Amanda Simpson: Amazingly Brave, Funny/Punny chutzpah or...

...the world's best new case of a publicly Freudian slip?

Simpson, appointed to the Obam Admin job over the holidays, formerly was

rocket scientist with 30 years of experience in the aerospace and defense industry. (She) is now serving as a senior technical advisor in the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security. Her job entails managing exports of dual use technology—that which has both civilian and military capability—to other nations.

Born Mitchell Simpson in Chicago, she spent seven years in transition to being a woman. In 2004, she ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives.

The blog-synopsis of her appointment on AllGov is instructive, both to Simpson's career and to the challenges she probably still faces. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along...Really.

Except: What possessed her to choose "Amanda" as her new name?

That seems to me to be either the most hilariously brave, in-your-face pun of a lifetime, or the most "forest-for-trees" kind of Freudian denialism imaginable.

"Amanda?" A MAN DA!

If the choice was knowing and intentional, it is an admirably brave and funny and "ballsy" thing to do.

If not, well, this may just be one of those "other" cigars...