This week's American Horror Story brings up an idea that I find disturbing and wonder if it's true

Kathy Bates joined the cast of American Horror Story this season, and she's playing Madame LaLaurie, an actual woman from New Orleans history who did horrible things to her slaves. Transformed into an immortal through the magic of voodoo queen Marie LaVeau, Madame LaLaurie is a pretty despicable person. She's murdered babies for their blood to make a poultice to keep her young, mutilated people, and just in general expressed a lot of delight while others around her suffered.

Delphine LaLaurie and Queenie (in the back). Queenie's witch power
is to be a living voodoo doll. Basically anything she does to
herself can be inflicted on another person.

So in Wednesday night's episode, she's cutting some sandwich meat in the role of "maid" some 200 years removed from the actual time period that birthed her, and explains to Queenie (played by black actress Gabourey Sidibe) and states that she's trying to be good. She says, "I'm learning. That was a different time. I'm learning to be good from people like you."

Now, this episode had A LOT of things in it. We had our first undead threesome, we had one of the best "I'm a millennial and people assume we are all about entitlement and narcissism" speeches ever, and we saw that Marie LaVeau has a throne of alligators that outdoes Katy Perry's throne in the music video "Roar" (If you haven't watched "Roar" you should because it's full of awesome!) But the one thing that stuck in my mind was this line from Madame LaLaurie.

Marie LaVeau 1 Katy 0

Is she saying that "good" can actually be taught? If that's so, can "evil" actually be taught?

Guys, maybe I've grown up in a bubble, but I kind of believe that true evil just exists, and you don't have to be taught that. It just happens and those of us that aren't evil are left to pick up the pieces. The same way with good. If you are truly a "good" person, it just happens. There's not a cruel bone in your body. You feel compassion for others and you follow a moral compass that unabashedly points true. Someone that's "good" is the kind of person that would give someone the shirt off their back and make do without one. That's what "good" is.

So I guess I'm soliciting some opinions from you all on this. Can "good" actually be taught? Can "evil" actually be taught? Now just to be clear, I'm not talking about lawful or illegal behavior. I'm not talking about a person doing what's right because they make a choice based off of repercussions that might happen if they don't do what's right. I'm talking about actual goodness that goes down through all the layers and into the very center of who we are. Is that something that can be taught? Or is it something like blue eyes...you either have it or you don't.

I suppose that "teaching" is in line with this season's American Horror Story. After all, it takes place in a witch's school, and class is now in session.

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Zombies with flesh falling from their ancient bones assaulting an old New Orleans mansion filled with witches is just plain awesome.

In glorious Halloween fashion, American Horror Story: Coven unveiled its best episode yet last night, and it truly makes me want to write a story about wicked witches. This season has been great. For those of you who don't know, American Horror Story starts and finishes a story arc within each season. They reuse the actors and actresses from the prior season, but the stories are completely unrelated. The first season was a haunted house set in the present. The second season was an asylum set in the 1960's. And the third is in New Orleans at an academy for young witches.

In Coven, New Orleans has been divided in half between two witch clans much like gangs would work out territorial boundaries among themselves in modern day Los Angeles. The "colored" witches as they are referred to in the show follow Marie Lavaeu who we now know is capable of granting immortality, eternal youth, and has the power to raise an army of zombies. She's essentially two-hundred (or more) years old and signed a truce with the former "Supreme" of the other witch clan so that they'd stop warring with each other.

Jessica Lange plays Fiona "the Supreme" in American Horror Story: Coven

The other clan of witches has a council, is mostly made up of white folks, and is led by a witch (the Supreme) who manifests an incredible amount of powers. Jessica Lange fulfills this role quite nicely and honestly she still gets the best lines. The one that caught my ear last night happened while she dressed in front of a mirror for Halloween and finished by donning a pointy black hat and said, ""Tonight I'm going to let the whole world in and get a good look at me. Who's the baddest witch in town?"

The council of witches. They've come to New Orleans to bring Fiona to justice. It's gonna get interesting.

I really like where this season is going. It looks like there's a war brewing between witch clans as the truce worked out between Marie Laveau and the former "Supreme" has been shattered by Fiona. I expect the fireworks to be impressive because Fiona seems to wield the more "in your face" powers like powerful telekinesis and the ability to manipulate fire while the Voodoo clan of witches has the power to create monsters. And lets face it, no horror story is good without some monsters. And zombies with flesh falling from their ancient bones assaulting an old New Orleans mansion filled with witches is just plain awesome.

I can't wait for next week and it actually makes me excited to know that the show creator, Ryan Murphy, is pushing to make this season spinoff into its own series. It's easily, the best one yet. So yeah, witches rule. But you women out there probably already knew that.

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