The "Jewish Taliban"

Here's reason number eleventy billion and twelve why religious extremists must be opposed in all societies.

Writer Naomi Ragen and other women of Jerusalem go to court against Jewish fundamentalists who they say have harassed, taunted and even physically assaulted women on public buses. In ultraorthodox neighborhoods, some men try to force women to sit in the back of buses and make them abstain from wearing immodest clothing. Eric Westervelt reports.

The NPR site says a transcript will be up later today or tomorrow. It's a pretty shocking piece. Hardly what one would expect from "the only Democracy in the Middle East." But it kind of clears up why the right in the US was so quick to condemn Jimmy Carter. Israel has severe problems with human rights.

The enemy isn't just "terror," the enemy is blind, unthinking, irrational fundamentalism that seeks to abuse and subjugate women, whether the practitioners claim to be Muslim, Christian or Jewish.

One bright spot in the NPR piece: the writer, Ragan, is described as orginally from New York and a feminist. So just to engage in some "good" stereotyping, they picked on the wrong woman. Good on her.