The fascination. The grand adventure.The threshold of adulthood. The supreme act of love, or just playing hide the salami. The ultimate and perfect communion of souls and bodies, or an animal craving that blocks spiritual progress. An overrated dalliance, or the worlds greatest natural high. Five minutes of grunting and heavy breathing, once or twice a week. Trying to make a baby, or trying not to make a baby. The fulfillment of endless longing. Something to do when the movie is over. The beast with two backs. Shame, guilt, pride. A conquest, an ego trip. An exercise in communication, or a colossal misunderstanding. Feeling completed, or feeling used. An exchange of bodily fluids. Sin, sin, sin. Fifty dollars for ten minutes. Dirty jokes. Censorship. Fear of being raped. Groupies. Phone sex. Was it good for you too? If thats the best you can do, Im going to put my panties back on. Did you come? The biggest mistake I ever made. Youll go blind if you don~ stop. What did it really mean?

President John E Kennedy had to wear a stiff back brace because he tore a muscle in his back during a sex orgy at the White House (Hersh, 1997). The seemingly rigid, upright posture that can be seen in many photos and films of Kennedys public appearances was a result of that brace. When Lee Harvey Oswalds first bullet struck Kennedy during the Dallas motorcade, the back brace prevented the president from oending and ducking to avoid the later shots, which killed him. In a sense, then, his sexual escapades led indirectly to his death.

Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter subscribed to the Christian virtues of r:narital fidelity and sexual propriety, but one time, at the end of a long interview, he dropped an offhand comment that he had occasionally lusted in his heart. That one remark made headlines and caused his lead in the election polls to drop by 20 percentage points.

Bill Clinton made history by being the second president to be impeached. His offense was lying under oath about having had sex with a young woman working on his staff. He claimed later that oral sex did not constitute sex. At the height of that controversy, the Journal of the American Medical Assocjation published a study showing that many young people agreed with Clintons definition (Sanders & Reinisch, 1999), and the journal editor was fired. Overseas audiences snickered at American expense: A popular Israeli joke tan: The polls show that 12 percent of Americans think that oral sex isnt sex. I think probably theyre just doing it wrong! Clinton was acquitted. The young woman sold her story to the media for big bucks....