The Sacred Person of the Emperor

Reading stuff like this makes me think the inevitable bankruptcy of the Empire can't come soon enough:

The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on Dec. 3 to investigate how an uninvited couple slipped past security at last week’s state dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Among those requested to testify are the couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi of Virginia, and U.S. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, according to a press release from the panel.

“This is a time for answers, recognition of security deficiencies past and present, and remedies to ensure the strength of the Secret Service and the safety of those under its protection,” said Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who is chairman of the committee, in a statement.

The Secret Service is investigating the breach, which Sullivan said “deeply concerned and embarrassed” the agency. Agents failed to follow procedures that should have prevented the man and woman from crashing the event, he said.

Obviously, no one has any sense of the ridiculous any more. Whatever. Here's an idea for guaranteeing the perfect personal security of the Exalted, the Son of Heaven: let's establish a mobile, spherical security bubble, fifteen kilometers in radius, centered on The Presence. That bubble would then be declared a no-fly, no-drive, no-sail, no-walk, no-run, no-bike, no-dance, no-skip-rope, no-breathe zone for anyone except the Exalted's family, and the Exalted's praetorian guard and servant staff (who have implanted Electronic Loyalty chips which do not permit them even to think about harming Himself). The rest of us can stay outside, pay taxes, join the army, and speak only when spoken to.