Normally xkcd is just a very funny, geeky web comic. In some ways it fills the holes left by The Far Side and PLIF. His most recent text post is worth reading for reasons having nothing to do with humor.

Parties are probably gonna look like they’re helping with one popular issue or another, so you’re gonna want to support them, but I bet the guys in charge of them will just turn out to be power-hungry assholes who want to run everything.

I’d read Washington’s Farewell Address before, but it’s hard to get a sense of the scope. Individual paragraphs make sense, but the rhythm of political dialogue has shifted somewhat.