Is it really foolish -- not Foolish -- to limit your pool of potential alternatives, as Tim suggests in his argument, or to open up your investing universe? Going by his logic, I should dump my wife because I never truly got around to checking out all of the 3 billion other women out there to see if there was a better match for me.

I love my wife. Stop trying to set me up with some exotic mail-order bride service when I'm completely happy, and familiar, with her.

I've never heard of the four companies that joined Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) to become the biggest large-cap gainers last year. I know Schlumberger, though. Why throw darts at a Risk playing board when I can roll the dice through the familiar Atlantic City streets of Monopoly?

Yes, I have taken chances abroad, but the only reason that I own a company like Baidu.com (NASDAQ:BIDU) is because I'm intimately familiar with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). The more you know about a company, the better off you are. I prefer to buy what I know.

Beating the market is simply a matter of being one step ahead of the market. I just don't feel comfortable believing that I know more about a company in a country whose name I can't even pronounce than the locals there do: They have the same grassroots advantage that I do with companies closer to home.

Sorry, Tim. Send those catalogs elsewhere. I'm sticking with my wife. And for those of you who have yet to find that special someone, I think you'll have better luck at the Miss America pageant than at the Miss Universe one.

If you insist on exploring the globalization of your portfolio, do check out the International Report that features 14 specific investing opportunities that stateside investors can buy in for a little global exposure.

Think you're done with the Duel? You're not! Go back and read the other three arguments, and then vote for a winner.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz does like to stamp his passport, but Baidu.com is the only international stock he owns at the moment. The Fool has a disclosure policy. Rick is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.