Hey Erin, your schedule has been weird lately

Yes. Yes, it has.

This is because my life has gotten really stressful in the past week due to a family crisis. I'm working with my mom to fix it, but right now it feels like we're using buckets to bail out the Titanic. I'll let you know how it turns out.

The other thing that's been going on is something in the firearms world that intersects with the interests of Operation Blazing Sword. I can't talk about that yet either because I was asked not to (although if you've been paying attention to things you might know what I'm talking about), although the situation looks good for a swift resolution that ought to make both sides happy.

This is my life right now, a lot of "I'm working on things that I either can't talk about or which have no noticeable affect to anyone other than me." It really sucks and I hate it, but what can I do?

I feel like I need more to round out this post, but I'm not sure what else to say here.


Ah, okay, here's a nice little rant I wrote this past weekend, perhaps you will find it enlightening and/or amusing.

This is a TERF: a person who simultaneously believes that men have an easier life than women, and yet "men who choose to dress and act like women" (to use their words) somehow gain privilege by doing so.

That argument isn't just wrong, it's wrong on multiple levels:

• If men are privileged, then a transwoman has lost that male privilege through transition to female. Conversely, if a transwoman gains privilege through transition, that must mean that female privilege must exist. As my friend George Strong put it, "it is straight up a logical fallacy to say that 'the most privileged class gains additional privilege by joining a less privileged class.' "
• It's a hell of a difficult thing to transition, with severe medical, financial, legal and social repercussions. No one does it lightly. 
• Femininity is not a limited resource which is somehow reduced the more women there are in the world. There's enough to go around for everyone. 
• If this is a "man's world", you'd think that having more women in it would make it easier for our voices to be heard. Women are not a brand to be diluted.

To make an analogy, your sex is the country where you were born but your gender is the country of your citizenship.

Most people are happy being citizens of the country of their birth, but some people want to immigrate to a place where they can be happier. That doesn't make naturalized citizens any less American than those who were born here; it just means they had different life experiences growing up, and that gives them a different perspective on the American condition.

Similarly, transwomen aren't any less women than those who were born female; it just means they had different life experiences growing up, and that gives them a different perspective on being a woman.

Saying that "only those born female can be women" is like saying "only those born in America can be American", which is a terribly limiting mindset.