We are all well aware, Dear Reader, that the purpose of a Government advertisement or slogan is not to inform, but to deceive. How else may we explain that the motto of the Strategic Air Command, the now disbanded organization that flew big, ugly B-52 bombers loaded with thermonuclear death over our heads twenty-four hours a day, was “Peace is Our Profession?” How else explain that the gates of Auschwitz had a sign reading “Work makes you free.”  Lies and distortions are the currency of government-speak.

We like it that way.

After all, how effective would military recruiting posters be if they presented a picture of a mutilated corpse with the caption “Join the Army and Get Your Ass Shot Off.” How effective would a Peace Corps recruiting posters be if it presented a picture of a young woman with disheveled clothing and a bloody face with the caption “Join the Peace Corps and Get Raped.” [This is not speculation, by the way. I knew a young woman to whom it happened, twice. Fortunately, the Peace Corps maintains special hospitals to treat the victims of these attacks. And that is not a joke.]

However, this policy of dissimulation appears to be coming to an end. Our friends at the National Reconnaissance Office, the guys who build the satellites that allow the NSA to perform your colonoscopy without requiring you to get off your own toilet, have a new motto and logo which are emblazoned on their launch vehicle for their latest foray into space. The motto is borderline acceptable: “Nothing is beyond our reach.” OK. However, the logo is something else. It shows a yellow and orange octopus, slightly larger than the earth, beak rasping at the arctic tundra, with tentacles wrapped completely around the planet.

Are you kidding me?

I can only conclude that this logo was designed by the same guys who created the Obamacare website.