Do we really need a Death Star?
Asked by
RocketGuy (
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January 12th, 2013
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Saw that petition a while ago around the time it hit goal. I love the official White House response to it lol
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Seriously though:
It’s nice to know that the current administration and congress still feel bound to The Constitution on some matters.
The response is totally epic.
I found this amusing, but didn’t like this part of the White House response:
Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
What a bunch of morons. That was an X Wing fighter, not a Star Ship. A Star Ship is a Star Trek vehicle.
I thought it was a great response, and not just because of the Star Wars references. It’s the way that the references were tied in seamlessly with reminders about how much our own space program has accomplished and the subtle clues as to how thoroughly the response was researched (the $850 quadrillion cost comes from an estimate done by economics students at LeHigh University as part of a project determining the feasibility of building a Death Star).
@filmfann I think the response uses “starship” in the generic sense. But you’re right, they should have gone with “starfighter.”
So what I learned from that response is that we have a Death Star, but it is masquerading as a peace loving space station.
How devious! That NASA is really tricky.
@wundayatta
That explains why the Borg did not open their time travel portal to the earlyy 21st century, but instead 2063 when the ISS was no longer around.
I’m appalled that the response was probably made by someone on a government payroll, and there’s probably a timesheet entry to explain the expenditure of time and resources on that response.
I’m all for humor, and I don’t even mind a little levity in the course of serious business. But I do not approve of sophomoric humor at taxpayer expense simply for its own sake. Fail.
…said the pot to the kettle.
now now, play nicely. ha
I’m all for it. So long as it can seamlessly remove rogue states and successfully aid in toppling absolutely incompetent governments like the UKs.
I thought the response was delightful. I think a little too much seriousness in serious business is a bad thing, and a little humor that is not at the expense of people who are genuinely really really struggling to exist as a result of a government’s actions is a refreshing thing. It simply denotes that even though there are people in government, they are actually human beings, not just money grabbing pigs who want all your money and screw you over further after that by asking for a bloody pay rise (I’m looking at the politicians of the UK at this point).
It would create jobs, and THINK OF HOW HAPPY it would make all of those people who think that the U.S. has some sort of responsibility as a global police force. American Imperialism actually bothers me so much that it makes me dislike the entire idea…
then again, my little fanboy heart melts with joy just thinking about it. Hehe. Let’s just make sure we don’t use faulty construction schematics…gotta hate those small thermal exhaust ports.
It may not be a global police force (which obviously it is not), but there are times when people do wonder I’m sure.
You’re right that it isn’t REALLY a global police force. But I do think that the U.S. government does a lot of posturing in that direction. But so does…well, every other global power, I guess. I’m not exactly an expert on foreign relations. Haha.
Darn it! I had the grant application already written!
What has this world come to?
yes let’s build a death star so one little mishap and we can blow our own planet up. Or no mishap the death star gets built and then gets used as a vehicle for threatening all the other countries who do not comply and do not have a death star.
I see building this death star things going terribly right or terribly wrong.
I don’t want to ante up a quadrillion bucks for one, but the sucka would be handy hardware to have the next time a piece of space junk the size of the Chicxulub Impactor comes barreling at us at 40,000 MPH.
Of course, these events only happen to our planet about once every 65 million years, so what’s the rush?
PS: Angling for a job as a cost-savings analyst, I signed the petition, then posted the above as a comment. $850 quadrillion dollars or not, it’s amazing what humans can accomplish when sufficiently motivated by abject terror.
Yeah yeah, the US builds a death star, then the Russians pull one out of a long-forgotten soviet bunker, the Chinese will have a knockoff ready by the end of the week (at a fraction of the original costs) India will get one too for some reason, and Pakistan will make a more compact, “catapult” model, then Iran will start to build one, and of course everyone will protest that… too much hassle imo.
Who needs a Death Star when building the Star Trek Enterprise is a much better proposition. We could search for another Earth and exploit it. Death Star my…oops, General Section I see…
That petition cannot be approved due The Outer Space Agreement of 1967 where the key points ”[...] bars States Parties to the Treaty from placing ... weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or to otherwise station them in outer space.”
- Wikipedia:Outer Space Treaty
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I say start small. Don’t get a death star, get an anti-fucktard ray gun instead.
@lightsourcetrickster I don’t think Congress would ever fund something so dangerous to its own membership.
We don’t neeeeeed another deeeeath staaaaaar, we don’t need another staaaar fleeeeet…
@ETpro I think you’ve just discovered a genuine paradox. Someone will have to work overtime figuring out how to spin that one!
@RocketGuy The article I saw said: “Left to Arm Deer.” Bucks cannot have more than 8 points.
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