Belshazzar's Feast

From the King James version of the Book of Daniel:

--Then was Daniel brought in; and he said, I will read the writing unto the king.
--And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
--This is the interpretation of the thing:

MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
TEKEL; Thou are weighed in the balance, and art found wanting.
PERES; Thy kingdom is divided...

Or you can just read the Sankei Shimbun version:

復党反対６７％　内閣支持率は５０％下回る　ＦＮＮ世論調査

　産経新聞社はＦＮＮ（フジニュースネットワーク）と合同で１１月３０、１２月１の両日、「政治に関する世論調査」を実施した。郵政民営化に反対して、自民党を離党した「造反組」議員１１人の復党について「反対」と回答した人が６７．２％に達し、賛成の１７．３％を大きく上回った。世論の厳しい反応を裏付けた結果で、安倍内閣発足直後の９月に実施した前回調査で６３．９％だった内閣支持率は、４７．７％と１６．２ポイント低下した。

Cabinet support falling from 63.9% to 47.7%--down 16.2 points.

In a single polling cycle.

Bite me.

Abe and his Cabinet managed to engineer a fall of this magnitude without a single indecorous firing of a brassy, out-of-control lady minister.

T'is furthermore a great day for statisticians everywhere when Asahi Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun-like results are replicated by a conservative newspaper under controlled conditions.

With the Nikkei clocking in with lower figures last week, the outlier is now the most recent Yomiuri poll.

Fancy that.

And how about that 67.2% disapproval rating for the reabsorption of the expelled?

It seems that the people (Damn them! Ingrates! Who cares about their opinions anyway?) want their votes in the last House of Representatives election to mean something.

Which opens an avenue for one more sarcastic quote, possibly apt, this time from Bertholt Brecht:

... the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

Many thanks to Joshua Micah Marshall (Prince of all political blogging. Long may reign!) for the quotation.