to be here for the announcement, but couldn't make it due to the snow at the Danville airport.

But this is good to see! Along with all the business construction in Danville - Pet Smart opened last year, as did Office Depot, and we'll be getting a Target, a Coles', a Sam's Club, among others - this plant will contribute to revitalizing the area and helping our economy.

Now, folks, let's get more businesses in Pittsylvania County, too!