IT’S A STEAL AT $852 QUADRILLION
Given his recalcitrance during the ongoing deficit debate, it’s clear that U.S. President Barack Obama comes from the Emperor Palpatine school of negotiating. Which is probably why it’s a good thing he doesn’t have his own Death Star … at least not yet.
An effort to change that is in the offing. In fact a petition posted to the White House website urges the federal government to “secure funding and resources, and begin construction on a Death Star by 2016.”
“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,” the petition states.
Wow … talk about hitting all of the “pro-business,” neo-con sweet spots. Anyway as of this writing, the document has received 1,493 signatures – well short of the 25,000 required for the White House to acknowledge it.
Believe it or not, students at Lehigh University recently calculated how much it would cost to build a Death Star. According to their research, the steel for the structure – which has a diameter of 140 kilometers – would cost $852 quadrillion. That’s 13,000 times the world’s current gross domestic product. It would also take 833,315 years to produce that much steel – based on current production levels.
Clearly such figures won’t discourage Obama – or Congressional “Republicans” – from moving forward with the project. After all, both major parties have committed to a tax-and-spend philosophy that’s itching to add a few more zeroes to our national debt.
What better excuse to do that than a Death Star?
UPDATE – For those of you interested in a better Star Wars analogy for our federal government’s excessive spending, click here.
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38 comments
Why not just a half of a death star? Worked in Return of the Jedi?
The US already has a version of this, except it’s called the Debt Star and when fired, it self destructs.
FITS – do you even know what “recalcitrance” means???
Maybe you ought to stick to penning those zillions of stories about the imminent indictment of Governor Haley!!
And release his tell all book. Hahahahaha1
Why don’t we just build a fleet of starships? I want to see Star Trek transporter technology.
Where did the Empire get all of its steel?
I don’t reckon Darth Vader had to deal with any pesky unions in building the Death Star.
From thousands of systems XD that why its called the empire
Why not just make the Death Star smaller? The big one was for destroying planets, but since we currently have just the one, we probably shouldn’t build one capable of destroying it. I imagine something considerably smaller would be suitable for destroying cities or even whole nations.
I also wonder about their model. Why build to the density of a warship? I haven’t built either a warship or something suitable for space travel, but I would think the needs of each are quite different, so the structural density of each may also be quite different.
WTF Sid? I didn’t know that you could be anything but a dishonorable dick.
Looks like someone has a little crush on me. Sorry, but you’re probably a pig, so no thanks. Plus, it seems you have a little too much in common with a certain lying coward who spends his free time stewing over past failures and sticking sharp objects up his arse. You two might make a perfect match.
Huh? You make no sense.
PS: Pigs don’t run track
So you’re a fit pig. Good for you. I’m sure it’s not the first time you’ve been called that. I’m still not interested, but I appreciate your persistence. I tend to go for reasonably attractive, minimum, and you likely fail to meet that threshold. That said, I’m sure you understand what I’m talking about.
You are totally creepy.
Because I respond to your personal jabs with my own? I didn’t seek out your post and offer insults rather than addressing the content of the post. That was you, sweetie.
If you don’t like people responding to you, don’t post. If you don’t like people getting personal, don’t initiate the personal attacks. It’s not that complicated.
You are creepy Sid.
If I recall, you are the one who shot his mouth all over the place and asked what Sarah looked like. Repeatedly.
Can you just go back to bragging about how smart you are. That was at least good “BigT style” entertainment.
Again, because I turned her personal attack around on her? If she’s the same pig I did it to before, then I guess she should have seen it coming.
As in this case, the previous case was someone who may be a broad was clearly fixated on me, making personal attacks rather than debating the actual issue. So I decided to have fun, and use the grade-school teasing comparison. You know, the idea that you tease the kid you are secretly attracted to?
Geeze, the fact that I have to explain such a rudimentary tactic to rubes like you just bolsters my argument that I am infinitely superior to you.
Oh, and isn’t it a little “creepy” that you feel the need to run to the defense of this pig? Maybe you think that will score some points with her. I guess your standards are just a little lower than mine.
Borg cube beats Death Star.
Sorry Sid…..you’re totally desperate.
Most of the people who post here are smarter than average (save BigT). You might wanna up your game.
Smarter than average isn’t saying much, especially considering you are talking about average in SC. That said, I’ve seen little to support your claim. But thanks for playing. Haven’t seen you attempt to make a point here in quite a while, but it’s nice to see you still underwhelm.
Lol :)
Hey Sid…..
When your Mom sends you her meat loaf down in the basement, let me know how it is. Restaurant quality?
Nice! Mom’s Basement insults. Way to live up to the high standards of SC intellectual potential. My mom happens to be dead, though, and while two of the three homes I own do have basements, I don’t live in either. As for meatloaf, I think the standard for excellence is usually a restaurant serving a product that is as good as mom’s, not the other way around. You really are Spackler, aren’t you? Or at least just as burnt out from too much weed.
Dude, stop braggin on yourself and belittling others and people will stop picking on you. Your ego is out of control. There is no need to tell everyone what you own, how smart you are, etc.
Let’s see, I posted a joking comment about the article, the pig decided to take a personal shot at me for no other reason than she has a perverse fascination with me, I responded with my own personal shot, but somehow I started this? Got it.
You decide to weigh in with your own weak defense of the pig, even though you had no dog in this fight, and when I slap you around a little to show you how much of an imbecile you are, you decide to offer your sad little opinion on how I should present myself? Got it.
If I thought I was being picked on, I would just go away. You and your ilk are little more than white noise. I am as concerned with your comments as is a tornado concerned with the trailer park in which you live.
So, if you don’t want me to treat you like an idiot, don’t act like one.
Do you even know what white noise is?
An Anthrax album?
A signal processing term?
LOL.
Oh, and you’re being picked on alright.
Also a movie and novel, but in this context, I was referring to you and your ilk as being meaningless or distracting chatter. Were you unaware of that definition? You must be even more of an idiot than I thought.
If this is what you call picking on someone, you must have been the only bully in your school who regularly went home crying and with a bloody nose. You must have quite the collection of scars, both physical and emotional.
The issue I was poking at is that you didn’t use the term correctly. Noise is what you meant. White noise is a type of noise, specifically a random process in which all wavelengths of its spectrum are reflected equally. The term comes from physics.
Why am I trying to explain this to you? I’ve got no chance in getting a scientific concept into your cranium.
Let us know how Moms meatloaf is.
So you were, and are, unaware. Allow me to educate you, yet again.
Merriam-Webster:
Definition of WHITE NOISE
1 a: a heterogeneous mixture of sound waves extending over a wide frequency range — compare pink noise
b: a constant background noise; especially: one that drowns out other sounds
2: meaningless or distracting commotion, hubbub, or chatter
While you may not be aware of this, due to your ignorance that appears to know no bounds, language is constantly evolving. Terms and phrases that have origins in certain spheres are sometimes adopted as commonly used idioms that, while often related to their origin, are generally not used in exactly the same way.
Thus, you have phrases like “down for the count.” Originally, this was a term used solely in boxing to describe a fighter who has been knocked out, or incapacitated in a way that he is unable to rise to his feet before the referee counts to 10, which would result in the fight being stopped, and the opposing fighter declared the winner.
These days, however, people often refer to someone being “down for the count” when they have lost a particular struggle, but one unrelated in any way to boxing or even being physically knocked down.
There are countless other examples I could offer you, but thought this rather appropriate, considering the circumstances.
I wonder why you didn’t call into question my use of the phrase “no dog in this fight”? Are you under the impression there is an actual dog fight going on somewhere, or do you simply concede that, yes, sometimes phrases work their way into our language that carry slightly different meanings than their origins? Or, most likely, were you just too stupid to notice?
BTW, my mother’s still dead. She did make a mean meatloaf, though.
Also, the Anthrax album is called Sound of White Noise, not White Noise, so you are so stupid you even got that wrong. It’s amazing you don’t forget to breathe.
BTW, call me when you open for Opeth.
That Tom Utley kid and his Third Palmetto Republic will stop this!
As a thrash metal drummer, I find it insulting that you know any of Anthrax’s albums. Please tell me you looked that up on the internet.
Yes, I looked it up. I prefer Metallica, and am not that familiar with Anthrax’s catalog. What’s your excuse for getting the title wrong? Oh, yeah, you are a moron.
So, you say you are a drummer? “Dude, stop braggin on yourself…” I guess it’s not bragging if you are still a nobody.
I never saw a real reason to talk about my time as a lead singer, but since you opened that door…
Apparently, you take your time in the background a bit more seriously than I took my time as a front man. But it was nice to hear some punk tell me he came to see the Dwarves, but when they didn’t show, he was still glad he was there to see my band.
To insult you even more, I was going to see bands that inspired the Big Four when you were probably unaware of what angry music was really all about. Thrash metal is fine, but it doesn’t hold a candle to punk and hardcore.
Thanx for the language update.
I’m impressed that you know who the big four are, but I think punk probably suits you better given your aggression level. And as a Norwegian black metal connoisseur, its pretty damned hard to scare me. BTW, I’m not sure being a heavy metal drummer is something one should brag about….I usually lose points there. But I suppose technically its harder than singing punk, especially with the double bass.
Last point: The Sound of White Noise moniker refers to a frequency distribution that implies pure random noise. Not pink noise, not purple noise, but pure f’in noise. It is the band insulting themselves — that their music might as well be played purely at random. It is painful to watch you butcher these concepts.
Not too shocking you are impressed by something pretty widely understood. You are probably impressed by the magic of a toaster.
Who said I sang punk? Technically, drummers are a dime a dozen, but a good front man is hard to find. Only other drummers go to a show to watch drummers. Front men are what draw most people, followed by six-stringers, four-stringers, and the occasional keyboardist. You rarely rate.
Not sure anyone implied you were scared, but the fact that you brought it up voluntarily tells a lot about you.
As for the background on the Anthrax album, again, I used the term in a different, but widely accepted, application. The fact that you either cannot recognize language unless it fits your personal construct, or are simply too stubborn to admit you are wrong is interesting. I’m voting you are just stupid, as that fits you, but am willing to accept the possibility you are just stubborn. Either way, I’m right, and you are wrong. But that was to be expected.
Shit Sid,
I didn’t think I’ve have time to reply to u today.
I reckon I’m depressed that you couldn’t understand/learn what I tried to explain to you, but so be it…..its amusing how you habitually argue small shit, in hopes of being right.
Rock on Chicago.
Chicago? Been there once or twice, but another swing and a miss fer ye.
I know I’m right, since I used the term in a widely accepted manner, and have offered you proof. The problem was that you didn’t know of any use of the term other than that which your tiny brain could comprehend, so you just assumed I was using it in the only way you knew. Of course, you were wrong, as usual, but just unwilling to accept it.
Now, show me where I was not right?
*looks at comments section*
youtube.com/watch?v=Gqw1FI1hfJA
Only this could make Newt’s moon colonization of the moon, in order to claim it for the US, look sane.