Nothing new under the sun

I've been advised, or reminded, that Randy "Duke" Cunningham's property trick -- receiving a pay-off from a contractor by way of selling a house at a wildly inflated price -- is not new. Art Agnos, at one time the mayor of San Francisco, was accused of it. Various mafiosi have relied on similar gimmicks. One could even argue that the "land flips" prevalent during the grand era of Savings and Loan chicanery amounted to a variation on this theme.

Criminality is like sex. There are only so many ways to pilfer, just as there are only so many apertures to boff. The trick is to make the act seem new.