Rudy Giuliani used to call New York's Off-Track Betting operation the only bookie in the city that lost money. It still does. So much so that the board of directors is thinking about declaring bankruptcy.

"See and avoid" sounds like a reasonable approach if you're trying to avoid gopher holes during a walk in the garden. For aircraft in New York City, I think we could use something a little more foolproof.

The worst news from Albany is that things are exactly what they seem. With the obvious exception of a virtuous minority, the people who serve are there out of greed, and greed of the most depressingly base nature.

Strangely, for a man who has spent most of his adult life in the state Senate, where politics means everything and policy next to nothing, Gov. Paterson's biggest disasters have almost all been political.