George and the dragons

[emad]

George and the dragons

The last thing I expected at a gathering of rich and powerful Americans was an orgy of Bush-bashing

Robert Novak
Wednesday September 28, 2005
The Guardian


For two full days President Bush was bashed. He was taken to task on his handling of stem-cell research, population control, the Iraq war and, especially, Hurricane Katrina. The critics were no leftwing bloggers. They were rich, mainly Republican and presumably Bush voters in the last two presidential elections.

The Bush-bashing occurred at the annual Little Aspen Weekend, a conference sponsored by the New York investment firm Forstmann Little & Co. The weekend is made possible by the generosity of Theodore J Forstmann, a supporter of supply-side economics and contributor to the Republican party. Guests are drawn from government, diplomacy, politics, the arts, entertainment and journalism.


More than 200 guests, mostly prestigious, arrived at the Colorado mountain resort last Thursday (many by private aircraft) and stayed until Sunday for more than golf, hikes and gourmet meals. They faithfully attended discussions, presided over by Charlie Rose of the Public Broadcasting Service, on such serious subjects as "Global poverty and human rights" and "The 'new' world economy". The connecting link was hostility to Bush.

"All discussions are off the record," admonished the conference's printed schedule. Consequently, I will refrain from quoting panellists and audience members. But the admonition says nothing about personal conversations outside the sessions. Nor do I feel inhibited in quoting myself. Even if I am violating the spirit of secrecy, revealing criticism of Bush by this elite group - and the paucity of defence for him - is valuable in reflecting the president's parlous political condition.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1579679,00.html

[efhmc]

1. Interesting but surely they did not misspell "perilous"?

"...is valuable in reflecting the president's parlous political condition." but maybe it does have something to do with his unparlor-like behavior.

[The Icon Painter]

2. Not Wrong

This is not a misspelling. The author is using a more interesting and provocative word. 'Parlous' is often used in this context.

par·lous (pär'ləs)
adj.

Perilous; dangerous: “starting from scratch in parlous economic times” (Madalynne Reuter).

Obsolete. Dangerously cunning.

[efhmc]

3. Thank you for making this clear to me. Should have known the

British would not have done this incorrectly. New word for my vocabulary.