BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. ??? A Colorado man who claimed he was trying to defend himself from a mugger when he shot himself in the groin has been convicted of illegal discharge of a firearm. Investigators said there was no evidence to substantiate David Leroy Blurton’s self-defense claim and jurors convicted the 50-year-old on Wednesday. The shooting happened at the parking lot of a grocery store in Dillon, Colo., on May 2009. Prosecutors say Blurton had been drinking.

Jurors also convicted Blurton of “prohibited use of a weapon ??? drunk with a gun” and reckless endangerment. Prosecutors said they will request that Blurton be sentenced to probation.

Blurton maintained that someone hit him in the back of the head and he was trying to defend himself.

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Information from: Summit Daily News, http://www.summitdaily.com/

While shooting yourself in the groin is not the most effective way to fend off burglars, it is certainly one way.

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???Orangutan-Sized??? Raccoons Invade Chicago

April 29, 2010 – 1:07 PM | by: Peter Doocy

???He looked like an orangutan swinging-swinging around. It was scary, very scary,??? said Chicago resident Wilma Ward about her recent run-in with a raccoon. Ward, who lives in Chicago several miles away from the nearest forest, found herself face to snout with a raccoon she described as being almost her height. She was forced to barricade herself in an upstairs bathroom until morning, and when she emerged she discovered the raccoon had bent steel window-bars to get into her kitchen. Others in the neighborhood have described these raccoons as being the size of German Shepherds.

While Wilma???s story is extreme, it is becoming more common, as the ring-tailed rascals are increasingly taking up residence in the concrete jungle. It isn???t hard for them to find a place to stay, either, since over 75,000 homes have been foreclosed on in the last year. Most people don???t properly board up their homes when the bank kicks them to the curb, which gives raccoons easy access to a habitat fit for a human.

Raccoon infestations aren???t a bother to former homeowners, but rather to the people still living in the neighborhood. No raccoon in Illinois has ever tested positive for rabies, according to Dr. Donna Alexander of the Cook County Animal Rabies Control, but that???s not the only concern. She fears that many urbanites, who have never seen a wild animal except for maybe a squirrel or rat, might mistake the raccoons for a furry play-thing. ???The most important thing is that it is not a pet, it is a wild animal,??? she explains.

Local government officials are trying to prevent further problems by educating the urban communities about the proper way to deal with raccoons. They explain that raccoons are just looking for something to eat and a place to stay, so if trash cans are properly sealed and foreclosed homes are effectively boarded up, they will search for shelter somewhere else.

Something else communities are beginning to notice is property damage. Most of it goes unnoticed for months or even years, as these homes go uninhabited for extended periods of time, but James McClelland of Mack Industries, who purchases foreclosed homes and fixes them up for future sale, says the cost can be sky high???or at least ceiling high. It is common, he explains, for raccoons to fall through roofs and ceilings, which are expensive to repair. Often, when they fall into a home from above, it is impossible for them to get out, so they try as hard as they can to scratch and bite their way out-attempts which are often in vain, and often leave serious damage. McClelland says the damage done by raccoons can cost anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.

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Oh Gosh!! RUNNN!!!!

AMES, Iowa ??? Second-degree burglary charges have been filed against an Ames man who broke into a church where he allegedly used the institution’s electronic equipment to watch pornography. Police allege the 55-year-old man broke into the First Christian Church on Thursday. After gathering items from around the building, he is believed to have gone to the basement to spend the night.

Police summoned to the church Friday by staff, found the man trying to haul away a garbage can filled with food, kitchen utensils, clothes, electronic equipment and a 26-inch flat-screen television.

Police Cmdr. Mike Brennan said the man used the electronic equipment to watch pornographic movies that were found on him when he was arrested.

The man was being held at the Story County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bond.

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Information from: The Tribune, http://www.amestrib.com

Either this guy was reallllly bold, or realllllly stupid.

I mean, how else do you explain someone having the unction to break in a church, loot the place, watch porn in the church, and sleep there overnight – and still expect to get away? Wow. It’s a good thing we’re not in the 16th century – looting a church would have been the last thing he would have done. Poor fella.

OYSTER BAY, N.Y. ??? Authorities are hunting for the person who stole a 15-inch walrus tusk from Theodore Roosevelt’s home on Long Island.

The superintendent of the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, Thomas Ross, says the tusk was one of a pair displayed on a fireplace mantel. It was discovered missing Feb. 22 from a second-floor guest room in the Oyster Bay, N.Y., home. The room is usually sealed off by a rope when visitors take guided tours.

Old Brookville, N.Y., police and the National Park Service are investigating. The FBI has added the tusk to its national stolen art list.

Several years ago, a man stole Roosevelt’s revolver from the house. He pleaded guilty, and the weapon was returned.

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On the Net: http://www.nps.gov/sahi

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Information from: Newsday, http://www.newsday.com

If i were to steal anything – this would probably be it.

by: FR. ROY CIMAGALA

A NUMBER of people are now wondering about that. In fact, even Pope Benedict recently referred to this observation. People worldwide seem to be smiling less. In its place, we are seeing an increase in tension, nervousness and irritability such that many people are now talking about the need to learn anger management.

If people smile nowadays, its most likely in the shallow level. In the media, for example, the elements of smile seem to be observed only in the sports and entertainment sections. They are seldom observed on the front page or on the Op-ed page.

We really do not know up to what extent this observation is true. But it cannot be denied that even if its factuality is limited, it already evokes pity. Smile is a wonderful human treasure that should not be allowed to wane, let alone, lost.

I googled some sayings about smiling, and I got a good number that reflect the many amazing facets of this human gesture. Here are a sampling that I bet will amuse you as they have amused me.

%u2022 A smile is an inexpensive way to change your looks. ~Charles Gordy

%u2022 If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it. ~Andy Rooney

%u2022 I%u2019ve never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful. ~Author Unknown

%u2022 A laugh is a smile that bursts. ~Mary H. Waldrip

%u2022 The shortest distance between two people is a smile. ~Author Unknown

%u2022 You%u2019re never fully dressed

without a smile. ~Martin Charnin

%u2022 Smile – it increases your face value. ~Author Unknown There were a lot more. We need to do something to promote this habit, since it is always good and healthy and produces wonderful effects on everyone.

My personal experience is that a smile helps me tremendously in my ministry. When you smile, people will find it easy to approach you, to connect with you, to be sincere with you. It initiates friendship and develops trust. It is good in breaking the ice between two persons. Its beautifully contagious. You smile at someone and most likely hell smile back. It easily offers bridges over whatever gaps there may be among us. Differences and conflicts are softened and put in condition for calm dialogue.

We have to recover this habit that seems to suffer when the pressures of progress and the challenges of growth and development unavoidably come. For this, we need to understand that what is needed is to ground it in a much deeper foundation.

The main problem, I think, is that we tend to root it on a shallow, shifting ground. We tend to keep it in the material, external and visceral level, held captive in the world of the unreasoning instincts and feelings.

It seems caught in a stunted, arrested stage of development. In other words, to smile, now when there is so much pressure to contend with, is urgently looking for a deeper, more authentic source. It is gasping for a genuine lifeline, not mere palliatives, stop-gap measures and escape mechanisms. It is grasping for its proper anchor and purpose.

If you notice, we usually tend to smile as an instinctive reaction to something sensible, whether soothing, funny, amusing, physically beautiful, etc. Since we were kids, thats how we have been behaving.

Those who are better endowed, that is, with greater intelligence and therefore greater capacity to understand things, can manage to smile at engaging ideas and at the continuing flow of discoveries and realizations.

If you are not that endowed, then it would seem you are doomed, which is unfair and actually not true. I believe everyone, regardless of his endowments, physical, emotional, intellectual, etc., can manage to smile always if he knows where to get its proper impulse. And this can be no other than God. We need to expand our understanding of the dynamics of our smile. We cannot restrict it in the sphere of biology, nor in that of our intelligence. It has to grow and develop in its ultimate and proper milieu of faith and beliefs, where the spiritual and supernatural forces are made to augment, purify and perfect our natural forces.

When this understanding and mechanism are in place, we can manage to smile even in trying and difficult times. Well always find a reason, a forceful reason to smile. For believers in Christ, they know that their smile has to be rooted on Christs Cross. With that foundation, nothing can drive it away. Hardships would only enhance it.

I think it’s still cool to smile. So does the POPE.

That dog is LOVING it.