Sounds like a Fair Exchange

According to this Reuters report Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has an entertaining notion - if the US wants him to renew the lease on the air base they maintain in Ecuador (apparently the only one the US has in South America), they'll have to let Ecuador have a base in Miami in exchange.

Lets see what reasons the US government can come up with for saying no...

I've often wondered why no one ever calls the US on it's rather one sided deals with the rest of the world. Of course the US will look out for it's own interests primarily, but I often get the impression that US politicians don't see why the rest of the world doesn't share their priorities. So good for President Carrea, and hopefully this will get some people thinking about how the US looks from an outside point of view.

Goodthinkful comics

The latest issue of the Blue Beetle comic (issue 19) was, as ever, very good. What made it stand out to me was the odd little comic in the middle, an advert for AirHeads candy. For a start, it's eight pages long, making it an impressive length for an advert, but more important is the content.

I wish I could find a scan to post, but to summarise the plot - Lex Luthor and Brainiac use a force-field to lock Superman out of Metropolis. Lex then starts to give his speech about how he will make Metropolis into a great place, yadda yadda. Kids in the crowd get out some AirHeads - and along with the candy comes the bouncing balloon spokes-entity AirHead himself. He enters with the immortal lines "Civics? On a Saturday? Booor-iing!"

And starts spraying candy out to the crowd, turning it into a party where people ignore Lex's attempt to take over the state. Eventually, Brainiac is distracted by Airhead, and the force-field drops, letting Supes back in to arrest the crooks.

So, as far as I can tell, this is an eight page advert telling kids that, when evil politicians try to take over the government, the best thing to do is to ignore it and have a party - that's contributing to the solution! So run along little citizens, eat your candy, and remember not to vote...