'JUDGE JUDY' Delivering a decade of justice

Her mantra is 'accept responsibility.'
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Judith Sheindlin, familiarly known as television's Judge Judy, fixes the lawbreaker with her trademark brace-yourself-buddy glare.
"You're drinking my tea?" she says to Jerry Sheindlin, her husband of 29 years, who's lunching alongside her during a production break on her court show. Not bothering to appeal, he stops pouring from her cup into his and returns the property to its rightful owner.
For Judy Sheindlin, marking her 10th season as the star of one of TV's top-rated syndicated shows, watched by 10 million people daily, enforcing justice is a full-time job. Her grandchildren may enjoy some slack; all others, watch out.
That unforgiving approach to small-claims disputes culled from courts nationwide is what draws viewers.
"Accept responsibility for what you do in everything," the former New York family court judge said in an interview.
She was referring to her own expectation of how judges should behave and, in a more expansive view, the world.
Mantra
Her unshakable mantra is personal responsibility. It's a position that played well when her show began and may be even more beguiling in a time vexed by the forces of war and terror. The real power is yours, Sheindlin tells us; who wouldn't want to believe?
The 63-year-old who reminds you she successfully raised five children and stepchildren will not brook excuses from those she sees as skirting their duties.
A defendant who faced her recently found out how that applied to him. The college student, who stiffed a roommate for rent after an injury forced him out of a good-paying valet job, told Sheindlin he had no choice.
The judge did some quick math. If he had taken a minimum-wage job, say at a fast-food restaurant, and worked 10 hours a day, seven days a week, he could have met most of his financial obligation to the roomie.
"She's not related to you. She doesn't love you like your mother does," Sheindlin told him, delivering her lecture in a pitiless tone.
Sheindlin, who earned an Emmy nomination, her 10th overall, for the upcoming April ceremony, earns a reported $30 million yearly.