I have a friend named Michael who is a rescue worker for the fire department in NYC. He also did the same job in the army, now as a reserve member. As such, yesterday he got double called to duty.

The odds for him weren't good, but so far, word is that's he's still alive somehow after 18 hours of digging through rubble & bodies. Though you can see in his eyes that he'll never be the same again. It's a hell beyond anyone's imagination.

One of the things that concerns me the most about him now is that awful 'soot' that's flying around all over Manhattan now.

My wife is an architect & she explained to me that during the time that the WTC was constructed, asbestos was in heavy use. Even if they had gone through the building & removed the asbestos insulation, there still remains asbestos fibers that were mixed into the concrete.

I have noticed a lot of reporters referring to this airbourne debris as 'soot' or 'ash'. This isn't a volcano! And the fires, though enormous, are not burning on that scale. That is pulverized construction material.

So now you're thinking 'great, I walked around in that crap all day yesterday, now what do I do?' Well if I were you I would throw away all of the clothes I was wearing & anything they touched. (The bedspread you threw your jeans onto, etc.) Take a cold shower & scrub like mad with a loofa or pumice stone. And go to the health food store & get charcoal tablets. These are commonly used to remove many kinds of toxins, as they provide bonding sites for the chemicals to stick to, instead of inside you.

Above all, be aware that you have been exposed & inform your doctor. Don't take it lightly.

I found it astonishing that when I was watching the Mayor & the Governor on television, that when they were asked about asbestos directly they deflected the question rather than making people aware of the inherent danger. I doubt very much that he could have generated more panic than had already ensued.

As for politically based commentary, I can find no forgiveness for anyone who trivializes the mass slaughter that took place here & nothing less than the poisoning of an entire city. When the death toll is complete this is going to number in the tens of thousands. This is clearly an Act of War. The only people in the history of the world who might have a claim to perpetrate this justly, might be the Japanese, in retaliation for 2 atomic bombs... Anyone else had no right whatsoever. Including Iraq. We didn't poison them, and we didn't target civillians.

It is also clearly an act of desperation. In WWII the japanese resorted to the 'divine wind'/kamikaze attacks because they clearly were losing the war. It didn't prevent them from losing, it only made the final resolution more bitter. We resorted to the A-Bomb because projections for taking the island of Japan put the casualties at one million. In this way, using the A-Bomb saved lives. But in the pure view of morality you're looking at the difference between civilian & combatant's lives...

I do not feel that nuclear retaliation is to be ruled out. This is not a war to be won fighting by Queenbury's rules. Think of Apolcalypse Now & the speech Brando gave about ruthlessness. The fact is this, we no longer need provocation or moral justification to attack at will.

My only hope is that we follow up properly on choosing that target & not rush the job & botch it like they did with the Kennedy investigation, where they only wanted to provide a clear & swift image of justice to the public.