Z/Web

Author: Toby Emmerlich

Director: Gregory Hoblit

Where in the world did this movie come from? I’d never even heard of it, but saw the DVD at the rental store and it sounded interesting. It’s an excellent movie. The premise is intriguing: during the aurora borealis (Northern lights) a cop begins playing with his dead father’s old ham radio and picks up a transmission from a guy who turns out to be his father from 30 years earlier! It’s time travel via radio waves. The two begin regular conversations and learn that the father’s actions can change the present. The plot gets more complicated as they prevent the father’s death, then try to stop a serial killer. What’s cool about this is that there is no real time travel, just communication between time periods. Yet a lot can (and does) happen. It’s very clever. The films runs out of gas slightly toward the very end when it descends into an action film, but in general it’s a fascinating and exciting film, with nice special effects. I can’t figure out why I never heard of it, nor why it didn’t do better at the box office. Go rent it!

Celta Vigo never had a chance. Madrid got their first goal eleven minutes in when Roberto Carlos put in a blistering grounder and Helguera just caught it with the back of his heel to deflect it into the goal. The keeper didn’t even move. Brilliant! The second goal came at the half-hour mark, when Luis Figo (currently the world’s most expensive player) took the ball at mid-field, did a little juggling move to get past his marker, then kept going all the way into the box, where he finished it into the corner of the net. Absolutely breathtaking. But you can’t have a Madrid victory without a Roberto Carlos free kick, can you? Of course not! Fifteen minutes into the second half Carlos’ free kick just blasts past the keeper with so much swerve and power he didn’t even move. And that was from thirty yards out! Amazing. Final: 3-0 Real Madrid wipeout.

Why did Al Gore lose Florida? Greed.

You see, Al Gore didn’t want to hand count all the votes. He just wanted to hand count extra ballots (undervotes, the ones missed by the machines) in a few select counties where he thought he had the most to gain. Right there that’s unfair and the U.S. Supreme Court would undoubtedly throw out the results. But even that wasn’t enough for Gore. He saw that just counting the undervotes normally wouldn’t get him enough votes (most undervotes are real undervotes, i.e. people who didn’t vote for President), so he came up with this scheme to count every dimple or microscopic mark on a chad as a vote. To “interpret the will of the people” as it were.

Regardless of which side of the selective hand recounts and dimple debates you find yourself on, the key point is that the issues are controversial and brought the ire of the Republicans (and quite a few fair-minded Americans). That was Gore’s mistake. To actually think he could get away with such one-sided policies is shockingly arrogant. Of course the Republicans would fight him, delay the process, and eventually win. Gore will whine and complain about underhanded tactics or lack of time, but the end result is the same: Bush is the new president.

But just think how things could have been: if Gore had called for a statewide hand recount on Nov. 8 using the established Florida (non-dimple) standard, the Republicans would not have had a leg to protest on. The American people would have rallied around the vice-president, supporting the “count all the votes” concept. Would Gore have won? Who knows? At least with those standards and a statewide recount it would have been fair. But Gore didn’t want fair:he wanted a guaranteed win. He wanted an advantage. But by playing the game the way he did, seeking an unfair advantage, he only generated controversy, opposition, and the resentment of the general public. Very sad, and he deserved to lose on those grounds alone.

(Note: I wrote this last Friday morning, but postponed posting it until tonight after the U. S. Supreme Court’s decision.)