I'd actually composed a few little rants in the course of the day, but that puts them into perspective. Here goes anyway

Two dominant thoughts this lunchtime. First of all the water boiler at work's broken, so people have been continuously boiling the same old kettle all day. When I came to make a coffee it just reeked of chlorine, something I choose not to drink. It dawned on me that boiling the water continuously must concentrate the pollutants (which don't evaporate) until you're drinking dilute bleach.

Second thoughts from the Guardian, so probably a bit of an exaggeration, but the Catholic Church's new policy seems to ban girl altar servers, clapping and dancing in church and puts ecumenical services on a par with black mass. After describing homosexuality as "evil" a few weeks ago, none of these would surprise me hugely. What with gays and contraception, the church seems to be getting progressively more and more extremist.

So join the dots. As secular influences grow, is the church working in the same way as the kettle? As the influence of catholicism shrinks, is it destined to become an extremist remnant? Sad really, because if the church would only use its influence for good (stopping wars, bringing peace to people's hearts, saving the planet) rather than focussing on what are fairly fringe causes in the big picture, it could really be a positive influence, rather than the reactionary axe-grinder it seems determined to be.

Eventually all but the coffee addicts in the office switched to bottled water.