Golfing for Katrina

Shortly before the end of last year, Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens engineered a hole-in-one by giving $165 million to a charity designed to benefit the golf program at Oklahoma State University. By giving the money before 2005 expired, Pickens was able to take advantage of a provision in Hurricane Katrina relief legislation that allowed him a

deduction for a charitable gift equal to 100 percent of his adjusted gross income, double the normal limit of 50 percent.

Within hours, the money was wired to BP Capital Management, a hedge fund managed by Pickens himself.

The $165 million was a wicked slice that bounced off the collective foreheads of Katrina victims, straight into Pickens' own tin cup.

Perhaps he should change his name to Tee Boone Pickens.