Re: Proposal to encourage waiver of state immunity for infringement

On Thu, 13 Dec 2001, Kevin Grierson wrote:

> It'd be nice to see these bills go through, if only because the
> Supreme Court's decisions in Florida Prepaid have played merry hell
> with contract negotiations between some clients and state governments.

I'd just like to see it as a matter of fundamental fairness.

> BTW, Terry, I think the first occurrence of "There ain't no such thing
> as a free lunch" (or at least its abbreviation "TANSTAAFL") was a
> Robert Heinlein novel.

Heinlein probably came up with the TANSTAAFL acronym, but the phrase had been around well before. I've seen a cite to an 1940s editorial, which predated the Heinlein novel ("The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress," if I remember correctly), which purported to be a reprint of an even earlier editorial, and economist Milton Friedman used it a lot, as well (although I'm not sure where he'd fall on the timeline with Heinlein; but it was associated with him enough to be referred to as "Friedman's Reiteration.").

I just like Kozinski's use of it.

-- 
Terry Carroll        |  "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."
Santa Clara, CA      |   - Washington Legal Foundation v. Legal 
carroll[_at_]tjc.com      |     Foundation of Washington, no. 98-35154
Modell delendus est  |     (9th Cir. Nov. 14, 2001) (Kozinski, dissenting)