Michael Badnarik - Constitution Class part 1
From Truth Transcripts
from http://www.archive.org/details/Michael_Badnarik
0:00 alright, if you'll basically close your book and look at the front cover, you'll notice the label says this is an introduction to the Constitution. 4th of July we celebrated the 225-year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. back in 1983 I started studying the IRS in particular and the US Constitution in general. so I've been studying the Constitution for about 18 years. now I've tried to condense that 225 years of history and that 18 years of study into an 8-hour class. this is going to be incredibly superficial. I'm going to open up all sorts of cans of worms. and at the end I anticipate that you will have far more questions than you do right now. so I'm going to be covering the material relatively quickly, it's supposed to get you started and give you a good foundation. now I know that this particular group is a little bit more familiar with the way things really are, and I'm definitely willing to handle any of your questions toward the end of the class. I started out with a 48-page handout, and there was too much information to cover in 8 hours. and so I added information, we're now up to 66 pages if that makes sense to anybody. so we're going to go through this relatively quickly but this is only an introduction, but it's an important foundation, even those of you that are talking about really important issues, maybe a little more sophisticated issues, it's always good to go back and reestablish what your foundation is, and that it makes your high-level arguments just that much more secure.
2:04 now, before I even started the class, I've had several people point out to me that the flag is upside down. I am a lot of things, dyslexic is not one of them. anybody have any idea why the flag is upside down? it is a distress signal, and a sign of emergency. I have the flag upside down deliberately, because from my point of view, the US is definitely in dire trouble. and the trouble stems from the fact that people living here in the US have no idea what type of government they have. they don't know the difference between a democracy and a republic, they don't know what their rights are, and they are incapable of controlling Congress and keeping it within the Constitutional box that they're supposed to be in. so the flag is upside down because I'm very very concerned.
3:13 now, in the back of the book I have all sorts of little handouts, we will talk about those eventually. you're welcome to look at them, those are all yours, we just did a quid pro quo exchange, you can do anything you want with them. but when we go through them, mine are in the same order as yours are. so if you don't want to be fumbling around looking for the new ones you can kind of keep yours in the same order. now inside the front cover you should have a copy of the Constitution. many of you already have copies but it would be totally inappropriate to teach a class on the Constitution without actually giving you a copy. one of the things that surprises most people is that it's so small. I mean there's really not a lot here. and the purpose of the Constitution is to set up a form of government. basically to establish the principles that are involved, not what the law actually says. so you could sit down and read the Constitution cover to cover in about 15 or 20 minutes. we're going to try to spend about 8 hours understanding it.
4:28 now, most of the page numbers that I referenced will be in the handout. this is the, if you'll notice at the bottom of all the pages I have session 9, ICP 21 is my abbreviation for Introduction to the Constitution for Patriots of the 21st Century. and then it's session 9, I've taught 8 of these classes before. now that you've paid for this class, you can attend any of my future classes for free. there's a lot of information here and some of it goes into one ear and out the other. so if you want to attend one of my future classes you've already paid for it, just show up. I mean it would be nice to let me know you're coming, but you're not going to have to pay for it again, just show up. alright. if you call me with questions on the phone, my first question to you is, which session are you looking at? I keep a copy of all of these documents because I keep adding information to it. and the page numbers change. so if you're asking me questions, I want to know which session you're on, so that I can get my copy and we can literally be on the same page, if I say go look at page 22, that's where your answer is. I want your page 22 to be the same page 22, alright. so I print copies for each session that I teach, and it has your date there as well.
6:02 now, if you'll go to page 2, I have a tentative schedule. this is the schedule that I'm going to try to keep on. now if you have questions please raise your hand. frequently I will say well, we're about to cover that, and I'll just put you off. I will answer questions however briefly, if I answer all your questions during the day we're never going to get finished by 6. so my goal is to try to get finished as close to 6:00 as possible, and then once we're formally finished, anybody that has prior commitments can leave. I promise to stay and answer questions as long as there are people here to ask. so just try to save those questions until the end. whenever we reference the Constitution, I will hold up the book so you know which page numbers we're talking about.
7:07 now, let's turn to page 3, and get started. I have a few quotes, which hopefully explain why I'm here, why I've driven all the way from Austin to be here today. the first quote is from Doctor Benjamin Rush. you've probably never heard of him, but Mr. Rush says "Education is favorable to liberty. Freedom can only exist in a society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can neither be equal nor universal." so you have to know your rights before you can protect them. and he said that in 1786. another person that you have heard of I'm sure is Daniel Webster. and Daniel says, "I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe; our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter: from the inattention of the people toward the concerns of their government. from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess to I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing. make them intelligent, and they will be vigilant; give them the means of detecting the wrong, and they will apply the remedy." so my purpose here is to try to make you intelligent. I'm not going to tell you what to do, or which Congressman to write to, I'm just going to take the Constitution and show you what the Constitution says. I'll ask you to read it for yourself. and then we will draw our own conclusions about what Congress can and cannot do. and then when you sit there somewhat shocked and stunned, then you can decide how to fix the problem.
9:33 now, many of you have never met me. some of you have seen me give a short presentation before, let me tell you up front that I am an iconoclast. now an iconoclast is defined as a "breaker or destroyer of images; one who attacks cherished beliefs and traditional institutions as being based on error or superstition." unfortunately, most of what you think you know about the US is wrong. how many people here know that the Declaration of Independence was signed on the 4th of July, 1776? everybody who raised their hand is wrong. the Declaration of Independence was authorized by the committee on the 4th of July. they took it out and had 28 copies made, and eventually it was signed by August 2. and you can come up and read the document here that gives that information. a small piece of trivia, perhaps it doesn't mean anything; but having the Declaration of Independence signed on the 4th of July is something we've all just taken for knowledge, for truth. and it's not. and again, most of what we've been taught about the US, we've been misled or just misinformed.
11:03 now, the very first topic is the difference between rights and privileges. this topic is fundamental to everything else that we're going to learn. that's why I put it first. everybody's shown up this morning, the probability that you're going to fall asleep on me in the first 30 minutes is less than the probability that you'll be dozing at the end. so if you're going to stay awake for any information, stay awake for this. if you don't understand this, the rest of the class is basically hot air. a right is defined as a power, privilege, faculty, or demand, inherent in one person and incident upon another. generally defined as "powers of free action; something that you have the sovereign authority to do, because their is no higher authority to get permission from". there's nobody to ask. you've heard the expression "the buck stops here", that means you're it. you make the final decision. that's what sovereignty is all about. you are endowed by your Creator with certain unalienable rights. you don't have to ask. now this is the exact opposite of a privilege. a privilege is defined as "a particular and peculiar benefit or advantage enjoyed by a person, company, or class, beyond the common advantages of other citizens; a particular right, advantage, exemption, power, franchise, or immunity held by a person or class not generally possessed by others; a temporary authority granted to you by someone of a higher authority".
13:12 let me give you an example: if I walk out of the back door of my house, and I walk out onto my land, I can walk back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, across my land all day long. do I have to ask anybody for permission? no. it is my land, I own the property, and because I own the property I have a right to do anything I want with that property. and if I want to walk back and forth across it I will. now, let us presuppose that you have the property or the land right next door. let us further presuppose that I want to walk to the store which is just across your land. can I walk back and forth, back and forth across your land any time I want? no. I have to get permission. it is a privilege for me to walk across your land. why? because I don't own your land, you own your land. you have complete and total authority to do whatever you want with your land. Monday Tuesday and Wednesday you may decide to let me walk across your land - we're next door neighbors, we're buddies, we go out socializing together, so there's no reason I shouldn't walk across your land - "yes you may". on Thursday, you may wake up on the wrong side of the bed - you may have a fight with your significant other, you may just be in a bad mood, you don't have to have a good reason, you just have to have a reason. and you can say "no, you may not walk across my land, you have to walk around". so walking across your land is a privilege, granted to me by someone of higher authority, the owner of the property, you. that privilege can be revoked at any time. yes you may, no you may not, yes you may, no you may not. and I have no control over that. one of the fundamental problems in the united States is that the government has convinced us that we have certain privileges granted to us by the government. excuse me? I have rights, endowed to me by my Creator. where does the government get power? we the People grant the government privileges. the power comes from us and goes to government, not the other way around.
15:56 now, there are some important sublayer concepts with rights. one of which is that rights are derived from property. in my example, I can walk back and forth across my property because it's my property. I can do anything I want if I own it. so any time you get into a dispute as to who's got the right to do this that or the other thing, the real question that should be asked is "who owns the property?" if you can identify the owner of the property, the question answers itself. the owner of the property can do whatever they want. now we frequently hear the phrase "Constitutional rights". I hate that phrase. stop using that phrase. do not say "Constitutional rights". the reason that I hate that phrase is because "Constitutional rights" sounds like the Constitution grants us rights. if you are granted something, is it a right or a privilege? it's a privilege. it is impossible to grant someone a right. it's a contradiction in terms, it's like a round square. it's the opposite. like jumbo shrimp, you just cannot have a right which is granted. now, there is a second concept that, well, let me continue on with property.
17:46 you have a right to life. where does that right to life come from? well, property. who owns your body? I hope it's you. what are you if someone else owns your body? you're a slave. so basically if you are not a slave then you own your own body. can you do whatever you want with your body? yes! now is smoking good for you? no, but if you want to put a cigarette in your mouth and smoke it, it's your body, do what you want. it's not up to me to tell you what to do with your property, I mean I don't recommend it, but you're the property owner. now, John Adams said "The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence." The law of property is the most important law. Period. Even a two-year-old understands property. "Mine. Mine. That's mine." They don't understand it well, but they do understand that owning property is important. And as we get older, somehow we lose sight of that fact. We need to be just a little bit more like a two-year-old and go "That's mine." And we have to be willing to defend that property. If somebody jumps into your car and starts driving away, what do you do, say "Oh gosh, I better call the insurance company"? Or do you chase after them and try to get your car back? It's your property.
19:53 now, most of you do not own half the things you think that you own. there is a concept known as "allodial title". allodial title means that you own it, the way that we think of when we say that you own something. allodial title is generally referred to when we talk about land. if you own the land, in allodial title, then you genuinely own the land. how many people went to a real estate agent when they bought their house? okay, when you go to a real estate agent, are you buying property or real estate? there's a difference. when you buy real estate, you purchase everything from the ground up. you own the house, you own the trees, but you do not own the earth that it sits on. can you go out in your backyard and drill for oil? no? why because there's an ordinance against it? if it's your property, can you do whatever you want with your property? and if I can't drill for oil in my backyard then apparently I don't own the property. do you pay property taxes? why? who are you paying property taxes to? if it's yours, why would you have to give somebody else money? and the truth of the matter is, that you do not own the land. you own the house on top of the land, but you are renting the actual land. and unless you have allodial title to the land, it is not yours. now, we will talk about allodial title when we get to the history of the United States. when we broke off with England, people in the American continent here, people in the United States, were the first people allowed to own land in allodial title. prior to that everything was owned by the king. now there are 50 states in the United States, only one currently still allows you to own land in allodial title. and you are all very very lucky because that state is Texas. however, most people in Texas still do not own their land in allodial title. learning how to own your land in allodial title is another class that I haven't written yet.
22:48 now, let's talk about property. I want to really have you understand it. let us presume that I own my land in allodial title, the way we think of when we own something. now, if it's my land, and I have this stack of lumber on my land, can I take that stack of lumber and nail it together in the shape of a house? yes, why is that? why can I build that house? because it's my land. it's my wood. it's all my property. and I can do whatever I want with my property, I don't have to ask anybody for permission. so now I build this house on my property, and I look at that house two weeks later and go "well, I've changed my mind, I really don't want that particular house". can I take all those nails out and disassemble that house to stack the lumber back up? yes, because it is my property. I can rearrange my property and put it in any shape I want. well, it took me a long time, it was a lot of work to nail all that stuff together. and it's going to be a lot more work to pull it apart and stack it up again. the wood's not that important to me, can I light a match and burn that house down? some people say yes, some people say no. is it arson? no, it's not arson. I can burn my own house down if I want. it's my house! if I have a chair in the kitchen, I go "I really don't like this chair", can I break it up and throw it in the fireplace? yes! I can burn the chair because it's my property. why can't I build a house? burn the house? it's just a bigger chunk of property. so I have a right to burn down my own house and it's not arson. unless I have insurance out on it. now if I have insurance on the house and I burn it down, that's fraud. I'm going to be thrown in jail, not for burning the house down, but for lying to the insurance company, and trying to get their money if I try to collect. that's where the problem is. so you have to really understand rights. and if you understand property, you have some idea where rights come from. all right derives from property. and you can do whatever you want with your property.
25:35 now, there's another.. oh, I want to warn you, that the government is trying to take your property away. they want your stuff, they are stealing your car, in effect. are you gonna chase after them? now, I have a quote that says "every man holds his property subject to the general right of the community, to regulate its use, to whatever degree the public welfare may require it". what does that mean? like, okay, it's your house, and we're gonna let you have that as long as it's okay with us. we're gonna vote on whether or not you can build a house. we're gonna vote on whether or not you can burn the house down. who's in charge? you? I thought it was your property? guess who said that? that was Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States. these are socialist ideas. alright? now, the second important concept that derives from right is that every single right has a responsibility. you cannot have one without the other. you cannot have a right without responsibility, you cannot have responsibility without a right. it is impossible. just the same way I cannot have a heads without a tails. if I've got one, I've got the other, they're opposite sides of the same coin. now, your right holds the responsibility of exercising that right properly. does a six year old child have the right to life? anybody say no? good. alright, a six year old does have the right to life. why? because that six year old owns his body. your body is the first property that you own. as you come into the world, on the day of your birth, you are a property owner. you know, it's tiny it's pink and it's crying, but that's your property.
28:06 now, does a six year old have a right to keep a weapon on their hip? can they walk around with a concealed weapon? uh, generally not. even I, strong Second Amendment supporter, would not give a gun to a six year old. why? because a six year old does not have the mental capacity to understand their responsibility. a six year old does not quite understand that death is permanent and irreversible. on the cartoons and on tv, you can shoot someone and they go "eh!", and then five seconds later they jump up and go "okay, next!". it's all pretend. well death is not pretend, it is permanent and it is real and you cannot undo it. so if you are walking around with a gun, you are capable of taking someone else's life, and you better not make a mistake. a six year old is not smart enough to make those decisions, so we deny the six year old the right to carry a gun and exercise the Second Amendment. it is not because that child is not an American.
29:30 so, every right that you have has a responsibility. if you go into a theater, everybody says that it's against the law, that your freedom of speech is limited, that you cannot yell "fire" in a crowded theater. wrong! you cannot yell "fire" in a crowded theater if there is no fire. why? because you are responsible for all those people running out of the theater tripping over each other, breaking their legs and maybe getting hurt. you are also responsible to the theater owner for all the money he lost when those people didn't get to see the movie. and you are responsible to each of those people for the money that they paid to see the movie and you interrupted it by exercising your freedom of speech. now, if you are in the theater and all of a sudden you look up at the seats and you see a fire, are you violating anybody's rights by going "fire!"? no! you could be a hero. you could actually get everybody out of the theater and save everybody's life. so yelling "fire" in a theater is not a limitation on your First Amendment rights and freedom of speech. what is a limit is your responsibility not to hurt anybody physically with what you say. now, if I say "gosh, you're really ugly", did I hurt your feelings? perhaps. have I overextended my right to freedom of speech? no. I have a freedom of speech to say anything I want even if you don't like it. that's what freedom of speech is all about. we're gonna talk more about that when we get to the Bill of Rights.
31:27 this topic is all about rights and privileges. a right you don't have to ask. a privilege somebody else of higher authority is giving you permission. and you have to understand what are rights and what are privileges. rights derive from property. do you have a right to walk into a restaurant and say "I'm hungry, feed me, for free"? do you have a right to eat? no. you have a right to eat if it's your food. if it's your property you can put it anywhere you want, even down your throat. but you do not have a right to anyone else's property, that is a contradiction in terms. if it's not your property, you don't have a right. so you cannot go into a restaurant and say "feed me, for free". because the food is not your property, it belongs to somebody else. do you have a right to free healthcare? no. where does healthcare come from? do you walk into a doctor's office and say "cure me, for free"? no, somebody's got to pay that doctor. you want somebody walking into your office, and saying "okay I want you to provide services to me for free"? you wouldn't do it. so why would you go into somebody else's office and demand service for free? you say "well, I'm not demanding service, the doctor's getting paid". by who? "well, the government or the insurance company pays the money". really? where does the government and the insurance company get their money? from somebody else! so do you have a right to somebody else's property? no, not even if the government is giving it to you. so you do not have a right to healthcare. you do not have a right to your children's education. you do not have a right to anybody else's property. you only have a right to your property. if you worked for it, you built it, you acquired it, you know - this is mine. I worked for it. it is not yours. and that's where rights draw the line. from property. any time you have a question about rights, ask yourself "who owns the property?". does anybody have any questions on property, rights, or privileges?
34:10 (Q&A)
38:05 as far as allodial title, let me give you a little bit better example, because it's easier to understand. when you purchase a car. how many people purchased a car paying cash? (people raise hands) good. if you can pay cash for a car that's great. did you also get the manufacturer's statement of origin? (nobody raise hands) well, then you basically wasted some of your money. every automobile that comes off the assembly line has a piece of paper associated with it - a birth certificate for that particular car. and it is called a manufacturer's statement of origin or MSO. now, most of us who are mere mortals, we go in and we buy a car with a bank loan. now, the bank pays the money and we get a payment coupon book from the bank. now, that MSO generally is transferred to the state. the state will microfiche it and then put it through the shredder. so the MSO no longer physically exists, it's just on film. now you spend 3, 4, 5 years paying off the car, most of us eventually get that far, and now it's your car right? what does the bank send you? they send you a certificate of title. if I give you a gift certificate, do you have the gift, or do you have a piece of paper that represents that gift? you just have the piece of paper. you have to go some place, turn in the gift certificate, in order to get your gift. well if I give you a certificate of title, do you have the title, or a piece of paper that represents that title? you have a piece of paper. you are co-owner of that car. who else is the owner? the state. now, let's pretend you and I are friends, we go out Saturday and we buy a car together. you put down $10,000, I put down $10,000, and we buy this car. and well, you go ahead and drive it first. you take the keys. so not you take it, you drive it, put gas in it, change the oil, and you've got it all year. I never got a chance to drive the car. don't you think you should pay me money for my half of the car? don't you think you should pay rent for driving around my two wheels? yeah, so does the state. the state is co-owner of your car. they're gonna let you drive it, they're gonna let you put the oil in it, leave the trunk cluttered with all of your stuff, but they're co-owner. and they want rent. it's called registration. that's why you have to pay a registration fee every year, because you're paying the state, you know, rent on their part of the ownership of your car. now, if you go into a car dealer with $20,000 cash and say "I will buy that car and I want the MSO", I have no idea what their reaction is going to be, they're probably going to stutter a lot. but I know people who have actually gotten the MSO - it is now their car. they own it in allodial title - 100%. they do not register it, they do not pay taxes on it, nothing. it's theirs.
41:57 (Q&A)
42:39 so, when we talk about property, most of us don't really understand ownership. possession is one thing. but possession is only 9/10 of the law. you need ownership in order to have complete control.
43:00 (Q&A)
44:50 this, again, is the most important concept of the entire class. property, rights, and privileges. if you don't genuinely get it, please ask questions, because everything else that we talk about is based on this fundamental principle.
45:10 (Q&A)
47:21 one last thing about rights, the only limitation on your rights is the equal rights of others. you can do anything you want, as long as you do not violate someone else's rights. and again, this is a real clear distinction. property is mine or yours. if it's my property, I can do anything I want. if it's your property, I better ask. so as long as I don't destroy your property then I'm fine, I can do anything I want. that's the fundamental ideal here in the United States. now, I'm on page 5, John Dickinson said "Kings or parliaments could not give the rights essential to happiness, we claim them from a higher source; from the King of kings, and Lord of all the earth. They are not annexed to us by parchments and seals. They are created in us by the decrees of Providence." so the Constitution is wonderful, but it doesn't give you anything. now, in a Supreme Court case called Hale vs Hinkle, the Supreme Court said that "The individual may stand upon his Constitutional rights as a citizen. He is entitled to carry on his own business in his own way. His power to contract is unlimited." this is good news and bad news. that means that you can sign a contract to anything you want. that's good news. the bad news is that's exactly what the government has used to basically put us in the situation we're in. you have signed a contract with the government that you are not aware you have signed. now, another ruling here says that "The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having the form and name of law, is in reality no law, but is wholly void, and ineffective for any purpose; since unconstitutionality dates from the time of its enactment, and not merely from the date of the decision so branding it." so, if I pass a law that tries to make slavery legal, and we do that for about ten years, and somebody says "wait a minute, I think slavery is illegal and unconstitutional", it doesn't become unconstitutional ten years from now, it's unconstitutional to start with. it was never a law in the first place.
50:18 now, I have just a few more minutes here before we take a break, but I would like to leave you with some interesting questions that we will try to answer a bit later. if I have a right to keep and bear arms, why do I have to get a concealed carry permit? doesn't a permit give me permission? permission is related to a privilege. if I have a right, that's a contradiction. you cannot give me permission to exercise a right, that's a contradiction. and privileges are generally identified by a permit or a license, a piece of paper that somebody gives me that says "okay, you have a license to drive". why do I need a license to drive if I have a right to travel? and more importantly, if I get a marriage license, what does that marriage license give me permission to do that I could not do before the marriage license? and, who is giving me that permission? and, where did they get the power to give me that permission? and where did the first marriage license start with in the first place? think about those things, we're gonna take about a ten minute break and then come back.
