The latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight, features Heath Ledger's scary-looking Joker as the bad guy. In the film, the Joker marks the scenes of his crimes by leaving behind jester-faced playing cards. Apparently some kids in Pembroke, Virginia are fans of that movie and decided to make the Joker's calling card their own. They left playing cards with handwritten messages on them at different locations around town. What exactly the messages were isn't clear, but police say some of them referred to a specific date (August 15th) and had the word "Joker" written on them.

18-year-olds Justin Colby Dirico and Bryan Eugene Stafford say they were just having some fun and didn't mean any harm with the Joker cards, but officials are taking the prank quite seriously. They have both been charged with conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism. This severe charge may stem from the fact that many feel the Joker character in The Dark Knight is a terrorist himself. The boys copied something a fictional terrorist does, therefore they must be terrorist themselves.

I think what these kids did was supremely stupid and they deserve to be punished. But they are facing up to twenty years in prison. Isn't that a bit harsh?