"I would hope you can look at me and understand I'm not a walking, talking, blithering idiot."

Nobody is suggesting that a tenured professor with a good research track record in polymer science is an idiot. "Fool" is a more correct term.

Regardless of whether the two professors really did something worthy of censure is almost beside the point. Thames' handling of the matter -- at midterm during the legislative session -- was foolish. His comments regarding "criminal charges," "red-blooded American men," etc., were foolish. And the way due process has been -- and continues to be -- handled in this case was foolish.

Thames seems to have a problem fathoming the consequences of his own behavior. Thames seems to think that the ends always justify the means. That doesn't even work any more in the corporate world that Thames seems to revere so much.