The Browns manage to lower expectations again, a Canadian takeover in the U.S. and exciting news for Smallville fans

- Way to go, Cleveland Browns. The entire world already knew what an absolute debacle you were, but somehow you managed to lower that opinion even further with your performance last night on Monday Night Football. For starters, coach (for now) Eric Mangini’s boys were shut out 16-0 by a Baltimore defense that hasn’t exactly been shutting down opposing offenses this season. Then again, it’s reached the point that no matter how well a team performs against the Browns on either side of the ball, you have to totally disregated their success simply because it’s against the Browns. The Browns managed to drag the Ravens down with them in the first half, resulting in a scintillating 0-0 score after two quarters. However, the Ravens broke through for 16 points in the first half of the third period for a 16-0 win. The second half was also where the Browns absolutely unraveled – no surprise with the inept Mangini leading the way. First, after a 41-yard pass play to advance to the Cleveland 13-yard-line, Baltimore hurried to the line to run the next play and caught the Browns unprepared and with only 10 men on the field, one short of the 11 a team is allowed. As the Browns have immense difficulty stopping teams when their full defense is on the field, playing one man short is not a good idea. Predictably, the Ravens scored on the play, a 13-yard touchdown run from Ray Rice. That was the first, but certainly not last, embarrassing moment for the Browns. That came later in the game after quarterback Brady Quinn threw his second interception of the night and rather than attempting to make a tackle, he instead inexplicably dove at the knees of Ravens defensive end Terrell Suggs, a dangerous play that seriously injured Suggs and may end up sidelining him for the rest of the season. The Ravens were understandably pissed by the play and Quinn has been fined by the NFL in addition to apologizing after the face, but none of that is going to repair Suggs’ allegedly torn MCL. It was a dirty play and showed that not only are the Browns untalented, inept, clueless and pathetic, they are also classless and dirty. Oh, and their coaches are absolute morons, too. See, trailing by 16 points and running the last play of the game as the clock ran out, the coaches elected to run a gimmick play featuring multiple laterals and handoffs, all in the hope of scoring a 16-point touchdown that, to the best of my knowledge, doesn’t actually exist in any type of football. On that play, they decided to get the ball to their best player, receiver/kick returner Joshua Cribbs. Why? No idea. Putting him in harm’s way on a meaningless play was a terrible idea and it came back to bite the Browns when Cribbs was belted from behind by a Baltimore defender and suffered a concussion that resutlted in him being hospitalized overnight. All told, a thoroughly pitiful showing by the Browns and proof that no matter how low the bar is set for them, they can always take it down a notch……….

- What? A corrupt account stealing more than $1 million from a client? Who’d have thunk it? William McKernan III of Whitpain Township, Pa., that’s who. Montgomery County authorities have charged McKernan with stealing more than $1 million from a corporate client, which just might be cause for celebration in the opinion of an anti-corporation enthusiast like myself. However, I’m not the one in charge of enforcing the laws in the state of Pennsylvania and as such, McKernan is charged with theft, access device fraud, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities and related offenses. He is an employee of McKernan PC, an accounting firm located in Blue Bell. K.W. Reese, Inc. hired McKernan PC to handle various professional accounting services and William McKernan III was the primary accountant assigned to handle the account. According to police, he used this opportunity to systematically rip off K.W. Reese by transferring funds from the company’s accounts to his own personal accounts without permission. He then used the money to pay credit card bills and other personal expenses. Now I’m no fraud expert, but that strikes me as far too simplistic a scheme to ever succeed. Shouldn’t you be routing the money through multiple offshore accounts, laundering it and then landing it in an account in a foreign bank set up with a false identity? Transferring it directly to your own personal accounts is basically asking to be caught, idiot. In all, McKernan stole approximately $1,497,693.72. Worse still, when K.W. Reese officials confronted McKernan on the theft, he admitted that he had taken company funds. You can’t even muster an obvious lie? Terrrrible. Call me cynical, but this sort of behavior could well cost McKernan his position as a member of the Whitpain Township Board of Supervisors, where he holds/held the position of treasurer. Something tells me that this idiot will be getting exactly what he deserves for being one of the dumbest, most unimaginative thieves I’ve ever heard of…..ever……

- Look out, y’all: the Canadians are taking over. Bit by bit, they are going to buy up this nation’s unused, irrelevant and out-of-date sports facilities and use them to launch a hostile takeover. The first pawn in this game of real-estate chess is the Pontiac Silverdome, located just north of Detroit. An unidentified Canadian real estate company was the winning bidder for the Silverdome, snatching it up for a mere fraction of its original value. The Toronto-based family-owned company bid $583,000 for stadium on Monday, purchasing it from the City of Pontiac, Mich. If that isn't bad enough, the new buyer plans to use the venue to attempt to further one of the most irrelevant, ignored sports ventures in the United States: Major League Soccer. Yes, after sinking half a million dollars into a useless property, this company plans to devalue the Silverdome even further by refurbishing the Silverdome into a stadium for men's Major League Soccer and women's professional soccer teams. Sure, the stadium played host to a World Cup game in 1994, but people care even less about soccer now than they did in 1994. "The Silverdome will now be in the hands of professionals who can devote their time to transform this high-profile property into a vital asset instead of enabling it to continue to languish as an empty facility," said Fred Leeb, the emergency financial planner for Pontiac. The city is clearly viewing this as a big win and in the short-term, financial sense, it may be. Pontiac, like the rest of Michigan, has fallen on hard financial times and earlier this year, GM announced it would close a truck plant, taking about 1,400 jobs from the city. Bearing its bleak financial status in mind, continuing to pay $1.5 million in annual upkeep for the stadium was a tough sell. Having the Silverdome owned by a private company will bring in tax revenue, but at what cost? It gives those damn Canadians a foothold in this country that we don’t need them having. I shudder at the thought of foreigners owning the venue where Wrestle Mania III took place in 1987. On that day, 93,000 fans packed into the stadium to watch Hulk Hogan body-slam Andre the Giant. Now…..1,420 fans are going to pack the equivalent of two or three sections of the lower bowl in the event that these freaking Canadians ever convince MLS to give them a team………

- Good news for all the Smallville fans out there…..no, the über-hot Kristin Kreuk isn't coming back to the show, sadly. Besides, that would actually be great news. No, the good news is that the CW (killer of all good, well-written shows with heart) has decided to package Smallville’s upcoming Justice Society-themed two-parter into a two-hour movie event airing on Feb. 5. The episodes, written by Jeff Johns, were originally titled “Society” and “Legends” and they will feature such DC Comics legends as Stargirl, Hawkman, and Dr. Fate. The episodes were originally scheduled to air separately in consecutive weeks at the show’s normal 8 p.m. Friday time slot, but show executives apparently felt that they could generate more buzz by combining them into a single super-entity. As such, the two-hour Justice Society-themed “movie” is now an actual movie titled Smallville: Absolute Justice. The move will air just like a normal two-hour special, although the air date has changed from Jan. 29 to Feb. 5. That all being said, I am pumped to see the movie and to see how it’s worked into the storyline of this season. Also, seeing some truly iconic DC Comics characters share the screen with Clark Kent should be interesting, even if the smokin’ hot Kristin Kreuk is (sadly) not involved in the show……….

- Are you ready? No, I asked….ARE….YOU…..READY? You had better be, because countries and nation-states around the world are lining up for a "Cyber Cold War," amassing cyberweapons, conducting espionage, and testing networks in preparation for using the Internet to conduct war. That’s according to a new report to be released on Tuesday by software maker McAfee. The global powers lining up for this new type of cold war include the U.S., Israel, Russia and China. The report, authored by former White House Homeland Security adviser Paul Kurtz and based on interviews with more than 20 experts in international relations, national security and Internet security, paints a bleak and disturbing picture of the global online scene. "We don't believe we've seen cases of cyberwarfare," said Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee. "Nations have been reluctant to use those capabilities because of the likelihood that [a big cyberattack] could do harm to their own country. The world is so interconnected these days." That is true, but we’ve been hearing threats and rumors of cyberwarfare for decades. It’s common knowledge that the U.S. critical infrastructure is vulnerable, so there is clearly danger there for America. What’s new is that experts see patterns indicating that there is increasing intelligence gathering and building of sophisticated cyberattack capabilities. "While we have not yet seen a 'hot' cyberwar between major powers, the efforts of nation-states to build increasingly sophisticated cyberattack capabilities, and in some cases demonstrate a willingness to use them, suggest that a 'Cyber Cold War' may have already begun," the report says. In cyberattacks, pinpointing the exact source is nearly impossible and motives are even more difficult to discern. At this point, any identification of an attack is largely speculation. For example, the July 4 attacks denial-of-service on Web sites in the U.S. and South Korea are believed by some to have been a test by an foreign entity to see if flooding South Korean networks and the transcontinental communications between the U.S. and South Korea would disrupt the ability of the U.S. military in South Korea to communicate with military leaders in Washington, D.C., and the Pacific Command in Hawaii. The report wraps with a cryptic warning that the frequency and ferocity of cyberattacks will undoubtedly increase rapidly in the years ahead. "Over the next 20 to 30 years, cyberattacks will increasingly become a component of war," William Crowell, a former NSA deputy director, is quoted as saying. "What I can't foresee is whether networks will be so pervasive and unprotected that cyberwar operations will stand alone." In other words, get ready for the second coming of the Cold War, except that this time actual attacks may occur…………