On February 18, 2010, Joseph Stack rammed his airplane into an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office building at 170 miles per hour. His kamikaze attack on the Austin, Texas structure resulted in the death of an innocent 68 year old veteran and many others being injured. In his Internet-posted suicide note, the pilot ranted about many things including "big brother" and "the government," but mostly, he made references to losing money. His six-page note enlightened us about his repeated financial pitfalls and how the suffering economy hurt him fiscally. The man made repeated references to how he lost his savings and how the government was indifferent to his plight. Yet, what is most interesting, is that in the close of his letter, he tells the IRS to "take my pound of flesh and sleep well."

The reference to the "pound of flesh" originates in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice," the famous 16th century theater production. In the play, the character 'Shylock' is a Jewish and "unfeeling" moneylender who lends money to his Christian rival, Antonio. Shylock sets a condition for the loan: if Antonio is unable to repay it at the specified date, he may take a pound of Antonio's flesh. When a bankrupt Antonio defaults on the loan, Shylock demands the pound of flesh.

Hitler used Shakespeare's Shylock and his "take my pound of flesh" as propaganda in his strides against the Jews. The Nazis broadcast 'The Merchant of Venice' over the German airwaves and elsewhere within the Nazi territory to promote the idea that the Jews control the finances and economy of not only Germany but the entire world. Anti-Jewish books which discuss 'the Jews' and their 'control over money' have been distributed for centuries, including the notorious 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' and Henry Ford's anti-Jewish volume 'The International Jew.' Even in 2010, there remains the commonly repeated anti-Semitic notion that 'the Jews' control and sway their power over the Federal Reserve System, the banking authority of the United States. Further, a common anti-Semitic harangue is that the IRS is 'a collection agency' for the Jews and their Federal Reserve System.

This begs a legitimate question, when a frustrated and angry Joseph Stack provided his "pound of flesh" to the "IRS man" via his suicide flight, was he doing it because of what he saw as Jewish control over the IRS and by extension blaming the Jews for his own woes? Just a thought.

Smoke billows from a seven-story building where offices of the IRS are located
in Austin, Tex., after a private plane crashed into it.
Photo Credit: A. Martinez/AP

Note: This essay was the first to report the potential connection between Merchant of Venice and the Joe Stack crash.