New Leader, New Story

A Pentagon study of Guantanamo Bay ordered by President Obama shortly after taking office has been completed and will soon be delivered to him, and whaddya know? The conclusion of the study is that Gitmo meets Geneva Convention standards for humane treatment of prisoners.

Looks like the chocolate ration just got changed, folks.

"'Comrades!' cried an eager youthful voice. 'Attention, comrades! We have glorious news for you. . . . All over Oceania this morning there were irrepressible spontaneous demonstrations when workers marched out of factories and offices and paraded through the streets with banners voicing their gratitude to Big Brother for the new, happy life which his wise leadership has bestowed upon us. . . .'

"The phrase 'our new, happy life' . . . had been a favourite of late with the Ministry of Plenty. . . . [Winston] shut his ears to the remoter noises and was listening to the stuff that streamed out of the telescreen. It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it. Parsons swallowed it easily, with the stupidity of an animal. The eyeless creature at the other table swallowed it fanatically, passionately, with a furious desire to track down, denounce, and vaporize anyone who should suggest that last week the ration had been thirty grammes. Syme, too--in some more complex way, involving doublethink, Syme swallowed it. Was he [Winston], then, alone in the possession of a memory?"

From George Orwell, 1984, Part 1, Chapter 5