Chris Gelken has nearly 20 years experience as a photographer, writer, news editor and broadcaster.

For the past 11 years Chris has been based in Asia where he now works for Hong Kong's leading AM radio news station, Metro Plus.

Chris also contributes freelance material on a wide variety of topics to newspapers, magazines and radio networks internationally.

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September 23, 1998 -- HONG KONG -- Before we get into the guts of this, I'd like to thank all those readers who responded to 'Sexual Armageddon' - and make a disclaimer. I am not a Clinton apologist, nor am I attempting to excuse his behaviour. All I am trying to do is point out just how damn stupid and even hypocritical this whole Clinton/Lewinsky/Starr furore really is. And damaging to U.S. foreign affairs too. You can bet that the next time POTUS goes into a difficult summit, his counterpart will have studied the video and taken advice from psychologists and other experts on the best way to fluster your President. I'd say the video release is something of a foreign affairs gaffe. Big time. The most powerful nation on Earth? Er, well, you may still have the military hardware, but U.S. credibility is in tatters - and you have nobody to blame but yourselves.

Anyway, right now I'd bet there are a lot of folks witnessing the President's discomfort and muttering under their breath: "There but for the grace of God (and a few lies) go I." Responding to 'Sexual Armageddon' a reader emailed me and told me that I just don't get it. This isn't about sex, the writer said, it is about lies and perjury. Yeah, right. Imagine what sort of World we would live in if everyone told the truth all the time. We got an amusing glimpse of that scenario in the movie "Liar, liar." The movie was funny, the real thing might not be quite so humorous.

We all tell lies, every single one of us. Mostly those lies are intended to save someone's feelings. As the saying goes: "Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true." At one end of the scale there is the everyday: "Yes, dear, your new hairstyle is absolutely fantastic," and at the other: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." There are lies we tell in an attempt to get out of trouble; "Really, Officer, I didn't realise I was going so fast."

Like it or not, using the criteria that is currently prevalent in Washington, they are all damned lies. So if we hold ourselves to the same standard as the President, which if we are all good Christians, Moslems, Buddhists etc. etc. we should, I guess we must all be considering quitting our jobs right about now because we cannot be trusted to tell the truth in every situation! Those unemployment lines are going to stretch from sea to shining sea.

While I agree that this thing might not be simply about sex, it is sex that is being used as the tool to achieve whatever it is that the 'conspirators' hope to achieve. Face it, Starr failed in his assigned duty of digging up enough dirt on the President over Whitewater etc., so he identified a weak spot and exploited it. An admitted infidelity and an attempt to keep it quiet has been manipulated into the crime of the century. And I do not use the word 'manipulated' lightly. Another reader commented: "Washington seems to have gone into self-destruct mode." Frankly, I'd agree with that assessment.

I'd like to thank another APJ reader who sent me the following tidbit:

TOM DELAY ON BILL CLINTON: "I'm scared to death of such notions that it doesn't matter what a person does in his private life. The character is the person."

TOM DELAY ON HENRY HYDE: "In this case, his private life has nothing to do with him carrying out his job as chairman of the Judiciary."

That's really having it both ways, don't you agree? And tends to support the notion suggested by another APJ reader who responded to 'Sexual Armageddon' that there is a right wing inspired conspiracy to get the President and discredit his party. A right wing attempt to take over the Executive; the Judiciary and Legislative branches of government already under their control. He warned that if people thought Americans were "Ugly" in the 1950s and 60s, just wait until this non-military coup is over.

And I would like to thank the reader who sent me this:

Do you remember the lines in "Man for all Seasons" where the son-in-law says: "I'd cut down every law in England to get to the devil." And Moore says "Oh? and were would you hide Roper when the devil turns round on you, the laws all being flat?"

Great lines, thank you.

Chris Gelken