Winnipeg bathhouse fire was arson: police

Owner angry blaze was deliberate

Arson was the cause of a fire at a Winnipeg bathhouse that killed two men, police said Tuesday.

Steven Yablonski, 23, of Winnipeg and a Saskatchewan man, Robert Clark, 62, died in the Oct. 11 blaze at Aquarius Bath House on Notre Dame Avenue.

Const. Jason Michalyshen confirmed Tuesday that both men died of smoke inhalation.

The fire broke out at 7 a.m. on the second floor of the 12,000-sq. ft. facility.

Homicide investigators are now leading the investigation and are working to identify suspects, said Const. Jason Michalyshen Tuesday.

Police are asking any patrons of the bathhouse who may have been present the morning of the fire and have not yet spoken with investigators to call 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477).


Get more of the story here at CBC.ca.

From CBC poster Wessex:



It just makes me think about all the things that never get reported on.

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed The Rookie. It's one of those movies made for people, mostly Americans but Canadians will get it, who have had all their dreams smashed by the cruel hand of fate. Which is pretty much the entire human race. So it has broad appeal, despite being a baseball movie.

Jim Morris is a real guy, and this movie is based on his life. And he does motivational speaking.

And I'd already known that Dennis Quaid could act, since I saw him in the amazing Far From Heaven, and he was good in The Rookie, too.

Please tell me if I've posted this already. It's hard to believe I haven't.

Yeah, I'm behind in my movie posts. Yes, I did see it on opening night. And yes, there is a strong possibility I pulled my polyester Star Trek: Deep Space Nine uniform out of the closet.

Star Trek was a wonderful movie. And what can I say about it that hasn't been said?

It made me happy. I had high hopes, and every one of them was satisfied. Well, except for the little one where they take science seriously. But that's small compared to all the things they get just so right.

Just see it. :)

I don't get it. I just don't get it.

And why wasn't her fiancé more upset? Like, really.

The Lost Boys (1987). Yes, I'm an oddball for having never seen it. I expected it to be crappy teenage schlock, but I was pleasantly surprised at how awesome it was. This film is an object lesson in "show, don't tell." Although, I admit that they do "tell" quite a bit as well. Still, great performances, great writing, great direction, great editing, interesting use of music (didn't like it at the very beginning, thought it was great throughout the rest). Very worth watching.

I watched A Soldier's Story (1984). It was kind of earnest and overblown in that way that movies made from plays often are, but it was a movie made great by all the wonderful performances. I found Adolph Caesar's performance particularly captivating.

And it was my second Denzel Washington movie that day, after Cry Freedom, which I can't report on here, as I didn't see it in its entirety, but that was a movie I will absolutely watch again. Wow. But it was great to see how Denzel Washington grew as an actor in three years.

Spoilers ahead.

( Read more... )

I'm not suggesting I could have written a better finale for Battlestar Galactica. But there were a few things that really ruined it, and I would have changed those, if I could have.

( A different ending. Spoilers ahead. )

At least municipal public servants are generally nice, because the organizations they're a part of sure aren't organized. No offense to anyone who works for any of them. You have great hearts, but there aren't organized people above you giving effective management.

There was a fire at 02:45 at the corner of Edmonton Trail and 41st Avenue NE (a map). The fire department responded and they and the police closed off 41st Avenue.

( Read more... )

The Notebook (2004) was a good movie. A little pat at the end, but overall, very enjoyable.

The plot was simple and predictable, the ending was too clean, and most of the characters seemed too uncomplicated for me. But maybe that's a good thing for a lot of viewers in this age of complicated movie moralities and ridiculously convoluted storylines.

I usually really like Ryan Gosling, but I thought he was a little too distant in this role. Everyone else ranged from good to great.

Taxi is the 2004 Queen Latifah comedy that pretty much everyone agreed sucked. However, I do disagree with Ebert on one account: he disliked the car chases for being too unrealistic. However, I loved how they were filmed. Sweeping crane shots that must have been done out of the back of a moving camera truck, the precision moves of the stunt drivers. I just thought there was something fluid and beautiful about the car choreography and how those scenes were shot. And how the bad guys were Brazillian models, well, I love movies with strong female characters in both the good-guy and bad-guy roles. And I really like Queen Latifah. *shrug*

Would I have watched this if it hadn't been the in-coach movie on the bus? Nah. Was the movie idiotic? Yeah. But I liked it anyway.

I'm on the Red Arrow bus right now, posting to my LJ. Nice leather seats. Coffee. Cookies. However, still a crabby bus driver. But you get that anywhere, right?

I'm watching Queen Latifah's Taxi right now. I'll post more later.

I'm sorry, embedding for ths file isn't working, but here's the link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/28060742#28060742

I laughed my ass off.
(BTW, if you don't know anything about Rachel Maddow, first and foremost she is the first openly gay/lesbian person to anchor a prime-time news show in the United States. Dr Maddow was also a Rhodes Scholar. And after only a month on the air, her program doubled her network's ratings in that timeslot. Oh, and she's biting yet funny as all heck.)

On the proposed coalition government, all I can say is that this is fascinating stuff! :D

(I know I'm supposed to be ranting now, but this is all just too cool!)

Anyone going to be near the U of C on Friday afternoon, who wouldn't mind helping out with a bake sale? NUTV is having theirs, and they're looking for volunteers.

Thanks!

Watch at least one minute of Keith Olbermann on the subject. What a great man.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVUecPhQPqY

And then, please, watch the entire Dan Savage interview, before believing the bad things people are saying about him.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9feJEAH3drQ

And on a side note, to better understand the American mind, svartormr highly recommends Dan Savage's book, Skipping Towards Gomorrah, a light-hearted romp through the expression of the seven deadly sins in American society.

Well, I just got done filling out a police report. svartormr and I were at the Wal-Mart, getting my overpriced Celebrex prescription filled (WTF kind of name is "Celebrex"? Like anyone who takes it is celebrating.) We were walking to the car when I heard an alarm, looked towards the store, saw a young man walking very quickly away from the open fire doors, a Rubbermaid container full of stolen stuff in his hands.

Well, given that I'm pretty much numb to everything these days, given the devastating news from my MRI and the subsequent crushing of any dreams I had left in life, I chased the motherfucker. I have NO love of Wal-Mart, but I'm one angry person who desperately needs an outlet.

He ran and hopped into his getaway car, a shitty 90s Chevy that only poor people who make bad decisions, smoke too much dope, and steal from Wal-Mart drive. We, of course, got the license plate.

The Wal-Mart manager was very thankful. The cop was . . . a cop. It never, ever turns out well to have dealings with the po-po.

He came into my house and told me he could fine me right there for not having an updated address on my license. Like I'm a fucking criminal. Fucking cops. I should know better than to ever, ever, ever talk to a fucking cop. Teaches me for trying to do the right thing. Jesus fuck, cops make innocent people feel like shit so much of the time, and rarely seem to do a thing to help them.

Anyway, we filled out our reports and he went on his way.

Emotionally, I was feeling pretty good after the loser-chase, but pretty shitty again after talking to the cop. Fucking cops!

So now I'm going to watch The Wire and cheer for the bad guys for a bit.

I'm watching the Dan Savage interview on D.L. Hughley's show on CNN. For those who don't know, D.L. is a hip, young, black pundit with a new show on CNN.

D.L. Hughley has shown me that, now that the previously oppressed have civil rights (and heck, have the presidency) they aren't interested in allowing, let alone helping, anyone else get their civil rights. WTF? In fact, in California, they're in favour of removing the civil rights previously granted to a people.

Don't believe it? Here's my source:

Smith and other African American voters played a crucial role in the outcome. An exit poll of California voters showed that black voters sided in favor of the measure by margins of more than 2 to 1. Not only was the black vote weighted heavily in favor of Proposition 8, but black turnout -- spurred by Barack Obama's campaign for president -- was unusually large, making up roughly 10% of the voters. The exit poll was conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International for a consortium of news organizations.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gaymarriage6-2008nov06,0,2331815.story

The LGBT (and other) community is, justifiably, pretty pissed off. Six-foot, blonde, busty, liberal, lesbian lawyer Dana Douglas recently wrote a Salon Blog column entitled Why shouldn't I hate Blacks and Christians? And I understand and empathize with her feelings of betrayal. Especially after seeing what she saw, the flyer emblazoned with a picture of Martin Luther King and the title: No Fags in King's Dream. Wow, I thought we were past all this shit. Anyway, the column is brilliant, so read it here: http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=39915

Why did a single black person vote for Proposition 8? Wasn't it enough for white people to be bigots? Did you have to get in on the game? Given that the vote was nearly split down the middle, with the simple majority being won by the barest of margins, and given that more than two out of three black voters polled said that they voted for Proposition 8, that means that the moniker of "bigot" has clearly been taken from the white folks and is now being held up proudly by the blacks of California. Congratulations, assholes.

And for those who try to give a religious justification to this, has it really been so long that you don't remember the religious justifications given to slavery? Ham's "crime" and Canaan's curse. Using the Bible to justify the oppression of people has been done before. Remember that.

And an addendum. Just a gentle suggestion to the African-American community of California: apologize. Seriously, just say you're sorry and start the healing. Don't let this fester any longer.