I suppose there's no accounting for taste, and the mission-planners behind the selection of code-names, patches and mascots and free to choose whatever they see fit—surely within there own obscure rules for naming conventions, but there also seems no limits for hubris and insensitivity.
Consider the different angles of coverage of a secretive launch of a spy-satellite for an agency called US National Reconnaissance Office, brought to us by the
Laughing Squid, whose payload may or may not include a swarm of micro-satellites that can be deployed against rival snoopers in emergency situation—or just offensively too I suppose. In the current international climate, it does seem especially tasteless and low-brow, like riding around in a pick-up truck with a Confederate flag in the cabin rear window or wearing some really awful t-shirt that's more pity than scary or offensive, considering no one cared about the wearer enough to suggest that that might not be putting forward his best image.
