In light of all the hubbub about Michelle Obama ‘touching’ Queen Elizabeth II— aghast!— i find particular relevance in this sentence from foucault about how the consequence for touching the sovereign is not what it used to be.

And this superiority is not simply that of right, but that of the physical strength of the sovereign beating down upon the body his adversary and mastering it: by breaking the law, the offender has touched the very person of the prince; and it is the prince— or at least those to whom he has delegated his force— who seizes upon the body of the condemned man and diplays it marked, beaten, broken.

most awesomest: 7 (mostly for topicality)