Breathing Fire and Brimstone

As we approach the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America of 11 September 2001, when America was attacked by terrorists, inevitably a few parasites are emerging to cash in on the world's sympathy for the victims of that tragic piece of television. It seems that seventy per cent of those involved in clearing the rubble at the ruins of the World Trade Centre towers are suffering from cancers and lung diseases thanks to the glass, asbestos and other terroristically empowderised substances they breathed in. "We started cleaning the New York Stock Exchange because that had to be open," claims one of them, who was told that the air was safe but now appears to be contesting this view, despite the fact that the air was obviously a good deal safer for him than for the three thousand martyred Americans who are no longer able to bless the nation with their presence, much less to complain about a little caustic erosion of the oesophagus. "Now they should be helping him," claims the wife of this breathtaking epitome of lower-class rapacity, unaware or blithely dismissive of the possibility that "they" - the insurance company, the New York Stock Exchange, or the Bush administration - might have one or two problems of their own. Have these people no sense of respect for the fallen, no inkling of solemnity in the face of George W Bush's approval ratings? Do they not understand what it means to be approaching the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America of 11 September 2001, when America was attacked by terrorists?