As part of a series of events about our “Orwellian” society.

Chalk it up to some interesting cropping by the Washington Times photo staff, but a picture published today by the paper of Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich makes him look frighteningly like Big Brother from George Orwell’s classic, 1984. Kinda freaky, isn’t it?…

Webb Wins Virginia Primary: Jim Webb, a war hero who only recently became a Democrat, handily won Virginia’s Democratic primary yesterday, reports the Post. Webb, who campaigned on the anger around the war in Iraq, defeated well-funded opponent Harris Miller, making him the designated competitor to Senator George Allen in November’s election. Council Friends Spared Tickets: As George Orwell once wrote, “All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.” That…

If recent news serves as any indication, the District is becoming a little too camera-happy. The Examiner reports today that D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams is pondering placing surveillance cameras in parts of Adams Morgan, where crowds of drunken revelers have been known to start fights, get robbed, and otherwise act unruly. Council-member Jim Graham, whose ward includes the neighborhood, isn’t too keen on the idea, though: That’s too much George Orwell for me. You’d have…

Remember a few years back, when then Attorney General John Ashcroft introduced the TIPS program? You know, the nationwide law enforcement initiative technically known as the Terrorist Information and Prevention System, whose stated purpose was to recruit “American workers who, in the daily course of their work, are in a unique position to see potentially unusual or suspicious activity in public places.” Remember the willies some of us may have gotten at the prospects of…