I get the feeling every now and then that academics and journalists place a low value on human life, thinking of it as no more precious than a commodity to be depleted and replenished as necessary.

That is certainly the impression I get this week from reading National Public Radio’s astonishingly gentle take on Aztecan human sacrifice. That is not hyperbole. The publicly funded newsgroup indeed published an article this week downplaying the Aztecs’ practice of mass human slaughter.