You cannot escape reality through the ballot box.

Item: Plutonium at atomic waste site in Iran. Reuters reports

VIENNA (Reuters) – U.N. inspectors have found traces of plutonium, of possible use in atom bombs, at an Iranian nuclear waste site as Tehran pursues a nuclear program despite the risk of sanctions, an IAEA report said on Tuesday.

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The International Atomic Energy Agency report, obtained by Reuters, also said the U.N. watchdog still could not confirm Iran’s nuclear intentions were entirely peaceful given its continued stonewalling of IAEA inquiries dating to 2003.

"Stonewalling?" Why would peacefully- intentioned entities "stonewall?"

Item: Chinese sub stalks US aircraft carrier. The Washington Post has the story:

A Chinese submarine came close to the USS Kitty Hawk carrier group in the Pacific Ocean last month, a top U.S. naval commander said Tuesday.

Spokespeople note that the sub was in torpedo range and could have led to some trouble. Was this a mistake by the Chinese communist navy, or perhaps some sort of a "test?"

Item: Netanyahu likens the current times to prewar 1938. Haaretz.com tells us

Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu asserted Monday that the Iranian nuclear program posed a threat not only to Israel, but to the entire western world. There was "still time," however, to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, he said.

"It’s 1938 and Iran is Germany. And Iran is racing to arm itself with atomic bombs," Netanyahu told delegates to the annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly, repeating the line several times, like a chorus, during his address. "Believe him and stop him," the opposition leader said of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "This is what we must do. Everything else pales before this."

Of course we all know that the Iranian leader has promised to "wipe Israel off the map."

Item: Dems put forth antiwar congressman John Murtha for majority leader. CNN reports. Put me in the minority.

Rep. John Murtha, the anti-war congressman who is the likely new House speaker’s pick for majority leader, fended off what he called "swift boat-style attacks" on his ethics record Tuesday.The Pennsylvania Democrat also blasted his rival for majority leader, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, for siding with President Bush on Iraq.

As the Democrats take hold of the levers of power in the country, the stark reality is that the world is a very dangerous place. Can we run away fast enough to escape it?