stinking badges

People's children are so amusing and exhausting.

Yesterday evening two boys, one 6 years old, & one 8, hung out by my office waiting for their dad. The six-year-old asked questions beginning with the words "What if..." 94,887,132,745 times.

The 8-year-old came up with the observation which I wrote about here yesterday, that it was "a good thing" that I am "not evil." (!?!)

Because I'm in a position of protecting, and making sure things are OK and keeping track of things -- his imagination and line-of-logic led him to the thought, I guess: "It's a good thing you're not evil." He was imagining the possibility for "corruption in high places" -- not that I'm in a "high place," but a responsible place, you could say.

For a kid to think about corruption as a possibility seemed kind of advanced, to me. A complex concept for an eight-year-old child to come up with on his own.

I told a co-worker about it: I said,
"For an eight-year-old -- (second grade??) -- that's a complex thought."
"Too much TV!" she laughed.

------------------- After a space of time when they waited for their dad, and didn't "raise any hell" as children will sometimes do when they are bored, they noticed there was a computer and the eight-year-old immediately, confidently suggested that we "download a movie."
(??!!)
Our company has no less than three techs whose main priorities include preventing that sort of thing. (Plus, I SO would not know how to do it...)

So then I had to explain that to them, that people can have access to computers but they can't necessarily do everything they feel like. I told them, "Most of the movies and things are blocked," which is true. You click in and a tedious black and white sign comes up on the screen saying, "Access Denied" or something like that.

Mr. "you're-not-evil" was taken aback with the concept of blocked. It was kind of funny -- he was like, "Blocked? Blocked? What do you mean, blocked?"
He was used to whatever internet freedom his parents allow him (which probably leaves plenty of stuff out of reach, but he just doesn't know it) -- he had never heard of "blocked" before, & was not "on board" with it. (Since he's concerned about corruption, he is probably opposed to censorship also...?!)

The way he said, "Blocked? BLOCKED??" was funny...
It made me think of this classic (code: old & in black-and-white) movie, Treasure of the Sierra Madre where Humphrey Bogart encounters these guys from Mexico and Bogart asks, "Let me see your badges." And the leading Mexican man says, with energy and outrage which increases as he speaks,

"Badges? Badges??!! We don't have to show you no stinkin' badges!!!!"

That's an often-repeated line -- I had heard the line many times before I ever saw the film.
And I thought of that last night, going home: "Blocked? Blocked??!! What do you mean, BLOCKED?! They can't block no stinkin' downloads!!!!"

Going to Google, and typing in the words
stinking badges
takes us right to what we need.
[excerpt, Wikipedia]-----
First appeared: novel, 1927, by B. Traven: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre:
"All right," Curtin shouted back. "If you are the police, where are your badges? Let's see them."
"Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don't need badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabro'n and ching' tu madre! Come out from that shit-hole of yours. I have to speak to you."

The line was popularized by the 1948 film adaptation of the novel. In one scene, a Mexican bandit leader named "Gold Hat" (portrayed by Alfonso Bedoya) tries to convince Fred C. Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) that he and his company are Federales:

Dobbs: "If you're the police where are your badges?"
Gold Hat: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"

In 1967 in the TV show The Monkees, episode 33, Micky Dolenz phrased bandit's line as "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges."

The 1974 parody film Blading Saddles repeated the line as "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges." ...Many additional examples exist.

The 1989 comedy UHF starring "Weird Al" Yankovic had the phrase "Badgers? Badgers? We don't need no stinking badgers!" by the character Raul Hernandez (played by Trinidad Silva) when he receives a shipment of animals.
------- [end Wikipedia excerpt]
Badgers. L-L-L-L-L-L-LOL

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