Yesterday, I offered Moxie, the free (or 99-cent deluxe) iPhone app that has me strategizing where to put the Q and – hint alert – always to put the first E at the end, preceded by the first S, to set myself up for GOOSE, MOOSE, LOUSE and MOUSE (when I’m playing with the Animal words) for 1,200 bonus points.  My highest score so far has gotten me to 29th in the world ” but only among those playing in the preceding 24 hours.  I’m not even close to the 250 Moxiest of all time.  But one thing for sure: I’ll never again be bored standing in line.

Today, another free app – and a very pricey one.

GOOGLE MOBILE

Until a couple of days ago, if I needed to settle a bet at dinner, I’d reach for my iPhone, go to the Safari web browser, pull up Google, and type in what I needed.  Worked reasonably well.

Now, having downloaded the free Google Mobile app, here’s what I do.  I touch the Google icon on my phone, touch the microphone, say “Charles Nolan – and three or four seconds later get this.

(It worked equally well for “Charles de Gaulle.”)

A . . . MAY! . . . ZING!!!

Yes, we’re in a terrible recession, and yes there’s lots to be worried about.  But for those of us fortunate enough to eke by in, say, the top two-thirds economically, who can (stretching) afford an iPhone and free apps like this, it is still an awesome time to be alive.

NAVIGON

This one is $60 (on sale from $80 until January 11) plus another $25 if you want real-time traffic alerts, and that’s by far the most expensive “app” I’ve encountered.  But what it is is your very own talking GPS – like the Hertz “NeverLost” lady.  (I’ll save $12.99 a day, plus tax, right there.)  It syncs with your iPhone contact file, which syncs with your Outlook address list, so if your destination is in your phone, you don't even have to enter it the way you would with Hertz; just touch the screen a couple of times.  Check it out.

DICTATORSHIP

George Hamlett:  “You wrote [of the health care sausage-making]: ‘It almost makes you yearn for a dictatorship.’  Maybe you should read more Mencken.  He was a shrewd (and cynical) observer of the political animal.”

☞  George provided these quotes:

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know that they want and deserve to get it good and hard.

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

Democracy is also a form of worship.  It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

☞  Cynical indeed!  Preposterously so.  But fun to quote.*

* “A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.” – H.L. Mencken

INSANITY

She aspired to be a heartbeat away from the most important human on the planet – and may now aspire to be that human – not, presumably, out of ego or power-lust, but because she honestly thinks she is (all things considered) better qualified than anyone else to lead the world at this pivotal time in human history.  (Or maybe just because it’s kinda fun, like ice fishin’.) 

That’s my take. 

Here, a month and some after Going Rogue hit the stands (but she hasn’t gone away, so it’s still timely), is conservative columnist Andrew Sullivan’s.