Several people have proposed going after Najera’s spineless employers by dunning them with email. Please do not. He has requested that people not jeopardize his job further, so further action is discouraged, OK?

Via Orac comes this amazing story of a thug intimidating a public health employee: it seems Mr Daniels was very upset with René Najera, an epidemiologist, who has been blogging and tweeting about medicine and quackery, and when the two of them got into an argument on the internet, Daniels took the low road. He contacted Najera’s employers, waved lawyers around, and compelled the department he worked for to demand that he stop all these extracurricular internet activities, or be fired.

Mr Daniels has the appearance of a coward and somebody who can’t hold his own in an argument. And because his feelings were hurt by his own inadequacy, he took steps to silence an informed voice on the internet.

And it gets worse. Liz Ditz has a detailed summary of the affair, and Daniels appears in the comments, frantically throwing out more threats, and bragging about his giant penis financial worth.

i am mr. x; first, i am not anti-vax; second, i didn’t want epiren to stop posting, but rather to take down the defamatory blog; third, i am not done going after every individual who defames me. you think you are safe, but all i have to do is file a john doe – or hire a cyber investigator. these courses of action cost less than $10,000 each; which means every person who is afraid of the light can be exposed. i will not tolerate harassment, defamation, or any such action by any of you. i am very aware of all of you, and have the capital and the will to go after each and every one of you ONLY IF you defame or slander me. i am self employed if you count owning 11 pharmaceutical companies with cum gross sales over 1/2 billion.

That’s the general threat; he’s also targeted specific individuals.

and just so we are clear. the next person on the list is anarchic teapot. i’ve already hired two firms to track him down.

actuall, to save me $9,000 i will offer $1,000 for identify info that leads to an address where i can serve anarchic teapot (legally serve as in sheriff delivers court papers).

I think he’s aware that he’s lost. Since posting these things, he’s started trying to erase himself from the internet: he has taken down his own blog, youtube and twitter accounts, and his linkedin account. This is a man desperately trying to escape the court of public opinion, where his money doesn’t matter and his actions expose him as a damaging influence on the flow of information.

Some bits and pieces of his blog have been recovered via google cache, like his bizarre post bragging about how he lost a court case in which he tried to market a copy-cat drug, a folate supplement, but that the drug was being used by one family to treat autism…which he considered a victory. In fact, most of the blog posts I’ve seen by him are all about his court cases. This is how he sees himself:

Rhett S. Daniels, M.Sc. (aka cigaRHETT)

Fort Myers, Florida, United States Activist, philanthropist and entrepreneur. Highly skilled executive who excels at taking small struggling companies from low to high revenues in short periods. Boast an impressive record of the most pharmaceutical drug products ever developed by one person (over 400) in the history of pharma – surpassing my idol, Robert Stockstad from Lederle Pharma (he developed folic acid in 1947). One of the most successful non-lawyer ProSe litigants in history. As of July 18, 2011, total product sales since July 18, 2006, are: $590,635,984 (and 22,728,724 units sold!). politics: cigaRHETT (blog): www.cigaRHETT.com and, day job: www.linkedin.com/in/cigaRHETT ViaDiem Holdings (Founder): www.viadiem.com Captiva Pharma (CEO): www.CaptivaRx.com day-to-day affairs: www.twitter.com/cigaRHETT and music & videos: www.myspace.com/rhettsdaniels www.youtube.com/rhettdaniels Goals: (1) To lead a small pharma company from less than $20 million/yr to over $1 billion/yr in revenues; (2) To feed 82 million Africans with my new unique ingredients that purifies water while provided demographic and staple-deficient based vitamins to provide min RDA based on regional disparities;

Ugh. One of those guys. Glorified beancounter.

But you haven’t seen how pathetic he can get, yet. After several people expressed their squeamishness at his implied claim that folate could be used to treat autism, he starts wheedling.

emily, is this you?

http://biologyfiles.fieldofscience.com/

i am impressed.

having said that i womder why someone of your stature would bash me since people like me fund projects that people like you work on? i am preparing a $50,000 grant to a university in TX…

“Be nice to me, I have money!”

emily, i have autistic family (not immediate), and wonder how you can so easily dismiss my dugs?

there are respected scientist who are behind me on this….strange, didnt xpect someone who actually knows personally the pain of autism to be so quick to bash another?

“How can you be so cruel to autistic children?”

Emily – forgive my typos, i am more a programmer like your husband and not as good at grammar as you are.

“I can track down your family and already am gathering information on them.”

What a wretched, pathetic little man. Run away and hide, Rhett Daniels, your own words expose you for what you are.