White House Receives Petition to Build Death Star

A Longmont, Colorado native identified only as "John D." has started a petition urging the U.S. government to build a military space station modeled after the Death Star from the Star Wars franchise. His petition made it to the White House website and has received over 3,000 signatures. The signatures of 25,000 citizens are required for the petition to be taken into consideration by governmental officials. John calls for construction to begin by 2016 and claims that, "By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense." Students from LeHigh University calculated that one quadrillion tons of steel would be required to build a Death Star the same size as the one in the film franchise. The cost of the steel alone would equate to be 13,000 times the planet's GDP.

This is just silly

I'm sorry...what?!? Really? Since when was the Death Star portrayed as a good idea. Last time I watched the Star Wars films, the good guys blew up the bad guys' Death Star because they were using it to blow up planets. At what point in the film did George Lucas convince 3,000 Americans that a planet-murdering space station was a wise investment? The name of the thing itself suggests that it might just not be in the best interest to advance the human race by building a Death Star. Hopefully in nine days, when the petition will die due to a lack of signatures, this issue will disappear from the minds of Americans and we won't have to worry about  a third party threat from the Imperial Party or the Sith Party in 2016. Instead, I think we should focus on spending that improves the lives of the people on our planet, rather than plunging back into the Space Race era of paranoia.