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President Obama, according to many Republican politicians and media personalities, is not only the most liberal President in American history, he is a mortal threat to the American way of life. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich recently described Obama as “the most radical President in American history,” and right-wing entrepreneur Dinesh D’Souza describes him as “the most anti-business President in a generation, perhaps in American history.” Over the course of his administration, the President has been alternately accused of being a Socialist, a secret Muslim, an atheist, a foreigner – and now a Kenyan anti-colonialist. Oddly enough, Obama has largely maintained his composure in the face of this orgy of defamation. —“The Myth of Obama’s Radicalism,” Roger Hodge, New York Daily News

Most Americans are fed up with the overheated hectoring of the political class. Glenn Beck’s posturing deserves to be challenged. And, sure, it’s possible to find examples of excess on both ends of the political spectrum. I’ve written against the “End of America” or “descent into fascism” thesis presented by folks like Naomi Wolf, and I strongly oppose 9/11 conspiracy theorists (although they are as likely to be right-leaning libertarians as leftists). Moreover, I didn’t like it when lefties carried signs comparing Dick Cheney or George W. Bush to Hitler; I think it reflected a lazy and unhelpful analysis. (On a side note, I’m currently in a debate at Dissent in which my interlocutors have invoked Hitler, Franco, and Mussolini in describing elements of the Latin American Left. I don’t think it has been particularly helpful in that instance either!) —“Jon Stewart’s False ‘Moderation’,” Mark Engler, Dissent

In the United States, placentas are typically treated as medical waste. Some hospitals hold them for a couple of days, but most throw them out immediately, which struck me as a reasonable thing to do with a used sack of blood. Then I began to read about people around the world who believe these organs contain powerful, protective, and sometimes dangerous spirits. That we throw such organs in the garbage along with hypodermic needles, cheek swabs, and tongue depressors was starting to seem sad and lame. After all, placentas have been eaten; buried; burned; marched in parades; sung to; dressed in clothing; entombed in pyramids (of their own!); floated down rivers; stolen; sold; used to curse, bless, cure, and beautify; been talked to; not talked in front of; taken on trips; given gifts of pens and needles; taken to school; fed; stabbed; used to make art prints; turned into teddy bears; tied to the heads of children; and probably a host of other things too strange or mundane to record. —“The Afterlife of Afterbirth: Notes on eating human placenta,” Cynthia Mitchell, Meatpaper