I'm sick of the political ads, yes, but only because they are wasteful, tiresome and purposefully misleading. But they can be entertaining with their creative negativity.

What is distressing is the judicial campaigns. Oh my, it's like watching civilization flushed down the toilet.

Lately, it's the ones interviewing random people about what we all need, tough on crime. Apparently, there's one branch of government not affected by the economic downturn and is expecting an endless budget. CUT THEIR SALARIES, I say.

Next up are the ones that exploit a single victim of a crime. Guess what? It's not hard finding someone upset with the justice system. It makes me feel sorry for that prosecutor.

And then there's the biggest fraud: The one targeting Denise Langford Morris for being SOFT ON CRIME. Oh my, my. Guess what - lots of people get probation for crimes. But most disheartening is that they refer to Langford Morris letting "a rapper" go after a second gun possession incident. They twice or thrice refer to "a rapper," but this is rapper is Oakland County's own Eminem. Why not say it? Why hide? What's the problem? Call it what it is.

Again, it's just shameful that this is how the laws in our state are shaped, by judges who rely on such tactics to keep their high-paying jobs.

My assessment of Langford Morris after seeing her in action? She's made some tough choices. Toughest one was giving a prison sentence to a 16 year old who had killed her baby immediately after giving birth in a hospital bathroom. Did she not know she was pregnant? Did she panic? Did she intend to kill the baby?

The jury debated for days and finally convicted of second-degree murder. The judge shocked everyone with a small sentence, something like 2 years to 10 years with credit for time served on a tether on house arrest. Everyone complained. She shouldn't have gone to prison; she should have gotten a longer term. Someone called it an illegal sentence, due to the time served clause.

Thing is, I don't recall it being appealed because the appellate decision could have come down a number of ways. The girl served a couple years in prison, and then was paroled - but not at her first opportunity.

The judge made a decision that no one was happy with and everyone learned to live with it. Seems like a good judge to me. Also, she can take forever deciding something as she weighs the variety of issues. That sounds like Supreme Court material to me, too.

A great summary of the Detroit Lions/Free Press Lionsgate, as a couple of tweeters have declared, can be found at our The Back Page blog, written by sports copy editor-reporter Paul Kampe.

I saw several references to the fake quote attributed to Coach Jim Swartz, but I hadn't seen the Saturday story. I couldn't find a copy of the false quote because it had been pulled off line, and because of the lack of home delivery, it was like it never happened - almost.

Thank you, Paul, for getting the full story so we can all make our judgments.

And all I can say is that it's a shame when a little gag can bring anyone down to the level of student paper. I wonder if Luther Ellis was laughing.

Congratulations to Michael Patton, the new chief of police in West Bloomfield.
He always was reliable, friendly and helpful when I covered the township, when I covered police and whenever I had to call him about anything as a courts reporter.
He seems a very capable and trustworthy leader.
Good luck dealing with the township board, Mike, but I'm sure you're up for the job. They have a great department in that community, just as they have a great fire department and library.
I just wonder why it's so hard for the elected leaders to get along.

Mark Pain of the Daily Mail took one of the best golf shots you could imagine when he found himself in the way of Tiger Woods' errant shot during the recent Ryder Cup matches in Wales.

The shot looks painful, as the ball races towards the camera.

It looks like the shot is going where it's supposed to but that the cameraman got into the way; however, that's not the case with this one.

The shot was off. Many bloggers have noted Woods' disdain for photographers, and that's obvious from the second photo on the above link - that of Woods scowling at the photographer. Also, the above link notes that the photographer brought Woods to a halt, but if you look at his entire year, it's more appropriate to say that Woods has brought his career to this current winless halt with his personal life spilling over and hurting his golf.

It sure was a lot less joyous for this Ryder Cup than past ones. Even the Europeans seemed to have more fun, here in the U.S. - in our Bloomfield Township - in 2004 than this year in Wales, though I blame the weather for that. Also, this year's matchups were better than prior years with such a close effort between to the two teams; just too bad I got to watch so little on TV.

Mostly, that lack of TV for me was due to the time difference but the weather certainly didn't help me with this.