I was a bit surprised when a reaction like yours and Kalika's didn't show up sooner.

Let me propose you a hypothesis:

Suppose I were to drive a few thousand miles to see a particular piece of scenery that I had spotted in a travel magazine. Just because it was beautiful. Would that freak you out?

I one time drove up and down and back and forth across easter Oregon, looking for a strange and beautiful scene spotted on a Calendar. I never found it but I tried.

I have hunted down CDs in obscure stores in strange locations, looking for, and finding, a brief snippet of music heard on a passing radio station, just because I found the music hauntingly beautiful. Does that make your insides do backflips of consternation?

BUT [I can hear you say], that's different. Those are THINGS. This was a HUMAN BEING. It's fine to find out where THINGS are. But you shouldn't try to find out where a girl lives.

And my answer to that is: Why not? Who am I hurting by doing so? If I know in my own mind that I will never use the information in any way that is potentially harmful to anybody, what does it hurt?

Let's say I find out where such a girl lives. Let's say I then arrange my next vacation to travel to that town, just to increase if ever so slightly the odds that I will see that girl again. Aside from my pocketbook, what harm have I done by doing so? Chances are, I will never see her again, no matter what I do, but so what! If I choose to waste my time and money on a hopeless pursuit, why should that upset you?

Or maybe I DO run into her again, by some odd chance, and she doesn't have the same effect on me at all, and my whole effort has been wasted? So what?

I think what bothers people [including evidently you] about my type of behavior is that it in some ways resembles the things an actual dangerous person might do, who might in fact intend the girl harm, and who might in fact track her down and stalk her. I've never done that and never will, but I can see some similarity between my silly obsessions and the much scarier compulsions that some actual monster might harbor. And, again, my question is: So what!

Does the fact that Communists often wear shoes mean that I should be sure to go barefoot if I'm a Capitalist?

--Jensman