Kansas Classrooms

I can’t teach you about safe sex because it might encourage you to become promiscuous.

I can’t tell you what airbags do. That information will make you think it’s okay to start crashing into things.

I’m sorry class. We can no longer study Mexico. As you’d all run away to Tijuana if I told you what was there.

If I teach you girls how to rescue a burnt casserole, how can I trust you to follow the teachings of Héloise?

I’m afraid I can’t tell you how Hannibal crossed the Alps. If I did, you crazy kids are likely to conquer the prom with elephants. Oops.

Trigonometry will no longer be taught. You could use that knowledge to calculate the trajectory of eggs thrown at my Geo Metro.

We won’t be using safety glasses this year in shop class. I believe anyone who gets a word chip in their eye have it coming.

Science has been cancelled because your parents prefer to believe in magic.

– Big Fat Whale, Brian McFadden 2006

Saeculum Obscurum‏

The Saeculum Obscurum of the Papacy is a name given to a period in the history of the Papacy during the first half of the 10th century, beginning with the installation of Pope Sergius III in 904 and lasting for sixty years until the death of Pope John XII in 964.

Pope Sergius III reigned from 904 to 911.

As a matter of fact, the dark ages of the papacy are also known as the pornocracy, the time politicking popes were mainly governed by local noblemen and prostitutes.

Sergius III is arguably the best example of the unbridled debauchery of the pornocracy. He was possibly the only pope known to have ordered the murder of another pope, namely Pope Leo V and his anti-pope Christopher, and probably the only pope to father an illegitimate son who later became pope and assumed the name John XI.

Cilice‏

A cilice‏ (pronounced ‘silees’) is a garment of rough cloth made from goats’ hair and worn in the form of a shirt or as a girdle around the loins, by way of mortification and penance.

The Latin name is said to be derived from the word Cilicia, where this cloth was made, but the thing itself was probably known and used long before this name was given to it. The sackcloth, for instance, is often mentioned in the Bible as a symbol of mourning and penance.

“A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.” – H. L. Mencken

Per Procurationem

From the Latin procurare, meaning to take care of, is a form of procuration. It involves the action of taking care of, hence management, stewardship, or agency. The word is applied to the authority or power delegated to a procurator, or agent, as well as to the exercise of such authority expressed frequently by procuration pro persona, or shortly per pro., or simply p.p.

Pope St. Pius IX

A common usage of per procurationem occurs in business letters, which are often signed on behalf of another person. For example, given a secretary authorized to sign a letter on behalf of the president of a company.

In ecclesiastical law, procuration is the provision of necessaries for bishops and archdeacons during their visitations of parochial churches in their dioceses. Procuration originally took the form of meat, drink, provender, and other accommodation, but was gradually changed to a sum of money.

The Pope of the Roman Catholic church signs papal laws and other formal documents with p.p. followed by his regal name.

Note also that English criminal law makes the provision or attempted provision of any person under twenty-one years of age for the purpose of illicit intercourse or prostitution, an offence, known as procuration.