"William W Johnstone - Ashes 24 - Judgment in the Ashes (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johnstone William W)

Candidate campaigning had deteriorated into nasty name-calling and
finger pointing, with real issues taking a back seat. For several
decades, it seemed that Americans just could not find a middle ground in
politics or in the enforcement of laws. Morals and values plummeted to
new lows. ?

And the government began snooping into nearly every aspect of citizens'
lives.

The IRS-which had become the most hated of all government agencies-knew
to the penny what every citizen had in his or her bank account. The
government had begun to view each citizen's income as not belonging to
them, but to the government, especially since the percentage most
American citizens had to pay the government had soared to over
fifty-five percent of their gross income.

In many respects, America had become a socialist nation.

And the liberals had finally gotten their wish: legislation had been
rammed through Congress effectively disarming American citizens, leaving
those who wished to be armed with only bolt-action hunting rifles and
double-barrel, single-shot, or pump shotguns. No semi-automatic rifles
or shotguns and absolutely no pistols in the hands of private citizens.

8

William W. Johnstone

Ammunition was heavily restricted and always registered. Government
agents could enter a citizen's home at any time without warrant or
warning. And did, often, with great enthusiasm.

And then the world seemed to go crazy, with brush wars popping up all
over the globe, and spreading rapidly. Finally the bottom dropped out.
One by one, governments all around the world began collapsing as
citizens revolted. Then came a limited germ and nuclear war that quickly
spread, leaving Earth without a stable government anywhere.

But there were those in America who had long predicted such an event.
They were called many names: militia, sur-vivalists, nuts, kooks,
gun-freaks, conspiracy-freaks, paranoid-and those were some of the
kinder names. But they had been correct in their thinking and
far-sighted in their planning. America was in trouble, and a long, hard
fall did indeed happen.

One of those who had predicted such terrible times for America was a
young ex-soldier/adventurer named Ben Raines. It would be safe to call
Ben a survivalist, but not a practicing type. That is to say he did not
belong to any group who trained in the woods and conducted live-fire
exercises. But Ben did believe in being ready, and when the fall came,