Day in and day out, the war the US is fighting continues to get worse. Rules are being broken, innocent people are dying and for what? There isn't much point in outlining the horrible things that dubya has done and why he has done them. There are thousands of sites, written by people who know much more than I do about the situation.

Sadly, information released this weekend sticks in my mind. Story after story showed how wrong this war is. However, the US found a horse they could latch their propaganda cart to, and it was the Pat Tillman story. A pro football player, giving up millions and his life for the country he believes in. Say what you want about this war, but making the choice to die for your country and give up millions of dollars is something very few people would do.

Tillman was glorified for his choice, and his death. The government and the media finally had a story that they could put a positive spin on. For a brief time, people could focus on something positive about the war. It was the story that could make people proud to be American.

It has now been determined that Tillman was killed by friendly fire. In confusion after a landmine exploded, with no enemy troops in the area. Another useless death. I am not sure that this is the forum for me to express my thoughts and views on such a controversial subject, but I can't help but wonder how much worse it can get, before it goes to far to recover from, or the retaliation rips the US apart.

I recently stumbled upon a review of the new onelinedrawing record: volunteers on punknews.org. Before I start, I am not taking anything away from the people who write for punknews. They put a lot of time and effort into this site, much more than I do here in reality. They don't get paid, unless you count the free swag they get.

I will also say that reviews, are like assholes. Everything is pre-digested and everything that comes out is shit. However, this time, I really felt the review was off-coloured and off based. For those not in the indie/emo know, onelinedrawing is the side project that became popular of Jonah Matranga (of FAR, new end original and now gratitude fame).

Jonah plays countless shows in every town in North America, and like him or not, he puts his heart into the set, each and every time. He sells his merch on the "sliding scale", meaning what you have is what you get the shirt or cd for. He plays any song you ask, and truly plays for the crowds. I bought his sketchy eps for 2 dollars a piece, as I only had a 5 spot left after drinking beers at his show.

This review attacks him personally, and for little reason. He plays the same set everytime? Well, first off, I have seen him enough to say he doesn't, but have you ever seen bands play before? I would say most do. Very few take requests during the set. He talks to the crowd, not at them. He reminds me of Mike Doughty in that way. Doughty could play you the same 15 songs every night, but his banter and enjoyment make each show unique.

The fact he bashes Jonah for signing to a major label is the worst part. Jonah has been DIY since the beginning. Sure his website sells his shit for normal prices, but he goes on the road with a backpack full of merch and unloads it for whatever his fans can afford. You don't think, in the last 5 years anyone has offered him a huge contract before that he has turned down? Labels have been snatching up the sensitive songwriter for years now. The cherry on this "let's bash Jonah" sundae is that he has never really come out and been fundamentally DIY as this review makes him seem.

Let's talk about Ben Weasel. He has been regarded as DIY as they get (well except for cats like Ian McKaye) and if you read his blog you will get the distinct impression, he would love to be able to sign to a major right now. You can be as indie as Harrison Ford in the Temple of Doom, but eventually, you are 30+ and your art has to pay the bills. It is cool to retain your "indie creds" but when you are 35 and living in apartment, with no retirement plan, something is going to click eventually.

I guess the best thing I can say is that Jonah brings more sincerity to the stage than 90% of the artists out there. If you want to hate the record (which he actually said he liked), that is fine. But to attack him personally, that is a different ball game altogether. People don't read an album review for a character review? Do I care if Neal Pollack is a douchebag, nope, but I might want to know if his new book is good.

Just one man's opinion... disregard it as you choose.

I'm not sure how I missed this story in March, but I'm glad I caught the conclusion. It seems the charges against Richard Simmons for bitch slapping some dude at Sky Harbour International Airport in Phoenix have been dropped. It seems Richard (real name Milton) Simmons was waiting to board his plane when some guy yelled "Look, Richard Simmons. Drop your bags, let's rock to the 50's". Milton walked right up to the guy and said "It's not nice to make fun of people with issues" before slapping him in the face (side note: is Rich still one of those with issues? He's made what I assume to be a handsome living by greasing himself up, donning hot pants and doing low-impact aerobics. I think it's time to let the issues go). The police were subsequently called by the "victim" and assault charges were pressed against Simmons.

Now I could stop right here and it would be funny enough. But the guy he pimp-slapped is a 6'1, 255 pound Harley Davidson salesman named Chris Farney who cage wrestles in his spare time. It seems the Simmonator doesn't care who you are, if you make fun of the fatties, you're gonna get yours PE style (ooops, I might be inline for a slapping now myself). But how about Mr. Tough Guy ultimate hog salesman fighter picking on Richard Simmons of all people! Perhaps there were no old ladies riding wheels chairs in the terminal that he could mess with. Seriously though, it's Richard Simmons, you'd think if you were going to stoop low enough to make fun of him you'd come up with something better than "let's rock to the 50's". He deserved to get slapped on the weakness of that crush alone. My man even got the name of the tapes wrong. If you're even vaguely aware of the pop culture in the last 15 years, you know those tapes are called "Sweatin' To The Oldies". Future airport dicks of the world take notice, if your going to make fun of exercise gurus, try and get the name right.

But Milt isn't off the hook here either. I don't think that's the way he'd like his fat little disciples to react to bullies is it? If the teacher can't brush aside a weak remark like that, how are the students to persevere in the face of adversity. I should also add that if Richard Simmons wasn't a quasi-celeb I don't think the chaunce he slapped would have just called the cops. I think he would've stomped a mud-hole in those pink striped shorts. I will say this much for Richie Simmons, he must be hiding one big set of balls under those tiny shorts.

I can see it now. Duff MacKagan and Slash talking about the good old days when they could snort rails of coke off a groupy's ass, before Axl got all crazy and ruined it all for them. Then Duff brings up the fact Slash is late with the rent check again this month, so he better just give him the royalties check from the Greatest Hits record, or the landord might evict them. Just then their pizza arrives, and they are shocked to see the man delivering their piping hot pie from "Appetite for Destruction Pizza" is former G and R drummer Matt Sorum. They invite him in, have a few shots and amidst the Axl bad-mouthing, they talk about how bands don't need a singer, and they can get by on name alone. We need a has-been singer with huge drawing power and media controversy. We can get anybody to sing for us... we are Guns and Roses! Great, that and a metro pass will get you a months worth of rides on the Ack f*&k off subway.

"Chris Cornell, shit, Audioslave. Who else was a former icon that has fallen the f*&k off? What about Weiland? Is he in jail right now? No, sweet, call him."

Within moments the world is forced to endure the hype of another "superband" of has-beens. Are these reunions necessary? Seriously, Rage fans and Soundgarden fans both had to suffer through the Audioslave hybrid. Didn't we learn then? This band isn't going to be Guns and Roses 2. It is going to be a bunch of musicians trying to rewrite another classic metal banger, hoping Scott Weiland doesn't ruin it by trying to rewrite the hits that made him so popular back in the day. Or that he doesn't fall off the wagon before their first tour so Duff can feel good as he reaches down to pick up a bra from a screaming fan, only to look up and see the fan is now 40, and it would be better for all parties if she kept that thing on.

Each press conference sounds the same. Cliches and catch phrases are being dropped like these guys had just won gave 7 in the NBA finals. "we just want to give one hundred percent, play good old rock n' roll and have some fun." That is the rock equivalent of saying, I just let the game come to me, glad my teammates recognized I was hot and I just played within myself. With so much creative new music being released these days, why are we focusing on has beens that will never be able to live up to the standards we will automatically judge them by?

Even their album title has been used before; Contraband. Fitting as these men are looking for work

In society today, we are all searching heroes. As each day gets worse than the one before, the media is grabbing onto anything that they can to help cover up the horrible decisions that are made everyday. Nowhere is this more true than with today's athletes.

I am sick of hearing how taxing it is for Kobe Bryant to fly back and forth to Colorado between games and still be able to drop 30. He is on trial for rape. I don't know if he is innocent or guilty, but we all know he had sex with the woman when he was away for 1 day. Should we feel bad that he has to fly back to LA to play every night. He should feel good he doesn't have to cuddle up next to a guy named Bubba. His wealth is buying him a legal team that innocent or guilty will get him off. I don't think we should feel bad for a man who is allowed to keep going on with his life, when most wouldn't get the chance.

Everyday some athlete does drugs, abuses his wife, mouths off about needing more money, or demands a trade because things haven't gone his way even though he signed for 250 million dollars. These things are all ignored if our "heroes" smash a dinger, or drop 30 in the big game.

If you need to find your hero between the lines, I think it is time to give one man the dues he has earned. Kevin Garnett. When this guy came out as a high schooler, everyone balked at the pick, saying he had an attitude problem, and was too undisciplined to play. He was no Kobe, and since then, he is no T-Mac, no Allan. Year after year, all these big names have been given it all, and have let people down. Garnett, much like Tim Duncan, and countless other athletes that just do their job, go unnoticed. They don't make waves, they just work hard. Garnett has never demanded to be traded, he has shouldered the blame for his teams inability to win and he has done it all with relatively little excuse making. It is time we started rewarding athletes (and everyone else) for what they do to help a community, their team and for being a positive role model. We all know how hard it is to escape from the harsh realities of the world we live in, so I for one was happy to see the T-Wolves ride KG to a huge game 7 win, and I hope it continues as they battle the Lakers. We all know Kobe needs some relaxation time after his hectic schedule in and on the courts.

This is too mind blowing for a full post. I truly can't fathom this. Ice-T is working on a new album. Ok, that might not shock everyone, so wait for it, wait for it, wait for it... It isn't his album, it is a rap album for David Hasslehoff. He actually calls him Hassle the Hoff, and the Hoff. He needs to fawk Hoff. I know David is pulling a Tom Waits, being big in Japan (and Germany), but c'maaaaaan guy. The 50 year old ladies that loved your short shorts and poppy fun songs from your other album aren't going to line up to hear your witty rap lyrics and see your new bling bling (because I am sure you are already getting a golden lifeguard buoy for your first show).

To Ice-T.. dude, you played yourself

It might just be me, but this story seems a little strange. Thailand is trying to buy a stake in one of the English Premier League's top squads, Liverpool FC. That’s right, the entire country is trying to buy %30 of the team, not just one rich Thai guy. They're planning to hold a lottery to raise funds so that Thailand can become %30 owners of Liverpool. Seriously, what kind of foreign policy is this? The Middle East is about to go up in one big fireball, North Korea is probably stockpiling nukes like crazy, and there’s an AIDS epidemic in Africa, but English football is what Thailand is concerned with.

But I shouldn’t disparage Thailand as a whole on this one. It appears that the Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, fancies himself to be George Thaibrenner and wants to run a world famous sports team. Shinawatra is a very rich fellow apparently, but being the Prime Minister gives him the ability to invent a lottery to procure money for the team. He gets to buy his sports team and keep his fat cash stacks; that’s what you call a win-win I believe. Even Steinbrenner would admire that.

But I don’t see how this plan is going to work. Apparently when you buy a lotto ticket, you’ll get 200 shares in the holding company that’s being set up to control their Liverpool stake. So does this mean they need to have a national referendum for every decision the club needs to make? I can see the lawn signs now “Vote yes on proposition G28 – Allow Liverpool to sell Emile Heskey to Birmingham”. The one upside there is that they might increase voter turnout. I know if they did that in Toronto with the Leafs you’d increase the voter turnout by %4000. “Proposition D89 – Should the Leafs Re-Sign Tie Domi” – People would riot trying to vote multiple times.

But it should be interesting to see how this unfolds. If Thailand is successful in buying a stake in Liverpool, I think Canada should take notice. I think there are tons of people like me in this country who would buy many, many lottery tickets if the proceeds went towards buying a stake in the Yankees. Then we could get to work trading Jeter to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and generally running the team into the ground. Now there's a political movement we can all get behind.

Well folks, we've got a bunch of new reviews up there for you to peruse. I've contributed a couple, but Ack has really been on a tear and has a bunch up there. So if you're too cool for music school and enjoy the lap-pop or the surfer rock, check out Ack's latest reviews.

This is just a quick how-to-do for some cats holding onto the dream like stallone in that stupid cliff hanger movie. Stop holding onto your youth with such false hope. The dream is dead.

For those who are confused, I am talking about the combover. WTF??? Do you really think people think you aren't bald? C'maaaan guy. Do you really think that strategically spreading those four longs strands of hair around your head in an ice cream swirl makes the ladies think you are rocking a soap opera style coif? NAY.

Seriously, the bald look is getting some play these days. Chrome domes are mad fashionable. Moby rocks one. So does every pseudo bald hipster in the world today. Ladies think bald cats are sophisticated and secure in themselves. Plus, for some reason, women think bald dudes are all going to look like Jean-Luc Picard. Give it a try. You are only one gust of wind away from embarrassing yourself long time.

You don't even have to shave it all off. Rock a cul-de-sac. Anything. PLEASE. The resurgence of the 80's trend, and cock-rockers have made the mullet a viable fashion trend, but there WILL never be a time where URBAN Outfitters and the shops in Yorkville cater to the combover. It is this simple. YOU ARE BALD. DEAL WITH IT.

Welcome to a new semi-regular section I'm going to call WTF is Wrong With People?, because seriously, what the f@*k is wrong with people? Basically this is simply a forum for my petty rants about the some of the things I notice people doing on a day to day basis. You might agree with me, you may not, and hey, you probably aren't even reading this. But leave a comment if you want to beef with my beefs. So without further ado, we'll get to the first installment.

Do you like having a door shut in your face because the person in front of you lets it slam right on you? I'm sure you don't, I'm sure nobody does. So why do people do this, WFT is wrong with people? (See, it all ties together) Now I'm not talking about when you're quite a distance behind someone, I don't expect anyone to wait for me with the door open. I'm talking about when you're right behind them and they still just let that door drop when they go through. And don't even get me started on those people that take advantage of a held door by scooting through and not even putting a hand out to keep it open for you. That's not cool at all and makes me want to kick some serious back.

So folks, let's do each other a solid and hold these doors open a little for each other. If you're between the ages of 5 to 75, I think you have the physical strength required to hold the door for a second or two, or even give it a little shove to keep it open for those precious extra moments that might give your fellow man a break. You aren't fooling anyone by pretending you don't see them. If they're one or two steps behind you, you can hear them. And even if you don't hear anyone, give a little glance over the shoulder, it won't kill you. You might not think people notice, but they do. They might even right a snippy rant about it on their website. You don't want that do you?

Once again we find more proof to back ATCQs’ industry rule number four thousand and eighty - record company people are shady. It seems record companies had been withholding some $50 million in unpaid royalties from artists they "couldn’t find". While they were presumably scouring the globe looking for these artists, they were holding these royalties in bank accounts and collecting interest from them. Apparently these music types are either changing labels, moving from one gigantic rock-star mansion to another, or just dying. All of this makes it tough for these gigantic companies with thousands of people on their payrolls to track them down.

Record companies can track down a 12 year old girl to sue for illegally downloading music, but they can’t find P.Diddy. That’s right, P. Diddy was on the list of artists they couldn’t find. Now whether or not Diddy actually deserves to be paid for his music is another matter, but I sure as hell bet he’s not hard to find. In fact, I would think it would be more of a challenge to not find him then find him. The Puffy one is everywhere these days. If he’s not running marathons or somehow appearing on broadway, he’s on TV playing the poor man’s hip hop Trump. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was standing behind me right now.

They also didn’t know where to find Elvis, David Bowie, Dave Mathews, Gloria Estefan, John Mellencamp, and Dolly Parton. If you consider that Elvis’ estate has been turned into a theme park, Dolly Parton actually built her own theme park, and that 75% of the people in Miami probably know Gloria Estefan personally, it doesn’t seem like these folks would be hard to track down either. But the aforementioned probably don’t even need the money (although my man Cougar Mellencamp might be a little hard up these days), there are hundreds of struggling artists out there who could probably really use the 10 or 20 thousand dollars they’re due. It’s ironic that those artists are the ones who are hurt the most by this, but are also the ones the recording industry says they’re trying to protect to by eliminating file sharing. Perhaps if they were actually getting all the money they were due from their record sales, they wouldn't be hit as hard by the evils of file sharing.

Ladies and gentleman, we have a new guest ranter. If herohill.com was in an armwrestle, we would now be turning our hats to the back, because we just went over the top. He likes to say what others think, but would never say. Installment 1 of Turner's tirades:

Lets talk terror...I read that the U.S. has issued a terror alert for the summer, saying they have collected intelligence that State's transit systems are at risk. Good for people to know, if your a fear monger. Gone are the days when the government was able to eliminate threats without it's people being the wiser.

Tactics like the terror alert are merely tools for the Bush government to keep it's people frightened. Frightened people are an obedient people. The tactic works. How many times did your mother say "stop making that face, it will freeze that way".? Parents are the masters of the scare tactic, but in our youthful wisdom we systematically erased mothers theories and threats...so will the American people. You can only cry wolf so many times. Yes, there is a credible threat everyday...you're the United States, the Nelson Munse of the world. I don't want to come off as insensitive. 911 was a tragedy and many innocent people died. However innocent people die every day around this world and most at the hands of the U.S. government. You want a terror alert, here's one: "If you live in a third world country with oil, or diamond mines, if you live under a government other than a democracy, beware the U.S. They will stop at nothing to destroy you and control your country."

I rarely feel the need to get political, however the "war on terror", has made me take notice. We do not live in a free and democratic society, we never have. As Canadians we feel the need to downplay our role, speak out against our American counterparts...and yet we still let them treat us like crap, we are Ned Flanders to their Homer Simpson. Welcome to Canada - door mat to the United States, please wipe your feet before you enter. So how can we as Canadians stand up and let our friends to the south know how we feel...we can't.

We are one, what's ours is theirs. Unfortunately our national pride and our sense of tradition has been killed by the U.S. dollar, McDonald's and Walmart. The frightening part of this fact is if we, as Canadian people, can see the line between Canada and the U.S. blurring. You can bet the terrorists can see it as well, no one is closer in proximity(save Mexico), and no one is more unable to defend itself(save M...no even they would put up more of a fight.) So next time you hear of a terror alert realize that we live next to the worlds largest thug, and it's always the innocent bystander that gets gunned down in the drive by shooting.

You ever get that feeling that a rapper/singer/band is teetering on the brink of discount bin oblivion? Well I get it every now and then, so I thought I'd share my latest premonition. I think The Neptunes/N*E*R*D are close to falling the f@#k off. I concede they might stick around as producers, but their whole N*E*R*D band concept is not getting it done.

First of all, the name is weak and the acronym behind it (No One Ever Really Dies) is the worst I've heard since NORE's (N****s On The Run Eatin'). But at least NORE's made me laugh. As for the music, I'm not sure what's going on there. I certainly can't get into it. It doesn't rock hard enough for me to want to rock out, and the beats aren't funky enough for me to get into it from that perspective either. It's like a rock n roll funk-mobile stuck in the mud, it never gets into gear. I also think Pharrell might be getting a bit of the music industry big-head. Someone needs to sit him down, put some headphones on him and make him listen to an hour's worth of his balls-in-a-vicegrip falsetto. Pharell's peculiar voice works well on hooks like Change Clothes or Pass The Courvoisier, but a whole album of him crooning the serious jams doesn't work. My man can't sing that well, and putting his voice centre stage reveals that fairly quickly.

As for the production side of things, I cannot deny The Neptunes have been responsible for some catchy jams over the last few years. But they're no longer the hot new hip hop producers on the scene, Kanye West currently has that title on lock and there's new jacks appearing every day. They've been doing production for more and more mainstream artists as their fame has grown, but once the pop world tires of them, a Britney Spears production credit might not hold much weight in the hip hop world they came up in. Now all this is just one man's opinion, and they might be around producing for years, but is it a coincidence that both The Neptunes and Richard Marx have worked with NSync? We'll see...