October 3, 2008
Quantum Mechanix
Clearly, there are alternate universes and clearly, Senator Joe Biden lives in one. In his, France is a brave, muscular, liberating, military hegemon:
Nobody – nobody – has ever kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon. Not the United States. Not France. Not Israel. And not the Lebanese. Nobody.Joe Biden has literally no idea what he’s talking about.
It’s too bad debate moderator Gwen Ifill didn’t catch him and ask a follow up question: When did the United States and France kick Hezbollah out of Lebanon?
This from Michael Totten in Commentary (readthewholething). I told my emailer that that was a funny joke about Gwen Ifill and the follow up questions...
2008 Posted by jk at October 3, 2008 12:44 PM
This post will make much more sense to readers after they read what Biden said:
“When we kicked — along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, “Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don’t know — if you don’t, Hezbollah will control it.” Now what’s happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel.” [Emphasis added.]
But as JK suggests, read the whole thing.
Posted by: johngalt at October 3, 2008 1:15 PMI want to live in Biden's other alternate universe, the one where we get to not only renegotiate the mortgage down, but the principal too.
Posted by: sugarchuck at October 3, 2008 1:17 PMI want to "renegotiate" my gross income when it comes to filling out my 1040...
I never realized that was even an option.
I want that.
Posted by: AlexC at October 3, 2008 2:04 PMYou guys are laughing, but they are dead serious. In bankruptcy court, a judge can give you debtors a haircut on principal and interest. Biden and Co love the little guys (who go to Katie's Restaurant 15 years after it has closed) so much, they want to empower judges to do the same for First Mortgages.
Anybody believe for one minute that President Obama and a Democratic 111th will not bring this innovation to fruition? I am glad I have a mortgage, nobody will be able to afford one after this passes.
Posted by: jk at October 3, 2008 4:30 PMI'm not laughing. Sigh. My boss is a counsel at our firm, so contracts are exactly what he deals with.
For a while now, we've lamented that contracts are no longer sacred -- and he's quite liberal in his perspectives! Mortgages. Cell phone contracts. Soon it'll come down to nobody wanting to trade, period, whether internationally or at a bank or at grocery stores, because you can always appeal to some damn bleeding heart judge to have the contract invalidated.
Posted by: Perry Eidelbus at October 4, 2008 1:32 PMWhat'll happen is the up-front cost to all customers will rise. Business will be forced to assure profit early in the transaction to avoid back-end chicanery. Those who can pay cash for large transactions should negotiate for favorable terms, since the risk to the seller is eliminated. Overall interest rates will increase to cover those who refuse to pay. Finally, fewer people will qualify for credit, impacting lower wage workers most. That said, moving the economy to more pay-when-you-can-afford-it may not be such a bad thing. Ironically, this will open more investment opportunities to the highly paid/high net worth individuals who can buy investment properties.
Posted by: Boulder Refugee at October 4, 2008 3:35 PM | What do you think? [6]