I don’t post very often anymore do I? I wonder why that is. Probably because the longer I stay in school the less entertaining my thoughts become and the more academic (read socially-stunted) my writing sounds. I am so very sorry about that. Except perhaps not, because there are only so many times a person can talk about her bodily functions and get away with it. I’m not sure what that limit is, but I’ll let you know when we hit it.

So today I unburden the search for the perfect Ph.D. program on all of you. Of course, when I say “perfect” what I mean is someone that will accept me. I truly, truly hate selling myself and I look forward to the day I’m an old tenured professor who doesn’t have to do that sort of thing. But I will always be engaging in that behavior because I’m going to have to publish and publishing means selling your work…I’m sensing a pattern here and I don’t like it.

Instead I offer a change of subject: Daniel Craig as the new James Bond. Wet. Running. Panting. With his shirt off. Yes please.

I know there was a lot of skepticism preceding the release of the movie (myself included) but I am the first to admit that I am pleasantly surprised. Honestly, I thought it might be the best Bond movie yet. And, alternatively, I thought Craig to be the best Bond yet, and no, not just because he is hot. In all honesty, as much as I love the Sean Connery, I actually like older, post-Bond Connery better. What I’m about to say is going to be sacrilegious to all you Bond fanatics so just stop reading now.

I love Timothy Dalton. There, I said it; it’s done. My dirty, dirty secret is out in the open (one of them at least). I found Craig surpassing Dalton, but having some of the same characteristics that made me love Dalton in the first place. There’s a restraint about both of them like maybe, just maybe, they might lose control and it’s going to be a lot of action. A girl really likes seeing that. Not to mention, when Craig fights in this movie you really believe in his ability to fight. With the other Bond’s it was almost as if the bad guys were so inept that Bond couldn’t help but win the brawl. Daniel Craig really had to work for it. I appreciated that.

And right now, as I sit here with a cold and my snot-ridden self I’m really happy about the new Bond movie. Except I can’t go see it again because with the way I blow my nose people would have me kicked out of the theatre for being too loud. Ugh, I’m so hot right now it’s amazing men can keep their hands off of me. My roommate has asked the question how can my nose, as little as it is, produce so much snot? I don’t know man, I don’t know.

But I have now worked school, subjectification of men, and bodily functions into one blog. My life is complete.

I’ve been watching Battlestar Galactica with my roommate and it has prompted some very interesting debates. In the most recent episode the Humans were given the chance to exterminate the Cylons. And I do mean exterminate. I’m not sure I could do it. Yes, they are at war and yes the Cylons have been trying to exterminate the Humans for three seasons now, but does that make it justifiable? If it is a matter of life and death can one completely exterminate another race of sentient beings?
Another question raised just today, had to do with abortion. Humans would die out in eighteen years if they didn’t start having babies so the President declared abortion illegal. My roommate said you could not start limiting freedoms. It wasn’t enough just to survive, you had to be worthy of it.
Now here’s the kicker: she was pro-extermination and anti-outlawing abortion. I was the opposite. Why is that surprising you ask? Well, how is protecting our freedoms worthy of survival but exterminating a race not? Because the Cyclon are neither human nor part of the human government the removal of their freedom, of their race is somehow more justifiable than outlawing abortion?
I am (obviously to those of you who know me) very pro-choice. I will fight to my dying breath for a woman’s right to choose. But in this particular scenario we are faced with the extinction of the human race. No one can have babies but women. Does that reduce us to mere breeding cattle? Perhaps. What other option is there I ask you? My roommate says so be it; it is better to die than to start taking away freedoms. There is also all the typical stuff—women will find a way to do it themselves and probably suffer and die; women who suffer from rape or whose life is in danger will have no recourse etc., etc. So what is the answer?
If we preserve the freedom and the probable cost of the human race—do we not have to do the same thing for the Cylons? If we are going to be “worthy of surviving” doesn’t that include avoiding mass genocide? In war people die and that is, to some extent, to be expected, but where is the line? Where and how does biological warfare “break the rules”?
I’m not sure I have an answer. I believe in survival and yet while I understand the outlawing of abortion I can’t countenance the destruction of the Cylons. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that pregnancy is to some degree avoidable. Not always, but some. Furthermore, pregnancy only lasts for nine months and no matter how unpleasant is over. Granted one can die giving birth and the changes to the body are permanent but in a life or death situation, truly, a situation where the survival of the race is as stake and every new child is needed it’s a price I could pay. But destroying the Cylons—an entire race—that’s permanent. Yes, the Cylons brought it upon themselves; yes, if we don’t kill them they’ll probably kill us, but what does that make us? But, then again, what does taking away a woman’s right to chose make us?
Taking away people’s freedoms “for their own good” is a very, very dangerous path to walk indeed.