People of sound mind and reasonable judgment in their personal lives take on characters full of unwarranted confidence and intolerant insistence in public.

The couple whose son has a "drug problem" wants the government to start a nationwide treatment program.

The guy who can't get his town sanitation department to pick up the trash in front of his house wants to clean up a government on the other side of the world.

The woman who is not sure she will need an umbrella is convinced the planet is warming up.

It's always easier to solve someone else's problem than your own. That's one of the great advantages of living overseas: Public life is full of other people's problems.