It is happening. Bush, defiant, has asked the Democratic congress to approve a troop increase of 21,500, and to pour many more billions into the hell he's created in Iraq--apparently with some hope or belief that Congress will. There is a vast intaking of breath, an incredulous silence. No one seems to realize that we're some ways over the brink, or what this descent into the Maelstrom must entail. This is why I've fled into the hinterlands. Life, so-called, at the IHS shelter continues: stinking, raucous, without dignity or amenity. And yet, my meals are free; I sleep eight hours a night; and I have a prescription on my person for amphetamines. And of course, today, as every day, I stop at the splendid Hawaii State Library, to blog, check my 'mail, and continue my many lines of curious and esoteric research. So that, while on some levels I am wretched, on others I am serenely exhalted. And the weather is simply beautiful. I'm trying, not too unsuccessfully to put it all in perspective.