Yes, it’s the time of year when the Sun dies and must be re-born through an elaborate ceremony that involves some form or type of sacrifice, such as finding gifts for people you can’t stand and smiling brightly as you receive yet another gift based on an urban legend that you actually like truly stomach-wrenching color combinations. Some people get a little carried away .

Of course there was a time when the Solstice sacrifices were more visceral and the evergreen was covered in things that pleased only ravens and such, but we have put all that behind us by opting for the possibility of electrocuting one another and causing chaos on the power grid.

What a brilliant idea: moving a large supply of pre-kindling soaked with highly flammable resins into your house, loading it down with petrochemical-based ornaments, lacing it with heat-producing electrical devices, and surrounding the base with cardboard boxes and tissue paper. You just can’t have a traditional celebration without a proto-bonfire in your living room.

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The headline isn’t quite accurate: PM may suspend Parliament

OTTAWA – To save his job and his government, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected within Conservative circles to prorogue, or suspend, Parliament this week while his party blitzes the country with a public-relations campaign aimed at discrediting the notion of a Liberal-led coalition government.

The problem is that the Prime Minister can only ask the Canadian Governor General to ‘prorogue’ the Parliament, as that is a prerogative of the Governor General not the Prime Minister.

The next step is the Governor General’s Choice

OTTAWA – When Stephen Harper called on Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean on Sept. 7 and asked her to dissolve what he insisted was a “dysfunctional” Parliament for an Oct. 14 election, she bowed to his request.

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While India continues to demand that Pakistan take the blame for the Mumbai attacks more information is coming out about how ill-prepared and uncoordinated India’s security structure is.

It has been reported and confirmed that US ‘warned India’ about Mumbai. This wasn’t one of the Hedgemony’s vague political warnings about something happening, this was a warning about a seaborne attack on Mumbai with the hotels as a probable target, and it was last made a month ago.

What was done? Almost nothing because the BBC reports ‘Rot’ at heart of Indian intelligence. India’s first responders lack training, equipment, coordination,… everything.

Given that India’s claim about Pakistani involvement is heavily based on information coming from the only terrorist captured alive, McClatchy’s investigation of the claims being reported is rather interesting: Search for Mumbai gunman’s roots only deepens mystery

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The BBC reports that the Thai airport protests have been called off, and that is a reaction to the decision of an election case by Thailand’s highest court: Embattled Thai Leader Forced To Step Down

(CBS/AP) A court dissolved Thailand’s top three ruling parties for electoral fraud Tuesday and temporarily banned the prime minister from politics, bringing down a government that has faced months of strident protests seeking its ouster.

In some places election fraud is taken seriously and the people involved are punished.

Florida’s junior Senator, Mel Martinez (R-Havana), doesn’t want to play any more.

In as much as he had no base in Florida outside of Calle Ocho in Miami, having been hand-picked by the Hedgemony to run in 2004, a move that ticked off Florida Republicans, and faced with a “fun” re-election in 2010, Senator Martinez has decided to “retire” from the Senate after one term.