Sounds to me that Egalitarianism is a much better measure of the decency of a country than Feminism.

You can kinda add all middle east oil products.

Tantalum capacitors are a significant component in many drilling tools. Israel has a monopoly on the production of tantalum caps. Not for any specific reason. It just ended up that way. Since most middle east nations boycott Israel they can't get replacement parts. On the 'plus' side most of those nations of completely hypocritical. So you just ship the parts to another nation (say Greece) and then reship the parts to the ME after remarking the country of origin. This is illegal in the US. So US based drilling companies have to ship everything to a non-Muslim nation. Do the repair work there. And then ship the parts back to the Muslim nation.

Just pointing out the hypocrisy that most of the boycott Israel is based on.

Yes, the list of what they would have to do without if they truly boycotted Israel/Israeli products is endless.

I'd add Israeli hospitals. Places like Hadassah Medical Center treat EVERYONE, regardless of who/what ethnicity/nationality, they are.

Hadassah Hospital will treat anyone who comes through their doors. Their staff isn't just Jewish. There are Jews, Muslims, Christians, along with folks who are politically left and politically right. There are only two things that matter; if you're staff, can you do the work to help patients; if you're a patient, what treatment do you need. That's it.

The same cannot be said of hospitals in most Islamic countries. Just how well, if at all, would a Jew be treated in an Arab hospital?

Just add "and women" after "men" in every regulation, law, requirement and it's done.

(Cue shrill voices) "But surely you don't mean that women have to ___________" like the men do?"

Answer: Yep. According to law you are now no different than a 125 lb. man that averages 5' 3". If it's required/allowed of him then it's required of the same size woman.

Same barracks. Same showers. Same tests (except the med stuff - do you have a penis? do you have breasts?). EQUAL.

Feminists are identified by their politics, not their sex or gender.

Begging to disagree, while there may be self-identified male feminists, they are few in number and have zero influence. The canon of feminist thought is a history of women writers, frequently lesbians, and sometimes even lesbian separatists.

Robert Stacy McCain, lately banished from Twitter because of his unorthodox opinions about feminism, is not an ideal source for documenting materials on this topic; he is too prone to take minor figures in the movement and elevate them beyond their real level of influence. Nonetheless, he makes some interesting points in his essay "#DearFeministMen Illustrates A Fundamental Problem":

...[I]s it even necessary to explain why “male feminist” is a category that makes no sense whatsoever? Even if a man were willing and able to explain feminist ideology, to apply it to contemporary social problems in columns and blog posts and books, any success he had in this endeavor would be fiercely resented by the women writers whose aspirations were thwarted by his success. If you understand feminism as a career field exclusively for women, you see why there is no market for the male feminist’s work. The college girls majoring in Women’s Studies, who attend lectures and book signings for feminist authors who visit their campuses, are there not just to absorb the Feminist Celebrity’s wisdom, but to gaze in admiration at a role model who represents their own aspirations. The male feminist is never going to be invited to give such lectures, nor are his books going to be included in the syllabus of assigned readings in Women’s Studies classes, not merely because he lacks the requisite personal perspective — “the authority of experience” — to speak of women’s grievances, but also because any success he enjoyed would be viewed (and perhaps rightly so) as having been subtracted from the fixed-pie/zero-sum-game quantity of success available to women authors. A male’s success as a Feminist Celebrity would actually be oppressive to women.

It's one of his most inspired tears. Later, he writes, "Insofar as feminists want male 'allies,' they want male allies who will shut their mouths and nod their heads in mute acquiescence while women get paid to proclaim to the world what wretched and despicable creatures men are." Sounds about right.

Egalitarianism? insufficient opportunities for graft and influence peddling.

"Israel has a monopoly on the production of tantalum caps. "

Wow. I did not realize that. You know what tantalum capacitors are used in? Avionics. The aerospace industry uses tantalums in place of electrolytic capacitors, because electrolytics are a fire and contamination hazard. There isn't a single piece of electronics in aerospace that doesn't have tantalum caps in it.

As an aside, I will point out here that the word "egalitarianism" seems to mean different things to different people. Amy is using the word in the sense that I've always understood it, meaning a system where opportunity is available to all. But some other writers (and I see this in a lot of conservative literature) use the word in the sense of the government enforcing equal outcomes. That seems to be a French usage, and maybe that's the sense in which they've seen the word used. It's not my understanding of the definition of that word. But you'll run across it. And now, whenever I see the word being used, I always have to read through the piece to figure out which sense of the word the author is using, lest I get confused.

Not that I have any interest in boycotting Israel, but I decided to see if anyone had done the research to find out what those who wish to boycott Israel would have to do without. Here's a list that someone put together. I have not checked it for accuracy.

charles, you're absolutely right about Israeli hospitals. This is conveniently ignored by those who demonize the Israelis.

And Patrick, I saw one of those lists a while back but thought it went a little far, which is why I didn't post it.

I belong to an atheist group online (although I'm not an atheist, but I am a supporter). And one of them did an interview with me which they posted on YouTube (which has since been taken down). During the interview, he asked me what I thought of Israel. I said that I consider Israel a model of restraint. If the U.S. had to put up with even 1/10th off the bullshit that Israel takes from its neighbors, there would be large smoking craters where Canada and Mexico used to be.

We use tantalum downhole because electrolytics don't work to temp. Tend to explode or leak. I only found out Israel had a defacto monopoly on tantalums when I needed to ship some parts to Saudi last year and ran into a red tape storm. Like most third world nations the Saudis are demanding a repair/rework shop staffed by their citizens if you want to drill there. I don't know if they have the same issue in aerospace.

OMG Someone is WRONG on the internet! This is a job for... Captain SPERG!

Tantalum capacitors are electrolyic capactitors, just with a tantalum rather than an aluminum anode.

Now I can sleep easy.

Fine phunctor. We don't use aluminum capacitors.

Of course that all depends on what the meaning of 'is' is.

"Tantalum capacitors are electrolyic capactitors, just with a tantalum rather than an aluminum anode. "

Erm, not quite. Most tantalums today are "dry" types that don't use a liquid electrolyte. That's one of their major advantages -- they can't leak and they won't off-gas.

1. Tantalum capacitors are a type electrolytic capacitor they may have a solid electrolyte.
2. Israel does not have a monopoly in the production of tantalum capacitors in fact I am not sure if they are made in Israel at all. I checked two of the largest manufacturers (AVX and Kemet) and neither makes any in Israel. A search on google for tantalum capacitor Israel only shows up a scrap capacitor recycling plant which recovers the tantalum.
3. I design systems including capcitors and my perspective is that the use of electrolytics generally and especially tantalums has declined massively due to the massive improvements in ceramic capacitor technology. I would prefer a ceramic cap to a tantalum one for reliability, and performance reasons unless there was no choice. If you want a cheap low frequency capacitor you would use an aluminium electrolytic. Tantalums are no longer essential in designs.