BO Xilai Said to Be Ruthless

choi

Michael Wines, In Rise And Fall Of Chinese Boss, A Ruthless Arc; Path of wrecked lives; at cusp of major power, Bo is taken down by own hard tactics. New york Times, May 7, 2012 (front page).
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/0 ... a-ruthless-arc.html

Note:
(a) object lesson (n): "something that serves as a practical example of a principle or abstract idea"
www.m-w.com
(b) The report says, "Mao’s forces quickly turned on them, and in early 1967 Bo Xilai was shipped to a Beijing labor camp for five years. Working barefoot, often in deep mud, his feet became so rotted that chunks of flesh fell off, he later told friends."

(i) rot (vt/vi; Middle English roten, from Old English rotian).

Its past tense and past participle are the same: rotted. In other words, "rotten" is not its past participle.
(ii) rotten (adj; Middle English roten, from Old Norse rotinn):
"having rotted : PUTRID"
(c) The report also states, "The elder Bo [Yibo], who died in 2007, continued to help Mr Jiang [Zemin] sideline rivals into his dotage.

(i) dotage (n): "a state or period of senile decay marked by decline of mental poise and alertness"
(ii) dote (vi; Middle English; akin to Middle Low German dotten to be foolish):
"to exhibit mental decline of or like that of old age : be in one's dotage"
(d) The "civic sculptures" appear to be sculptures.
http://www.studiolo.org/pix/sculpture-civic01.htm
(e) Regarding Madonna headset. You can search the term in images.google.com. So called because she reported pioneered it.
(f) The report further remarks, "Yet any expectation that exile and a consolation-prize seat on the Politburo would bank Mr. Bo’s ambitions proved misplaced."

bank (vt): "to raise a bank about [a river]"