Re: Re: First
WHY I FIND BADNARIK IMPORTANT
I research crank legal claims and politics as a hobby. Badnarik is a good source of both. In fact he is sort of a living ideological fossil record in that he connects the body of conspiracy theory known as "Common Law Theory" to the modern LP. This was a non-racist offshoot of the "Posse Comitatus" ideology.
Common to this is distrust of all but local authority, which dovetails nicely with libertarianism for the most part. Where this ideology gets weird is its "hidden history" component, the running but vague obsession that "the true history of the United States--and thus the true laws, the true obligations of citizens, the true government--had been hidden from the American citizen by a massive, long-lasting conspiracy."
http://www.militia-watchdog.org/common.asp
Often, proponents label the legal aspect of this ideology as being "common law," an interesting tactic as there is of course such a thing as common law.
The term "common law" is itself common, but most people do not know exactly what it means. Its meaning, though, is pretty simple: it refers to unwritten, judge-made law (as opposed to written, or statutory, law).
...
Posse ideology, however, places a far different meaning and reliance on common law. Though there are many different strains and theories of Posse common law, a common thread that runs through most of them is that the common law is a separate, parallel legal/judicial system, one independent from and not subordinate to statutory or written law.
(Same site as above)
While Badnarik is not a full blown theorist of this stripe, the influence of this ideology on his thinking is quite obvious. One example is that he believes that the income tax has no legal basis and has been enforced by little more than conspiracy.
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A quote from Gene Chapman, who was once listed as a Badnarik adviser. May still be for that matter:
At the age of 5, my mother signed me up for a Social Security card. My understanding is that this was the act that unbeknownst to her sold me into slavery to the Untied States Government. The Declaration of Independence asserts that my right to liberty is something that cannot be given away, especially by another. It is "unalienable." And so I am a free Christian in America who cannot be a slave under any circumstances. My only question is, "Will I be forced to die for the freedom God has bestowed upon me before the Government comes to its senses?"
"Being listed in the system" is often as aspect of Posse style "common law" theory in that some posit that this makes one collateral on a federal reserve loan and thus the property of the Government. I ran across this sort of thinking in context of someone insisting that if you ever put your name in capitial letters on a legal document that this is creating a "legal fiction" of yourself ...
Legally, you are considered a slave or indentured servant to the various Federal, State and local governments via your STATE issued and created Birth Certificate in the name of your full caps person. The reason this Birth Certificate was issued is so that -exclusively - they hold the title of birth to your legal person. This is compounded further when one voluntarily obtains a driver's license or a Social Security Identification number. They own even your personal and private life through your STATE issued marriage certificate issued in the names of legal persons. You have no Rights in birth, marriage, or even death. They hold the sovereign right to all legal fiction titles they have created.
This means that the bankrupt corporate U.S. can guarantee to the purchasers of their securities the lifetime labor and tax revenues of all Americans as collateral for payment. They simply do this by converting the lawful name into a legal person. Cujusque rei potissima pars principium est-- The principal part of everything is in the beginning.
I discussed this in this
thread
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Back to Badnarik himself, his book titled
It's Good to Be King.
Page 21: Common law marriages are valid in all 50 states...
because common law is the highest law jurisdiction in America.
(emphesis mine)
Page 67: It is proposed that there are distinct courts of common law and statute law jurisdiction.
Page 99: ‘I interpret that to mean that anyone with an ‘Esquire’ after their name, such as lawyers and attorneys, are forbidden from holding public office.’
(This is a seeming reference to the "missing 13th amendment" which would forbit those with titles of nobility from holding public office. This was never ratified nor was it intended to apply to lawyers. However, there is a body of conspiracy theory that claims it was ratified and also it was to ban lawyers from office.)
To be clear, Badnarik is not a full blown proponent as far as I can tell, but he does show quite a bit of influence from that direction.
It has been a running hypothesis of mine that the Libertarian Party line is moving towards a combination of libertarian principles and the remnants of Posse style common law theory. Badnarik seems an important data point as to this.
Which also explains why while I'm usually sympathetic to libertarianism I have little more than scorn for the Libertarian Party. This kind of Posse style "common law is a seperate jurisdiction" garbage is on par with homeopathy.
