While I was in Sussex out and about enjoying some glorious autumn weather, celebrating the equinox and not paying much attention to the news, the story broke that American Republican Senate candidate for Delaware, Christine O'Donnell, claimed to have dabbled in witchcraft.
Apparently she said: "One of my first dates with a witch was on a Satanic altar. We went to a movie and then had a little midnight picnic on a satanic altar."
When asked further about this, she had replied: "How many of you didn't hang out with questionable folks in high school?"
The comments, understandably, angered witches, wiccans and pagans. Wiccans and most modern witches are not Satanists, they are nature worshippers and honour the pagan gods and goddesses of the Earth and the heavens. They do not worship Satan, who is the devil in Christian mythology. They also don't like to be called "questionable".
However, this is old news for a far better reason than the fact that I was a few days late writing about it, as Christine O'Donnell's original comment was made about a decade ago.
Nevertheless, this has prompted considerable debate in the press and on the internet and some of the comments made are very interesting. So, just in case you have missed the news like me, here are some links so you can read the reports yourself.
(Oh and if you were wondering how I was blogging while I was away, I'd better confess that I wrote most of them before I went. My main access to the internet for the past few days has been a rather slow connection on my mobile phone.)
Here are some of the reports
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