Full disclosure: I like Tucker Carlson. He's a nice guy. Questionable fashion sense. Even more questionable politics. But what can you do? Now that we've got that out of the way: I have no idea if any part of Tucker's personal bathroom anecdote was exaggerated or fabricated for entertainment purposes. And it is pretty appalling that when he shared the story, he and his fellow MSNBC panelists considered it such a scream. But assuming it's even mostly true, enough with all the high-minded hand-wringing on multiple web sites about vigilantism, the disproportionate use of force, and the disgraceful lack of etiquette when responding to unwelcome sexual overtures. We're talking about a teenage boy getting "grabbed" in a public men's room by a grown man. He freaked (as teenage boys tend to do), fetched a friend, and went back to see if the perv/perp in question was still around. Apparently, the adolescent Tucker was unnerved enough that he even had the restaurant call the cops. Call me bloodthirsty, but I've had more than one friend physically pushed around in public places (including a gas station restroom) by guys looking for a bit of ... companionship, and if any of those friends had fled the scene, called the cops, and then asked me to go back in and make sure the creep in question knew just how unacceptable his actions had been, I'd have been itching to go--especially if I thought there was a chance the perp might otherwise slip away. Yes, Tucker is a guy, not a girl (though now he's being simultaneously trashed as a head-bashing ruffian and a pathetic girlie-man.) And, his protestations aside, it's likely that his response was driven at least as much by his being creeped out that a member of his own gender had groped him as by any generic outrage over sexual predation taking place in a public john. The alleged encounter occurred, after all, 20 fricking years ago, not in today's Will-and-Grace-enlightened America. Anyone who doesn't recall how different things were 20 years ago is either happily delusional or too young to have been paying attention. So, yes, it's too bad that a frightened high school kid didn't respond more maturely when a grown man sexually menaced him in a public toilet--and worse still that MSNBC can't find a pundit who recognizes this episode as more disturbing than amusing. But talk about a disproportionate response... --Michelle Cottle