It may agonise about its east-west choice, but in reality it will have to maintain reasonable relations with Moscow as well as the rest of Europe.

ECONOMIST: Russia's western neighbours

"I think the concept of enterprise zones was reasonable enough, but the reality was they displaced a lot of jobs, " he reasons.

BBC: Black Country pins hope on enterprise zones

When people fail to behave in a mature and reasonable manner, reflective of the reality of their circumstances, is it really so wrong for the government to step in and require them to do so in order to protect the rest of the public who will suffer from the behavior of those who should know better?

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In this case, however, the reality is that without jobs America will not be able to maintain a reasonable standard of living or generate the taxes to secure our national security.

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When reality is changing faster than theory suggests it should, a certain amount of nervousness is a reasonable response.

ECONOMIST: Climate change in the Arctic

The reality is that only very fast economic growth will bring unemployment down to a tolerable level in a reasonable length of time.

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However, when elements of a story come together in a certain way as to objectively point towards the reality of a situation, it ceases to be some conspiracy notion and moves into the realm of requiring reasonable, objective investigation.

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In practice, defining the difference between reasonable criticism and improper influence may prove every bit as difficult as drawing a precise line between perception and reality.

BBC: Perception and reality