In the News:

So our buddy, Bush, has seen his approval ratings plummet to a new all time low of 39 percent. The big question is why would almost two out of five people approve of anything this man does? However, I defy anyone to explain "presidential approval ratings" to me. Bushy scored a record high 90 percent approval following the administrations failure to recognize the threat that led to the 9/11 attacks.

Can you imagine, these folks were too busy plotting out how to drag American youth (NOT their own children, thank you) into a war with Iraq to pay attention to clear warnings that terrorists were plotting to fly planes into buildings, and then when he shows up with egg on his face, the American public approves at the rate out of nine out of every ten questioned.

The argument, of course, is that folks were rallying around the flag, which makes about as much sense as thinking that professional wrestling is "real."

In Technology:

Bill Gates is touring college campuses, attempting to recruit young people into the code writing business. In case you haven't followed this profession, code writing is a dying business for most organizations, who have found it much cheaper to buy off the wrack rather than to hire groups of code writers to create propietary programs. David DeJean, of Destop Pipeline, has a good article on the subject in today's Desktop Pipeline Newsletter.

It seems all of those geeky little kids who found an escape from working at the local video or game store while earning more bucks than they'd ever dreamed are now asking the question: "With the creative work of developing applications removed from the IT job equation, what's left?" Or at least that's what David DeJean is now asking.

In Sports:

Albert Pujoles hit a monster home run to lead the St. Louis Cardinals over the Houston Astros last night, in the top of the ninth with two outs and two on.

But the real hero of the game was little David Eckstein, who with two strikes and two outs got the hit that rattled the Astros' pitcher, allowing next batter to come to the plate and take a walk and then Pujoles to come to bat and do what he is paid for.

Pujoles did come through in a big way for the Cards, but it was interesting to hear the Fox Sports pundits talk over the one guy in the booth who wanted to credit little Eckstein with the job he'd done. No one wants to see a little scrappy guy become the hero. The pundits have made Pujoles their hero, and nothing will shake them. He's the media's darling. He's physically bigger than most of us, so it's much easier to accept him as someone who can do the outsized thing. Eckstein is littler than the average man. If we accept him as a hero, we have to ask ourselves why we couldn't do something of that magnitude.

Pujoles himself gave Eckstein plenty of credit.