And Now For Something Completely Silly August 20, 2021August 25, 2021 But first . . . TWO VIEWS ON AFGHANISTAN Tom Friedman: What will matter is the morning after the morning after. Bret Stephens: We should never have left. Trump and Biden both were wrong. BOTH PARTIES ARE DYSFUNCTIONAL One has become a cult, favoring the virus over the vaccine, Putin over the CIA — but let’s not go there. Instead, consider spending 28 minutes with Chuck Todd interviewing Nick Troiano and Lee Drutman about the solution: Ranked-choice voting and open primaries. Imagine if in the primaries candidates had an incentive to appeal to the sensible center. AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY SILLY The quest to get a Paul Giamatti a statue in the wax museum. A pursuit as noteworthy for its uselessness as the world’s largest ball of twine (“There is more to the World’s Largest Ball of Twine than you will expect.”) . . . but for the 21st century. By the daughter of a friend of mine and two of her friends. Film festival material, for sure. (A shout-out, too. to the Cawker City, Kansas, woman who answered when I called to be sure the ball of twine is still on display. “Come on down!” she assured me. “It even tells you the weather.”) Have a great weekend.