The White House has finally offered a response to the celebrated “Let’s build a Death Star” petition that was uploaded to the “We the People” site and got more than the 25,000 signatures necessary to get such a reply. It is entitled, cheekily enough, “This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For” and was written by Paul Shawcross and posted on Jan. 11, 2013.
Not surprisingly the Obama administration is not going to build a death star. The reasons stated are laid out:
“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?”
Of course, considering the fact of $1 trillion deficits as far as the eye can see, one might argue with the first supposition. But Shawcross does go on to take credit on behalf of the Obama administration for a number of space projects, including the International Space Station and the Mars Curiosity, that the president’s predecessors conceived of and built. The response concludes with the implication that the force is with President Obama because of his enthusiasm for science and engineering.
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