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The Nature of Emotion:
Emotion and Culture
The Nature of Stress
Gender and Emotion
Coping With Stress
Psychology in the News,
Revisited
Taking Psychology With
You: The Dilemma of
It Up”? The Dilemma of Anger: “Let It Out” or “Bottle
13 “Bottle It Up”?
Stack also set fire to his house, which was about six
miles from the crash site, before embarking on the suicide
flight. His wife and her young daughter had escaped the
night before.
Stack married Sheryl Housh about three years ago. He
never spoke of his troubles with the IRS to her family, who
thought he seemed fine when they gathered at Christmas.
Man Crashes Plane Into Austin, Texas,
IRS Office
AUSTIN, TX, February 18, 2010. A software engineer who was
angry with the Internal Revenue Service launched a sui-
cide attack on the agency Thursday by crashing his small
plane into a seven-story office building housing nearly 200
IRS employees, setting off a raging fire that sent work-
ers fleeing for their lives. In addition to the attacker, two
employees died in the blaze and two others were seriously
burned.
The pilot has been identified as Andrew Joseph (Joe)
Stack III, 53, of Austin, who posted a furious, six-page
(^) antigovernment farewell note on the Web before getting
into his plane for his suicidal flight. Stack cited run-ins
with the IRS and ranted about taxes, government bailouts,
and corporate America’s “thugs and plunderers.” “I have
had all I can stand,” he wrote. “Well, Mr. Big Brother I.R.S.
man, let’s try something different, take my pound of flesh
and sleep well.”
Officials almost immediately ruled out the possibility that
Stack was connected to terrorist groups. Friends described
him as an easygoing man, a talented amateur musician, a
husband with marital troubles, and a citizen with a grudge
against the tax authorities. Although he was only 53, they
said, he felt pushed “over the brink” because financial set-
backs had required him to postpone his retirement dreams.
Psychology in the news
emotion, stress,
and health
Fire inspectors assess the damage to the office building destroyed by
a man who was angry at the IRS and upset about recent financial
setbacks. Two workers died in the blaze.