Upon receiving the news that the British embassy in Tehran had been stormed, its windows smashed, and the Union Jack ignominiously burned and replaced with an Iranian counterpart, a question popped into my mind: What would Lord Palmerston do? ›› Read on National Review Online

Now that its various franchises have been emasculated and their light dimmed, Occupy Wall Street’s architects are trying to turn their attentions to a second act. Yesterday afternoon I wandered down to see Zuccotti Park, post-eviction, and found it radically changed. The revolution is gone. A handful of assorted placard-wavers were still present along the barriers at the front, reduced to a tenth of their original number, and inside the cordoned-off park, there were two small groups of hardy protesters huddled quietly beneath trees that have been decorated with golden Christmas lights, Hollywood-style. But where the demonstration once bustled, it is now a damp squib — far from a portrait of the dying hours of capitalism, the scene now resembles the first minutes of a cocktail party, when only a few of the guests have arrived and it is unclear how many more will follow… ›› Read on National Review Online

Whether or not the Occupy Wall Street movement has a legitimate or coherent purpose and to what extent its ongoing “occupation” of lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park represents a violation of the law have been discussed and debated since the first tent was pitched on September 17. But we might put these questions aside for a moment and hope to agree on one thing: that, regardless of one’s views about its message, the camp itself has become a disgrace. If this is utopia, then deliver us from it, for imperfection has a fresh and heady appeal… ›› Read on National Review Online