"They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"

A chimpanzee on a rampage… a mother gives birth to eight babies… a once respected financier disappears just as the feds crack down on his financial empire… states and people going bankrupt…

And we're all scared to death we're going to lose our jobs. As unemployment passes nine percent on the way to double digits, the only things missing are bread lines and the dust bowl.

Baseball's best player confesses to using steroids… the new treasury secretary can't explain what he plans to do with all that bailout dough… two of the country's big automakers say they can survive if only they get twice as much money as they originally asked for.

Even the octo-mom is going to be foreclosed on.

In 1969, Sydney Pollack received an Academy Award nomination as Best Director for his film, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" It's about the people at a dance marathon during The Great Depression. In part, it tells how someone else's despair becomes our own diversion. See the parallels?