Today I'm going to talk about Dilbert and Al Haig. Not obvious bedfellows, I admit, but bear with me.

In one of those Ronald Reagan retrospectives that filled our TV screens last week, I saw the infamous clip of a heavily perspiring Al Haig, then Secretary of State, announcing to a press conference, shortly after Ronald Reagan was shot, "I'm in charge here."

The next day, I laughed out loud at a Dilbert cartoon. The boss admonishes Dilbert for failing to win a bid. Dilbert points out that the boss never submitted the bid: "You got seduced by Irish line-dancing lessons and forgot to mail it!" The boss, utterly unfazed, replies, "I can't believe you're trying to pin the blame on the Irish."

Poor, long-suffering Dilbert, having to put up with such a chumpish boss, one whose only genius involves shucking off responsibility.

But should we really feel sorry for Dilbert? Who's the real chump here?

Dilbert has a choice:  to take charge of his own career or to suffer the consequences of not doing so. He chooses the latter. The<