Similarities between this weekend and Sept. 7, 2001 [View All]

[Newsjock]

I almost don't want to say this.

It was a Friday night, and I was getting ready to go off on some much-needed R&R. But the Dow Jones industrials had just taken a big dive that day and that week, and we were worried about a crash. The president's approval ratings were at their lowest point ever, and we wondered what he was going to do to keep his iron grip on power. The mainstream media were wrapped up in total obsession over trivial matters (celebrity gossip, stem cell research) and were doing anything but focusing on the sour economy and the ineffective federal government.

But I left anyway, giving instructions to my staff at the newspaper to hang in there and, if the market crashed or something else untoward did happen the next week, I'd make my way back to work.

That was the weekend before Sept. 11, 2001.

This is this weekend.

We report, you decide.