Thomas Friedman - boy genius

Roman Hruska, senator from Nebraska, while defending the nomination of Carswell to the US Supreme court against charges that Carswell was of mediocre intellect said

Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance?

Thomas Friedman clearly demonstrates that the New York Times is a fan of Roman Hruska. Thanks to Donald Johnson, a commenter at A Tiny Revolution, we have this gem. In one sentence Friedman claims that Israel was not directly targeting civilians and that Israel's purpose was to target civilians. Note the sentence and read it twice.

Israel’s counterstrategy was to use its Air Force to pummel Hezbollah and, while not directly targeting the Lebanese civilians with whom Hezbollah was intertwined, to inflict substantial property damage and collateral casualties on Lebanon at large.

And read it again

Israel’s counterstrategy was to use its Air Force to pummel Hezbollah and, while not directly targeting the Lebanese civilians with whom Hezbollah was intertwined, to inflict substantial property damage and collateral casualties on Lebanon at large.

And then just to make sure he contradicts his own claim that Israel was not directly targeting "the Lebanese civilians with whom Hezbollah was intertwined,"

It was not pretty, but it was logical. Israel basically said that when dealing with a nonstate actor, Hezbollah, nested among civilians, the only long-term source of deterrence was to exact enough pain on the civilians — the families and employers of the militants — to restrain Hezbollah in the future.

As Donald Johnson puts it:

This is a logical contradiction worthy of Godel. Captain Kirk ended at least two robot threats to his ship saying stuff like this. It's just awe-inspiring what comes out of that man's mind (I use the term loosely).