As reported by City & State New York, a candidate for U.S. Congress has recorded, and released, a sex tape as part of his campaign. Here’s some of City & State’s reporting::

“In a grunt for attention, third-party Congressional candidate Mike Itkis has released a sex tape to highlight his sex-positive campaign platform. The 53-year-old Army cyber operations officer is bound to lose to Rep. Jerry Nadler in Manhattan’s 12th Congressional District. But he posted the 13-minute video to a popular online porn site of him having sex with porn performer Nicole Sage as “a conversation piece.”

OK, let’s converse, or let’s see how Shakespeare looks at this situation, which he takes a deep dive into in one of his sonnets:

Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murd’rous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight,
Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had
Past reason hated as a swallowed bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so,
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

The bard is basically saying the same thing over and over again; lust in advance of sexual conquest is irresistibly alluring, but afterward prompts self-loathing and disgust. Considering how much bawdy humor Shakespeare puts in his plays, it’s tempting to conclude that he was inspired by a particularly dark episode in his personal life, but we’ll never know. We could ask Mr. Itkis what he thinks of the sonnet, though. I’d be interested in his response.