Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Short Story Contest

Contest Deadline is fast approaching. If you haven't entered yet, please do.

Deadline is midnight November 15th 2008.
$6 entry fee
1st prize is $100 US minimum.
2nd Prize is $50 US minimum.

Send us your best Fiction Short Story contest entry!

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Short Fiction Online

Hello All,

New issue of Ramble Underground is online. We have three new short fiction stories and art throughout by Elaine Thompson.

Have a look...

Short Fiction Story(s)

AMERICAN IDOL FINALE

by Mark Spencer

“Elvis was seventy-one years old and weighed at least three hundred and fifty pounds, so I’ve been expecting this. Now I have to get his corpse out of our Greenwich Village apartment and onto the sidewalk somewhere …” Read more

BATHWATER

by Sarah Mitchell

“Upstairs, I hear the sounds of my son waking, and I follow his footsteps through the ceiling as he stumbles from his bed to the bath. Tom is eighteen, nearly a man. Nearly the man his father was…” Read more

Wednesday’s CHILD

by Constance Smith

“Her grandmother said that because she was born on a Wednesday, she was full of woe. Gina tried to imagine how that must feel, having a sadness inside you so great that you are full of it, like when you eat too much of something and it hurts.” Read more


Tell Starbucks to recycle!

Hello all,

Take a second to jump over and sign this petition, by one of our past contributors, to get StarBucks to setup recycling in their stores.

Recycle StarBucks

Thanks,

Thursday, September 25, 2008

McCain on Health Care

What’s next, deregulation of the healthcare systems? Yes, according to John McCain.

The great deregulator is at it again. It wasn't enough, what they let the banking industry get away with, now he wants to deregulate the healthcare systems.

In a recent article (Sept/Oct 08 Contingencies magazine) he states that "The problem is not that most Americans lack adequate health insurance. The vast majority of Americans have private insurance...”

In fact 16% of Americans are completely uninsured and another 5% are underinsured. That's 21% of the population, one in five families! If he starts an article about his plan for healthcare reform with a statement like this, with a statement that dismisses 21% of our population out of hand, how can this be helpful to us? When these uninsured people end up in hospitals - driving up healthcare costs - we foot the bill.

Then he goes on to brag about deregulation in the banking industry, and propose similar deregulation in the healthcare industry too. Does this guy read the news or watch TV? He must have written this article before the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy or the buyout of Fannie and Freddy, right? Wrong this is in this month’s release of Contingencies Magazine.

Maybe there wasn't enough time to pull his article but certainly after all this news, even John McCain must be rethinking his Healthcare plan. At least one would hope.

Check out both candidates plan on health care in their own words

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

McCain on The Economy - fundamentally sound.

Or in other words....

Hard-working American families are anxiously trying to make sense of yesterday's disastrous economic headlines.

While we're trying to figure out just how hard the news will hit them and our savings (If we had any) , John McCain's advice seems to be: don't worry about it.

Right after a major global investment bank declared bankruptcy, and in the middle of the second-biggest Dow Jones drop this century, McCain told an audience in Florida that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." - strongly pointing to a depression forget recession. Banks don't go under in a recession!

How can the fundamentals of our economy be strong when, just this year, 600,000 Americans have lost their jobs? When people are losing their homes? When health insurance is beyond the reach of an ever increasing number of Americans?

John McCain clearly doesn't get it. Dumb Ass.

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Tuesday, September 09, 2008

McCain for Women? The Women Vote.

While the Republican ticket touts a female VP, is this enough to win the women's vote? I should think not. I'd say to suggest such a thing is an insult to all women everywhere. This would be like saying all blacks should vote for Obama. I don’t know about the rest of America, but my mom, my wife, and even my eight year old daughter can see when they are being had.

Women (and men) fought way to hard for the right to vote, to have it exploited.

Sarah Palan and John McCain want to take away a women’s right to choose – even though Sarah Palan’s family had that same choice. They chose life, a good choice, but they had the right to choose none the less. Well, not under their would-be administration.

John McCain voted against the violence against women act. What? Yes you read it right. What was this guy hatched from snake eggs. Doesn’t he have a mother? Oh yeah, they touted her at the convention too. Poor thing looked like she was held up on strings. I guess that was to prove he had a long life expectancy.


Barack Obama and Joe Biden (Especially Joe Biden) have been supporting women’s issues all their careers. Whether it has been right to choose, or equal pay, or protecting women against violence. Their record shows they are on the right side: My daughter’s side, and my side.

See more on McCains record in regards to women

I am leaving the comment below for the sake of free speech and the writer, while not leaving their name took great lengths in writing it. Unfortunately the bulk of their argument is about how violent women are. This may be true, but it is completely irrelevent - perhaps there should be a violence against men act. The rest of the arguement is that the laws are too loose, and restraining orders are granted to anyone without much investigation. To that I can only say, if someone goes to the length of getting an order of restraint, they most likely have a decent reason. At any rate, I'd rather air on the side of caution.

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Thursday, August 21, 2008

Obama Vs. McCain on Energy?

When will the people and the environment win out over big business? The answer is never, not if we continue to give into business as usual. Not, if we continue to support the billionaire oil companies by voting their figure heads into government. They funnel money into McCain’s campaign and what do you think they expect in return?

Answer: McCain will give $4 billion in tax breaks to big oil companies—including $1.2 billion for Exxon alone.

While McCain represents old school mentality: give to the rich, take from the poor, Obama will raise fuel efficiency standards and invest $150 billion over the next ten years in alternative sources of energy like wind power, and solar power, and advanced biofuels, creating up to five million new jobs for working glass people. This will create a new workforce called Green Collar workers.

As American people we are guilty of letting the wool be pulled over our eyes. Guilty of allowing Oil companies to control environmental issues, of allowing logging lobbyists to run the environmental protection agency, letting big banks write the bankruptcy laws, and letting Pharmaceuticals write the medical bills. We are guilty by way of ignorance and complacency. Well I’m getting wise.

Obama vs. McCain is a simple question? Let's ask ourselves, how are things working now? Are we ready for a change or do we like what we see? For me it is an easy answer: Change

We pay for Short Fiction

Announcement for Ramble Underground

With our latest issue we now pay our author’s for accepted fiction. The rate is $15 per story. We know this isn’t much, but it's more than nothing.

We are proud to offer this small token to support this great art.

Also note: we no longer publish poetry.

Friday, March 14, 2008

New Fiction Short Story(s) & Contest Winners

The Spring '08 issue is live and free. Read new Short Fiction by Joseph P. Thayer & Tamara T. Linse. Also read the winners of our short fiction contest: Liz Kelley, Mike Weddle, and Heidi Wicks.

Please use our comments box on the left hand side of the story to let the authors know how you feel. Also peruse our archives for old treasures.