Watch out, Grandma

A 26-year-old Palestinian man undergoing mental health care has been charged with making a rather unusual (if you're not a Sharkey, that is) and purportedly joking threat against President Bush, for which he faces up five years in federal prison if convicted, according to an Associated Press report.

Federal grand jurors indicted Arafat Nijmeh on March 23 on two felony counts of "knowingly and willfully" threatening to harm Bush - first by telling two workers at his treatment center that he wanted to castrate Bush, then a day later to Secret Service agents notified by the center.

Though the piece quoted a law professor as calling this "national security gone berserk" in reacting so strongly to what was almost certainly less than serious and could very well have been "delirious rantings of a mental patient," the Secret Service is apparently bored or misguided enough not to care.

So, while you're cursing those fascists running the public library, Grandma, you might want to be mindful of your company.