Despite Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) corporate mantra "Do No Evil," the company has managed to help the federal government find another way to squander our money. This time, images from Google Earth have revealed that the Seabee's barracks at the U.S. Navy's Coronado amphibious base, constructed in the late 1960's, were built in the shape of a swastika. After the Jewish Anti-Defamation League protested, the cause was taken up by U.S. Rep. Susan Davis, Democrat from San Diego, and various squawk radio hosts. In response, the Navy has now budgeted $600,000 to camouflage the building.
So here's the way we save $600,000. After Google unveiled its Street View program, providing street-level navigatible images of major U.S. cities, people whose images had been captured in these photos complained. In response, Google has agreed to smudge faces so that individuals cannot be recognized.
Couldn't the same be done with images of the swastika building? Smudge them until the swastika disappears. Or, better yet, why not replace the image with a smiley face? Only astronauts would know the difference, and for a small cut of the $600,000 they could probably be convinced to overlook it.
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