"I used to tell all junior DBAs working for me that no cursors or temp tables were allowed. It was an iron rule for them to work within in the SQL Server v6.5 days and they needed to abide by it. Then one of them saw me using a cursor to perform some administrative update and asked me why. "

I personally do not make "ironclad rules" like this for a very obvious reason. It sounds dictatorial. I agree their use should be discouraged as a front line go to tool, but I think establishing an "iron rule" to not use them is a bit much.:-D