White House rejects petition urging U.S. to build a 'Death Star' - @cosmiclog nbcnews.to/WZqSvf
— Breaking News (@BreakingNews) January 12, 2013
Following up on our earlier reporting about popular demand for a federal Death Star program: the White House issued an official reply this evening in a statement worthy of the request, rejecting the idea but celebrating the the space initiatives already under way:
This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For
By Paul Shawcross
The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:
- The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
- The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
- Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
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What a great time to be alive, and aware.
Who's stupid idea was this? One missile and BOOM its coming down right on our heads! DUMB! We are much better off building water storage. Believe me we are gonna need it!
According to some, that's exactly what happened to the Ewoks. http://www.theforce.net/swtc/holocaust.html
However, Wookieepedia disagrees, citing the Ewoks of Endor's continued existence and crediting a fortuitous wormhole formation that miraculously transported the vast majority of the wreckage to another part of the galaxy. The destruction is just Imperalist propaganda. The magical retcon saves the species (for now), once again
This reminds me of that creationist who declared that he solved the genesis problem of where did the water come from by proposing that it was originally a shell of ice surrounding the atmosphere and that when the sun was formed it shattered/melted, I forget which, and fell to the surface. Sounded good until a physicist came along and pointed out that even a preposterously thin shell of 1 meter thickness has enormous mass and potential energy. The ice would turn the surface of the Earth into a hellscape inferno as the potential energy turned kinetic. Whoopsie, back to the drawing board.
Favorite thing I learned from the response (besides that there are some pretty die-hard Star Wars fans in the Administration): the official acronym for NASA's program to support private-sector space cargo is "C3PO."
The force is strong in that one.....
I wish you would have had this on the show
What a great response! Love it, and have shared it.
Me too! Obviously not written by Arne Duncan.
Paul is awesome. He's a friend and amazingly smart and funny. I'm thrilled his response is getting so much attention. He works hard and deserves it!
this is the coolest thing ever. if you are a star wars fan, take a minute and read this
Not for anything, I'm going to go out on a limb and guestimate the person(hopefully only one) that took the time (3 hours?) to write this ran the taxpayer about $200? Probably significantly more....
correction that guestimate was based on salary and benefits of about a 100k a quick google resulted in a doubling...at minimum of said estimate...sigh
Upon reading the dead star response, I searched the open petitions and there were none to bring home the troops from Afghanistan early. So I made one. Please sign if you agree!
http://wh.gov/EcfW
After all we will need troops to help operate the Death Star right....sigh
Upon further review I suppose the parts of the response that may(mayyy) create some interest in kids studying science may make the time taken to print this thing worth it in light of the publicity its getting. Honestly pointing out that the Death exists in the form of the debt ceiling might have been a better idea.
As I am reading this, I am wearing this shirt...
A few more shirts are available....
It's On Like Alderaan
Alderaan 5-Day Forecast
Sugar Skull Trooper
Empire Urban Regeneration
Kessel Run
May the 4th Be With You
Save Endor
The marshmallow cannon was pretty awesome. When I was a kid I once built a potato cannon. They're hilarious and fun to shoot, but a lot more dangerous than a marshmallow cannon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykF3TUTI2hU