Tanstaafl. Sounds like a sneeze or something vaguely Russian. The meaning of the word is best shown in a story retold freely from the writing of Robert A. Heinlein, the inventor of the water bed and the coiner of the word. Seems a young man, newly hired as a traveling salesman, was passing through a new town about lunchtime. Stopping at a likely looking taproom, he enters to find a large sign stating: "FREE LUNCH WITH YOUR DRINK!"

This seems an inordinately good deal to the young man who immediately orders a beer and proceeds to the sideboard to stock his plate with a fine selection of food. He strikes up a conversation with one of the local patrons, orders a couple more beers and generally passes a genial hour at lunch. When he calls for the bill he is shocked to find his three beers have cost him $15.00. As he begins to express his outrage the local, who has seen it all before, patiently explains that someone has to pay for the food at the sideboard, and it sure isn't going to be the bar owner.

Tanstaafl. - There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

True in the bar in the story, true when "You May Have Already Won One Million Dollars", and true in life and society in general. Every receiver has a giver, every pro has a con, and every right has a duty. You only get what you pay for, and payment is not exclusively in cash, it can come in time, effort, dedication, love or liberty. And turning it about, you pay for what you get, or what you do. These thoughts were uppermost in my mind as I read about Tammy White, a pre-op Transsexual in jail for a robbery she committed to get the money to finance her sex change.

Tanstaafl. It applies here, as everywhere else in life. By her own admission, Ms. White was "living and working as a female." Working as a female. Perhaps her income was not sufficient to make her dream come true, or perhaps it was too long to wait to save up enough. I don't know what drove her to break the rules and try to make someone else pay for her wants, but she broke them and paid the price. A little forethought would have revealed that failure would result in a long time in an "all-male, all macho prison", but she did indeed decide to violate the law and ignore one of the bonds that keeps our society together, the right to keep what you have earned. Tanstaafl.

As a TV I can sympathize with Ms. White's needs, and with the pressures that drove her to commit robbery, but I am most thoroughly annoyed that she seems not to have learned anything from the experience. Granted gender dysphoria is a mental illness, even one recognized by the APA, but in our society we are only created equal; after that it is up to the individual to work - and pay for - achieving his or her desires to become unequal in a way that best suits them. And, most importantly, this is not to be done at the expense of those innocent others in the society. Instead of learning from her mistakes, Ms. White is demanding that the State finance the treatment, which she could not gain by herself, simply because she is in jail. I find it deplorable that Ms. White, after thumbing her nose at society, demands that they grant her desire to be a woman. Tanstaafl. She has only herself to blame, and I do not want to pay, through my taxes, for what she was unwilling to do for herself.

If she is mentally ill, as defined by the APA, then counseling should be made available during her incarceration just like any other inmate. But to change the entire prison system to accommodate her needs as a TS is unrealistic. The prison didn't invite her to live there, she committed a crime in full knowledge of the consequences, and now must pay for that decision. At the end of her term she can start where she left off and use her own skills, time, determination and money to fulfill her desires.

Tanstaafl, Ms. White. After telling the world by your actions that you don't care if you hurt anyone else to fulfill your desires, please don't expect the world to do it for you.