Laurie Calhoun | The Libertarian Institute

The Deadliest Premise

by Laurie Calhoun | Jan 3, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

A new documentary film, Unknown: Killer Robots (2023), directed by Jesse Sweet and available on Netflix, addresses some of the perhaps surprising developments in artificial intelligence weaponry—above all, the specter of autonomous lethal aircraft systems programmed to kill on command and then permitted to act independently, with no human being “in the loop.” In some ways, this represents a dramatic turning point in the history of warfare, because up until now human beings have always “made the call” in commanding soldiers where, when, why, and whom to kill. The film offers a variety of...

Moral Equivalence in War (Both Sides are Wrong)

by Laurie Calhoun | Nov 21, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

It has become fashionable once again for regime apologists to denounce as “simpleminded,” even immoral, any assertion or intimation of moral equivalence between government killers and the factional fighters who undertake violent retaliation against them. Throughout the emotionally fraught dispute engendered by the events of October 7, 2023, and its aftermath, there has been a reigning confusion regarding what “moral equivalence” actually means. The classical concept of “invincible ignorance,” which derives from the “just war” tradition, is closely related to the question of moral equivalence...

Depleted Citizenry Democracy

by Laurie Calhoun | Nov 1, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

The Joe Biden administration recently managed to persuade politicians and a number of outspoken pundits to applaud the provision of cluster bombs to the Ukrainian government for use on Ukrainian soil. One war crime leads to another, so perhaps no one should be surprised that the U.S. government has now opted to ship depleted uranium-tipped missiles to Ukraine as well. The notion that the use of such weapons will help to defend democracy should jar the cognitive faculties of any person with a functioning cortex. Democracy is “rule by the people,” while unexploded ordnance, such as the...

E-book Giveaway: Act Now!

by Laurie Calhoun | Oct 27, 2023 | Blog

Enter the contest currently underway at Goodreads for a free copy of my new ebook, Questioning the COVID Company Line: Critical Thinking in Hysterical Times–it’s a page turner! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/188057590-questioning-the-covid-company-line

Revisiting The Bourne Legacy (Yet Again…): Lessons for Our World

by Laurie Calhoun | Oct 8, 2023 | Blog

I have now watched The Bourne Legacy at least six times. You should watch it, too. Here's my essay on the relevance of the fictional world depicted to the one in which we live: https://thedroneage.wordpress.com/2023/10/08/revisiting-the-bourne-legacy-lessons-for-our-world/ In conclusion: Abolish the Black Budget.

Stone Cold Dead Republic: When Everything is Cast as a War

by Laurie Calhoun | Sep 26, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Several politicians have vaunted a muscular but myopic plan for dealing with the fentanyl crisis: to eliminate sources of the drug near the U.S.-Mexico border through the use of military force. The fentanyl crisis is being portrayed as an international conflict, not a failure of domestic policy, but a problem entirely caused by the evil members of Mexican cartels who, it is being claimed, deserve to die, along with, apparently, anyone who happens to be at their side. But even assuming, against an abundance of evidence from history, that the deployment of military force would have any effect...

Who What Why Interview: Rethinking COVID-19 Narratives

by Laurie Calhoun | Sep 8, 2023 | Blog

In this 45-minute interview, Jeff Schechtman of Who What Why? and Laurie Calhoun discuss many aspects and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, including prospects for the future, drawing on observations and arguments made in Questioning the COVID Company Line: Critical Thinking in Hysterical Times. A complete transcript of the interview is provided. https://whowhatwhy.org/podcast/its-back-rethinking-covid-19-narratives-the-media-fauci-and-the-fear-factor/

TOP NEW RELEASE in Philosophy Criticism: Questioning the COVID Company Line!

by Laurie Calhoun | Aug 30, 2023 | Blog

Read Questioning the COVID Company Line: Critical Thinking in Hysterical Times to find out a bunch of stuff which you may not have known, including: "Listen to The Science!" embodies a logical fallacy. Vaccine technology depends upon the ability of the natural immune system to work. Professions of ignorance as to whether people who already recovered from the virus needed the shots revealed the true agenda of the spokespersons for companies which persuaded many governments to impose universal mandates. The WHO (World Health Organization) and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and...

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Questioning the COVID Company Line: Critical Thinking in Hysterical Times

We Kill Because We Can: From Soldiering to Assassination in the Drone Age

War and Delusion: A Critical Examination

You Can Leave: a novel

Theodicy: A Metaphilosophical Investigation

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Last Rights: The Death of American Liberty

by Jim Bovard

Americans today have “freedom” to be fleeced, groped, injected, harassed, surveilled, vilified, disarmed, beaten, detained, and maybe shot by federal agents. From hapless homeowners hit by SWAT raids to pandemic lockdowns pointlessly paralyzing lives, government...

The Fake China Threat and Its Very Real Danger

by Joseph Solis-Mullen

Today the front pages and bookstores are filled with tales of the so-called "China Threat." From spy balloons to Fentanyl pipelines, genocide to dreams of world domination: CHINA! But is it all true? Is any of it? Now, for the first time, the speciousness of these and...