Harlen,

I've talked to several friends who I recommended the product to because they have pets, and they just don't get that the roomba would help them. They think their stand-up vacuums are better because they're used to them.

Your friends also may well be harboring some fear that the Roomba might injure their pets.

Also, some of my best stock picks have been for stocks that have DEAD boards. When everyone is talking up your stock, everyone thinks it's great. That's when it's most likely to be overvalued, and usually either a sell or hold sign.

That's exactly right!

To which I argue -- would you rather be reliant on military spending or reliant on discretionary consumer spending, or both?

Let's see. We have an administration and a Congress that are hell-bent on (1) cutting military spending to the bone to pay for socialized medicine and (2) enacting and implementing policies that will turn the present recession into a major depression.

So right now, neither looks very attractive. In fact, you may well have just articulated the most compelling reason NOT to invest in iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT)....

Drone aircraft are dropping bombs, so why not have a robot mule carry your heavy equipment or walk (roll) point? I gotta say, if I were a marine, I'd rather have a robot 20 yards ahead of me in a patrol than one of my friends. Daisy cutter slices the robot in half? No biggie. So, the demand is there, and I think it will be iRobot at the head of these contracts for some time.

That would be the ideal.

Unfortunately, the Party In Power has long held the attitude that nothing is too good for our men and women in uniform and, given the impossibility of giving our men and women in uniform any less, is hell-bent on ensuring that they don't get even a penny more.

Norm.