Mayor Bloomberg, as you know, has no qualms about voicing his opinions, even if they concern issues outside the boundaries of NYC, like Arizona's lax gun laws, or Wisconsin's labor troubles. But according to an article in today's Times, Bloomberg is haunted by one thought: If a billionaire opines in the woods, but no one really cares what he thinks, will they still name shit after him once he dies? Bloomberg wants his opinions to resonate around the globe, and like any good mogul he's willing to pay for all those hearts and minds.

And so he is spending a measly $5 million on Bloomberg View, a fully-staffed and highly paid editorial department that will disseminate opinions across his vast media empire in an effort, as the Times put it in December, to broaden the company’s influence on national affairs. Some editors who have interviewed for the job have spoken off the record with the Times, and they say the mayor is offering starting salaries for top editors in the neighborhood of $500,000. And they'll be working out of an East 78th Street townhouse that was recently decorated with a giant whale sculpture called Mocha Dick and manuscripts by Herman Melville. On the floor above, monomaniacal old Captain Bloomberg is known to pace for hours, muttering about salt and that arrogant Obama.

All this is raising questions once again about whether the mayor is violating his agreement with the city to abstain from involvement in the “day-to-day operations” of his company. For instance, the Times has learned that Bloomberg played a very active role in Bloomberg L.P.’s purchase of BusinessWeek 18 months ago. And sources say that when consultants warned Bloomberg that the purchase could cost the company $25 million a year, the mayor replied, "Do I look like a guy worried about losing $25 million?" So critics be damned; the world cries out for Bloomberg's insight, and he's going to give it to them. There's just one embarrassing little problem: He says he still hasn't decided what to do about Afghanistan. Come on, Mike; millions of Afghans are desperate for more bike lanes and smoke-free bars!