Some lawmakers are more equal than others

British writer George Orwell, whose real name Eric Blair makes him certainly the more peaceful of the recent famous UK citizens carrying that name, has won new readers in the past few months for his novel "1984".

We, on the other hand, decided to take a quote from his work "Animal Farm" and modify it as a tribute to lawmakers. In the U.S. newly elected congress people are commonly called freshmen, a term that includes females in spite of the politically correct parlance we all strive for.

On the positive side, the freshmen image implies curiosity and an abundance of energy, on the negative side, lack of experience and the need for guidance.  We refrain from using other imagery from institutionalized learning and skip to the lessons learned.

The one learning point we want to discuss in a couple of paragraphs is embodied in the title of the post. Nowhere has this become more obvious than in the various "Intelligence committees" which supposedly exercise parliamentary oversight over what is quaintly called the intelligence community.

In the name of national security, the members of these oversight bodies on all four sides of the Atlantic (four, yes, two are secret, so shut up) are neither allowed to talk to their employer (the people) nor to their peers (capital p or no). 

You don't become a member of parliament anywhere without a modicum of ambition, so it may be upsetting to find yourself locked out from this area of politics - the one area so secret that it must be truly vital.

So, from the K-Landnews to the excluded lawmakers: we feel for you. Now, imagine how bad it must be for us?

Animal Farm has more to offer to the curious, indiscriminately spied-upon citizenry.

The K-Landnews team particularly enjoys the fact that the pigs slowly take control of the farm.

Would you, dear readers, agree that the following quote from a Review of Animal Farm  by amaya ellman is fitting on more than one level?

From slow beginnings, where, as a reader, you feel quite safe – even underwhelmed by the prose and plot – you begin to realise the information you are being fed is not the truth at all, but a terrifying, twisted lie. Innovative Snowball, a pig who wants to improve the farm in inventive ways and bring good things to all the animals, is quickly driven out.