The first ammendment: freedom of speech. anyone can say whatever the hell they feel like saying.
Tim, its true that he is a 14 year old, and that he is old enough to be on this site, but emotionally he is not as mature as the rest of us and he probably takes a lot of the joking to heart. I'm not saying everyones a jerk for picking on him (even though I do think it was a little out of line), and I'm also not saying everything he posts is relevant, because its not. I would, however like to see these kinds of things handled through PM's like tim said. although it is a touchy subject that has gotten more than a few people fired up, there is no reason to make a spectacle of the situation.
thats my 2 cents!