Even if you accept the idea of sovereign citizenry completely, he's still in the United States so wouldn't he still be bound by US law unless he was granted diplomatic immunity?

My father has a mild-to-moderate case of 'sovereignty' (I'm trying to cure him, but it's slow going) and I can assure you that for the most part they just make this shit up as they go along. No two of them will agree entirely on what they do or do not have to submit to, with older proponents generally being more cautious, presumably because they've had their knuckles slapped by the system more than once.

Now, at the risk of outing myself as a bit of a moron, the idea that at some point along the line I've agreed to all of the laws of my home nation, despite the fact that I can't remember doing so, does kind of chafe. However, that seems to be a pretty common experience for most people (potheads, traffic violators, torrent enthusiasts, etc.), and those people have the sense to realize that disagreeing doesn't put you in the vaunted position of being immune to the law of the land.

I guess what I'm saying is that philosophically I can kind of sympathize with the basis of these delusions; if not the intents or practices that come about as a result of them. But then I only went to school until the eighth grade and have been known to be terribly wrong about all manner of things, so there's that.

I first came in contact with these people in the early 90's. The rhythm guitarist in a friend's band lived out of the back of his station wagon and had lots of tracts and paraphernalia, all with the strange capitalizations and references to The 14th Century Canterbury Accords Concerning The Sea... He was a pretty good musician, and I think like BS wrote above he was motivated by a feeling that he didn't ask for all the bullshit and yet there is always someone knocking on his window...

But you are born into this community, and you are given certain rights in exchange for certain obligations. There are legal ways to renounce your citizenship, and that is the remedy these people need to seek. Sovereign's want all the rights, without any of the obligations. I wonder what BS's dad would say to that?

I imagine it's tempting for the authorities being trolled to simply take Sovereigns at face value, arresting and deporting them all for being in the country illegally. I'm sure they have no passports or other documentation to show legal entry into the US. I can see why they don't, but it's too good not to make happen at least once or twice.

Ha, I love that the abbreviation of my handle is so unintentionally appropriate. I actually co-opted it from a pornbot in the halcyon days of MSN chat, it seemed to describe most of the people I was speaking to in the rooms so perfectly.

And I could ask him about that; he's coming over soon. But honestly, I'm sick today and not in the mood to get into a discussion about all of this with a true believer. Much easier to suck cough drops and laugh about it with you guys (and gals). The truth of the matter does seem to be that they all want to have their cake and eat it, and then be paid for 'having' to eat it, and then complaining that they don't like cake anyways. Never mind that the perceived imposition of society (at least in the developed world) upon it's members comes with benefits that 99.999999% of humanity throughout history would kill and die for.

I totally would have gone for BoSo. It's more nicknamey.