
This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For - mikebike
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/isnt-petition-response-youre-looking
======
peter_l_downs
The ending is the best part!

    
    
        > If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering
        > or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the
        > Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system,
        >  is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

~~~
rvkennedy
Whoa there: Church and State!

------
georgemcbay
"The Administration does not support blowing up planets."

I guess we're going to have to wait until the Republicans are back in the
executive branch.

~~~
jerf
"Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.

"You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the
Earth. You've heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or
cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of
pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world.

"Fools.

"The Earth is built to last. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old,
5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne _ball of iron_. It has taken more
devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you've had hot dinners, and lo,
it still orbits merrily. So my first piece of advice to you, dear would-be
Earth-destroyer, is: do NOT think this will be easy."

\- Sam Hughes, "How to destroy the Earth" - <http://qntm.org/destroy>

~~~
dinkumthinkum
I think when people say "destroy the Earth" they are talking more about it's
habitability than what a Death Star can do.

~~~
ceol
Well, it recovered pretty well after a 6 mile wide rock going millions of
miles per hour hit it right in the face and cause one of the biggest
extinction events in its history.

If that didn't destroy its habitability for good, I'm not sure we'd be able to
do it.

~~~
autotravis
> "If that didn't destroy its habitability for good, I'm not sure we'd be able
> to do it."

But we sure can make it a lot more miserable to live on.

~~~
baddox
Sure, but by this point we've redefined "destroying the Earth" to mean "making
someone less comfortable."

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jtokoph
Now that they write a joke response to a joke petition, it would be nice to
see a serious response to a serious petition.

~~~
ghc
While there are jokes within the response, I do not believe this to be a "joke
response". The points he makes are good, and the call to action regarding
careers in math and science is a fantastic way to handle a response likely to
be read by 14-16 year olds throughout the reaches of the internet.

Paul Shawcross is still a long way from making amends for what he's done to
help cripple our human space flight program, however.

~~~
JamisonM
The "Shawcross Option" might have been for the best for all we know. The
shuttle was designed to be expensive, doing things that it never really needed
to do. If NASA had ended the shuttle program sooner we might very well have a
better space-exploration-only vehicle out on the tarmac right now instead
of... what do we have now? Oh, right, nothing. I would add that the emphasis
on non-human exploration seems to be about the best possible PR and science
move for NASA, it has been cheap and generated positive buzz in the media as
mission after mission has exceeded expectations.

------
xal
This is inspired. I don't think it would have been possible to pen a better
response here. Even the call to action was brilliant.

------
sethbannon
I can't tell you how happy it makes me to know our federal government has a
sense of humor.

~~~
Osiris
Sometimes we forget that the government is really a conglomeration of (mostly)
normal people and just an amorphous blob of ludocracy.

~~~
dakimov
Not in all countries, in fact, in most countries governments consist of
goblins. I think there is a correlation between the national wealth and the
percentage of normal people in the government.

------
consultutah
That is hilarious! Can we all vote on making Paul Shawcross the official
responder to all WH petitions? Ok, maybe just the silly frivolous ones?

------
Samuel_Michon
_"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 White House blog doesn't link to the source article, so here it is:

[http://www.centives.net/S/2012/how-much-would-it-cost-to-
bui...](http://www.centives.net/S/2012/how-much-would-it-cost-to-build-the-
death-star/)

~~~
DanBC

        Estimated cost of death star $850,000,000,000,000,000
        Estimated current US debt         $16,437,339,543,399
    
        Cost of Death Star per US citizen      $2,705,101,099
        Estimated US debt per US citizen              $52,311
    
    

(Figures from (<http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/>) I have no idea if they're
realistic or not.)

------
vermontdevil
Seems they have not altered the deal to respond to petitions if it hits a
threshold. Let's pray these responses are not altered in the future.

------
monochromatic
I deleted my reddit account in part because of the Obama-fellating. Can we
keep the politics off HN?

------
mynameishere
Stopped reading at "Death Star". Kind of ashamed that I blew 20 seconds typing
this. Also ashamed that probably 50K in tax dollars were blown in responding
to it.

~~~
T-hawk
I am proud if $0.00043 of my taxpayer dollars went to this. It gave me more
value than I get from the vast majority of $0.00043 increments of my taxes.

($50k/$2.9 trillion government taxation revenue * my approximate tax paid
yearly = $0.00043)

~~~
eupharis
Now I am as critical as anyone of frivolous public spending, but how in god's
name did you get to $50,000 for this? At worst, this took one Friday afternoon
of this government employee's time. Just how well do you think this guy is
paid?

One afternoon of this guy's time at $50,000 would mean an annual salary of
$26,100,000.

(261 workdays per year * 2 * $50,000)

In all likelihood, this was either done on this guy's own time or took like an
hour....

Time well spent if you ask me :)

~~~
mynameishere
Meeting after meeting after memo after memo. The government can blow through
money for no reason faster than you can possibly imagine.

------
mtgx
I would've been more interested in a response for the more "realistic"
petition for an interplanetary ship.

[https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/assign-nasa-do-
fea...](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/assign-nasa-do-feasibility-
study-and-conceptual-design-gen1-uss-enterprise-interplanetary-
spaceship/DB07k8jF?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl)

~~~
melignus
Added this one to the app also XD <http://projects.melignus.com/petition-
heatmap>

------
CurtHagenlocher
As an American taxpayer, I applaud this use of my tax dollars.

------
tomasien
The Government is showing the early signs of "getting" the internet. This
could get interesting.

------
sonabinu
This is one of the best things I've read all day ;)

------
jeremyw
Ahhh, the _Chief of the Science and Space Branch_ at OMB perpetuates achieving
"the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs". Allow me to author a petition...

------
cheeseandbacon
When this pop-culture reference is forgotten and some historian ready this...
they'll think we were all a bunch of loons.

~~~
chris_wot
Who says they woul be thinking incorrectly?

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vojant
Just hilarious! May the Force be with you!

~~~
205guy
I think the Farce is strong in that one.

Seriously though, all it takes is a bunch of Star Wars reference to garner a
bunch of Likes? No wonder there are so many actors in politics.

~~~
mbetter
Everything that isn't a Star Wars reference in that response is fantastic and
actually a little inspiring.

------
melignus
I added the death star data to my toy project I've been working on.

<http://projects.melignus.com/petition-heatmap>

------
aurelianito
Wow! I never expected a C3PO division of NASA!

<http://www.nasa.gov/offices/c3po/home/index.html>

------
maligree
That was awfully a lot like hearing my parents say to me "you don't need the
Brickbeard's Bounty LEGO set, you already have the Castaway's Raft, son".

------
danso
For all the talk of the Obama administration being anti-religon, they're
relying on ancient myth to argue against technological progress

------
late2part
This is the funniest part of the response by the Obama Administration:

"We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it."

------
spiritplumber
_applause_

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ck2
Wait, is private industry really going to put a human on the moon this decade?

Somehow that feels like vaporware.

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tunnuz
Hilarious, this made my day :D

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ekianjo
"working hard to reduce the deficit". Haha, good one.

------
asdf333
well played, obama administration. well played.

