Friday, September 20, 2013

Conrad Black's Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full 27

On page 857 of Conrad Black's Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full, we read:

"An unprecedentedly massive air assault on North Vietnam began on December 18.  (Nixon told Haldeman and Kissinger that he didn't want to start on Sunday, December 17, because he didn't want a church service in the White House while he was bombing.)"

Nixon probably thought that he was doing the right thing in ordering the air assault on North Vietnam.  Why, then, did he not want to hold a church service during that time?  Perhaps it was because he saw the bombing as a necessary evil, and he did not want that to occur during an event that was good, a church service.

I thought of II Chronicles 23 which is about the high priest Jehoida leading a rebellion against the brutal Queen Athaliah of Judah.  In v 14, Jehoida tells the captains not to kill Athaliah in the house of the LORD.  They're killing someone, but they're not doing their dirty work in the house of the LORD.  I guess that makes it all right, doesn't it?

I also thought of the final episode of season 5 of Dexter.  The sociopathic motivational speaker Jordan Chase is finally on Dexter's killing table, and Dexter tells Lumen that she should be the one to kill him, since Jordan incited men to rape her.  Jordan laughingly says, "You're talking like there's a polite way to do this, as if there's some etiquette.  Murder is murder!"  See here for the scene.

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