Oh, the irony..

Barack Obama faces some huge challenges as he takes office as the most powerful man in the world. Despite the statement made by the outgoing President, the USA has lost a not inconsiderable amount of credibility around the world, financially and morally.

My hope is that all citizens of the USA will pull behind Obama. There is no way that he can live up to expectations unless they all pull their weight. No one person could cure the nations ills alone.

He has put together a team of varying political persuasion, all of whom have experience of the situations which have lead the country to its present state. His choice of Hillary Clinton for the position of ‘Secretary of State’ has to be good. She is well known, well respected, and she is really very smart.

I wish Barack Obama and his team all of the best as they clear the minefield which was George W Bush..

All Points Of The Compass..

North

Polar Bears are still in trouble as their world melts away. It is known that when the top predator disappears, the rest of the food chain goes West too.

The warmer temperatures have resulted in faster thawing, and some places have been in danger of washing away. In response to this, a whole town was evacuated South until their hometown conditions improved. The people were flown out in military Hercules transport planes and anything else that would fly. Two days later, the threat had subsided and the people are being flown back. The whole operation must have cost a great deal, emergency bedding and food supplies having been appropriated in the temporary housing. However, the Hercules transports will not be used for the trip back. They can only be used in emergencies, and getting these displaced people back is not considered an emergency.

So what the hell is it?

East

Some Quebecois seem intent on driving a wedge between their province and adjoining Canada. There has been tension between Quebec and Canada for a while, and now it has hit the Ottawa buses. The extremists say that bus drivers should be perfectly bi-lingual. When asked if they ever talk to bus drivers, they all say 'no'. So does it make any difference if they can speak French, or English for that matter? As long as they know the route, stopping where they should and drive safely, who cares?

Further East, the Maritimes have flooding problems too but they are used to living under indifferent conditions. The most important item on the agenda is keeping the gains from mineral rights to themselves.

West

Highway 401 is being extended from Windsor, Ontario to the US border. It will take five years to complete, and will be the biggest road project Ontario has ever seen, as it involves tunnelling. The way gas prices are rising, it will be interesting to see who uses the completed section five years hence.

The oil producers in Alberta screwed up recently as a large flight of ducks landed on a toxic lake, quickly succumbing the to effects of waste from extracting oil from the oil sands. Apparently, the oil companies forgot to set up devices that would normally scare birds away. What has surprised people, I think, is the speed at which perfectly healthy ducks died. The oil sands industry has come under scrutiny re the effects on the environment lately, and I have a feeling that scrutiny will become a whole lot more intense now.

South

The people south of me are in all kinds of trouble. The country is in recession, the incumbent President is on his way out, but his legacy will live on for years. The pretenders to the 'crown' are slugging it out among themselves now, but one has to feel sorry for the one who gets elected. The worst is that whatever happens to the south will have huge repercussions in Canada.

Canadians have a tough enough time working together when everything is looking like a well oiled machine.

And Beyond..

Don't expect sympathy from me. Now is not a good time..

Israel Is So Desperate For Housing..

.. that eleven hundred new homes are going to be built in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. The country absolutely can't do without them, and it is just unfortunate that the move will annoy the Palestinians and all of the other countries involved in getting a peace deal together. The housing situation is so desperate that the decision to build can't be reversed, a decision taken back in 1999.

Hello? That decision was made in 1999!! That's eight to nine years as the crow flies, and now you pick this time to start construction as other nations are trying to establish peace for you people that may just last?

Pardon me for thinking that you are not looking for peace at all. While we all sympathize with what happened to your people over the ages, there are limits, ya know. How about working with others who are taking the time and trouble to overcome the problems of the Middle East?  

It's All Too Easy To Scoff..

Omar Osama Bin Laden wants to be a Peace Envoy between Al Qaeda and the West. He maintains that his father, the notorious Osama Bin Laden, wants a truce. To bring some publicity to his cause, he has decided to ride across North Africa on horseback, accompanied by his British born wife. To the right is a picture of the two of them doing a sterling job within sight of the Giza pyramids.

OK. Somebody needs to take up the position of Peace Envoy, so why not young Omar? And Daddy Bin Laden must be really sick of being in hiding all of this time. Lets face it, he can't even book into a cheap motel for a night without the chance of being captured and then put through the fun questioning technique of 'water boarding'.

Now some of you will think that anything is too good for the guy, BUT the alternative is a constant state of urban war somewhere.

The 'no way, not until hell freezes over' has to come to an end at some point in time or none of us will ever be safe again. The postulating by both sides has to stop.

Instead of voting 'no way', let us all be sensible about everything and try to work out a plan whereby all people get a chance to live and work without the threat of being blown to pieces. We can all start by looking into what the other side thinks, and then educate the people who have it all wrong about us. We can also quit provoking each other because, quite frankly, it is getting us all nothing except a fast track to the local cemetery.

How about it, people?   

Cruel Irony..

Bobby Fischer died on Thursday, January 17, at his home in Reykjavik, Iceland. He was 64 years old.

Bobby Fischer was a bright kind of guy. By the age of 14, he was US Chess Champion and he brought the World Chess Championship title to the US during 1972 after beating Boris Spassky in one of the more peaceful Cold War face offs.

He was also an outspoken critic of his native country to the point where he denounced his US citizenship, becoming a citizen of Iceland instead. When the US administration talked of the 'Axis of Evil', he talked of the 'Allies of Evil', those being the countries which fully supported the present troubles in the Middle East. Was he wrong in what he said? Well, if you look at some facts, you may find yourself agreeing with him.

Allegedly, Bush and his playmates had a plan in the making to invade Iraq BEFORE the events of September 11, 2001. Bearing in mind that it is hardly de rigueur to invade a sovereign country with no pretext, it must have been seen as the biggest stroke of luck that the Twin Tower attack took place. If ever there was a reason to wage war on a country, this had to be it. Of course, Iraq and Saddam Hussein were not responsible for September 11, but hey, who cares! Bush and Co didn't like the guy anyway.

So Bush commands the US military to charge into Iraq, using 'Shock an Awe' tactics. This is similar to Hitler's Blitzkrieg except that the only shock and awe about it all is the way in which Iraqi civilians and US/Allied military personnel were and still are dying like flies.

Having brought down Saddam Hussein and his evil government, it became clearly obvious to all that Bush and Co had no follow up strategy in Iraq other than to instruct Hallliburton, a company in which some members of the US administration may or may not have a vested interest, to safeguard and maintain oil supplies out of Iraq.

What of finding the real culprits behind September 11? We were told that the Al Qaeda leader was hanging out in Afghanistan, but the US needed soldiers for the Iraq invasion so, Canada and one or two other countries were left holding the Afghan baby. It must be noted that in past years, the Canadian military has been a non-aggressive peace keeping force. The change in function has not impressed Canadians a whole bunch.

The Middle East crisis predates anything that ever happened to the Twin Towers. The biggest problem was the way the state of Israel was created. Many Jews had migrated to Palestine because of persecution by the people of other nations. After World War II, the major Western powers elected to form a Jewish state but shuffled the responsibility onto the United Nations who gotten it all wrong by allocating more land to the new state than would be left for the Arabs whose homeland Palestine was.

Needless to say, the United Nations forced the plan through with the promise of aid and full military backing from the US, Britain and France. And here lies the overriding problem. In order that we can preserve our economic interests abroad, we feel that it is our duty to enforce our ways on people who neither understand or want them. One has to note that any country lacking in resources wanted by the West, or that doesn't pose a threat by the spreading of communism, is left completely alone.

The US is not alone in acts of International vandalism. Britain has left messes behind it after pulling out of territory previously governed as part of the British Empire. Pakistan is a good case in point, where the British supported one faction until such time as they were ready to pull out. At this point, they changed allegiances. leaving Pakistan in political turmoil, a state from which the country has never really fully recovered.

We have seen the same after the fall of the Soviet Union, none more so than in the former state of Yugoslavia which completely fell apart, former hostilities between Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia rising like the blast from Krakatoa.

Until we stop forcing our ways onto others, there will always be problems.

It is said that Bobby Fischer had his fair share of idiosyncrasies, and it is true that his chosen lifestyle was somewhat reclusive, but he was a man who had his eyes open, and he looked beyond the 'national' emotion that seems to grab some.

The West is looking for ways to bring peace to the Middle East, but Bush and Co will not be the ones to do it, especially as they are trying their level best to get the world and his dog to turn on Iran. Why Iran? Well, busting Iraq apart did no good at all, Iran is close by and it would be relatively easy to move troops there.

Here is a quote from somebody famous...

"No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it".

The author of the quote was none other than the great problem solver himself, Albert Einstein.

Good Morning, Good Morning..

Americans still have some time to wait before they can dump their leader. Fortunately, the incumbent guy can't re-apply. However, they will need to pick the next President with care if they ever want respect from the world community again.

Open the box with care. There are no FREE gifts.

Benazir Bhutto 1953 - 2007..

Charismatic, educated, and the first woman to hold high office in an Islamic country, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan had huge popular support on her return to Pakistan. She put herself among her public, knowing only too well that she would be a target.

Embroiled in a financial scandal during her last term as Prime Minister, and with a none too clean record of Human Rights during that term, she was nevertheless an upholder of democracy in Pakistan, and seen as a stabilizing influence by leaders in the 'West'.

A Modern Parable..

A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (General Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles. Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India .

Sadly, The End.

Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US , claiming they can't make money paying American wages.TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US . The last quarter's results: TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses. Ford folks are still scratching their heads.

IF THIS WEREN'T SO TRUE, IT MIGHT BE FUNNY NEWS FLASH

Public Roads?

'Public' roads were not 'invented' for the public. They were not painstakingly funded and constructed by governments such that you or I could easily transport our chickens to market, or make it easier for us to paddle in the sea for a week.

The picture to the right is of a Roman road in Britain. It is now locally known as Blackstone Edge. The Romans would not have quarried the stone or laid any of it, but they would most certainly have overseen construction. They would not have used slave labour either. That would have been far too dangerous. The Romans left Britain around AD 43, and this road is a tribute to their knowledge and ability. You have to wonder how they cajoled the locals into doing this work.

For the public good? Maybe so, but it also enabled them to move troops around quickly if some of the population ever became restless. Unfortunately for the Romans, roads were not enough, resourceful Brits removing the cobbles to use as building materials for small domiciles, hence the lack of Roman roads remaining. They did the same to Hadrian's Wall, it being more important to keep warm in winter than stop marauding bands of Scots as the Romans had endeavoured to do.

The technology was not completely lost, and the Brits re-introduced cobbles later in their history. Cobbles, as pretty as they look are not ideal for road construction, being difficult to walk over in anything but dry conditions for humans and horses.

The breakthrough for transporting heavy stuff and men came with canals. The Industrial Revolution made possible chattels of war made from iron and steel, and the only way these things were ever going to be transported around the land was by using man made rivers, better known as canals. Yes, I know that commercial goods were the main loads carried, but make no mistake here. The primary use would have been to move military stuff.

Canals would have lasted longer had it not been for the adaptation of horse drawn, wooden railroads, to iron rails and the iron horse. However, both means of transport had a major drawback: the incline. Canals needed 'slow to operate' locks to get over obstacles, and railroads were dogged with iron to iron contact between wheel and rail, not good in wet or icy conditions, requiring the construction of cuttings and tunnels in a bid to get over the lack of climbing ability.

The invention of rubber tires, the steam/internal combustion engine and tarmac changed everything. They gave governments what they needed most, a reliable and easy way to move the military around while convincing the people to build them in the belief that it was for all good reasons like moving produce from one place to another.

Germany is a prime example of this. Hitler commissioned the 'Autobahn' system primarily to facilitate the movement of the military. Constructed in the 1930's, much of the system was so well laid down that it didn't need repairing for decades. This is in stark contrast to highways built in Britain during the 1960's and since, which have required constant repairs, sometimes only weeks after opening.

In fairness, roads in Europe and North America have been used more for commercial good than anything else, and we can be excused for forgetting the original purpose. So, what do you make of the picture below? It is a highway in a country where private vehicle ownership is virtually non-existent, where the movement of commercial goods is virtually non-existent by virtue of the fact that most of the people can't afford anything.

Remove the two vehicles and the cyclist, and what you are looking at here is a temporary airstrip or a road designed for moving either very large vehicles or masses of smaller ones packed with 'military'.

This is a highway near Pyongyang, North Korea. Imagine spending so much on a road which the public do not use. What were they thinking? Maybe something along the same lines as the Romans, almost 2000 years ago?

In The News..

More garlic?

A guy in Germany is serving a life sentence for practising cannibalism. He claims to be normal, and that he ate a willing candidate found on the Internet. The idea first came into his head after his mother read the story of 'Hansel and Gretel' to him. Well, chum, I remember the story too as will many others, but note how we have not gotten the urge to eat anybody.

It may placate you to know that human flesh is tough, bitter and tastes like pork according to this nut. There is a chance that he could be released after fifteen years as he is claimed not to be mad, but more disturbed. Make a note of today, and fifteen years hence carry a label with you at all times with the words 'Suitable for animal feed only', which you should pin on yourself very quickly in the event that you are approached by a lunatic wielding a knife, fork and spoon.

Alligator Alley

A guy in Florida has been sentenced to death for one failed attempted murder and one success. He befriended a woman and her young child through a church reach out organisation, but lost his cool after being asked to leave the woman's house. He left the house but took the woman and child. Having choked the woman to the point where she was unconscious, leaving her in a field to die, he then took the child to some water alongside Alligator Alley, and dropped her into it. The child was killed by an alligator.

The State will earmark this dude for death by lethal injection, but I think that the mother of the child should decide his fate. I know what I would pick for him, and I would ensure that they crushed more than his skull and remove one arm.

WMD? Do we have any?

Sir, yes Sir. We think that it may have been flown across the country, if the note from the other base is to be believed. Oh believe it for sure. A strategic bomber of the US Air Force flew across the country carrying six nuclear weapons of mass destruction and nobody was aware until the cleaners were sweeping out the airplane?

This is 'Homeland Security'? Guys, you are a greater danger to yourselves and the rest of us than ever the Iranian Black Guard will be.

Downrange

Never live close by a farm where they breed pigs and chickens. Never live at the end of a busy airstrip. It is way too noisy. Obvious choices of places not to live for sure, but you can add one more place to the list. A farm in Qatar had a patriot drop in from a US military base recently. Nope, not a flag waving soldier or a Qatar patriot. We are talking a Patriot missile, and Qatar is on the side of the US.

The powers at the US base are looking into it, and to make it easier for them, I have some advice. Ask which of the soldiers on the base pressed the button. It may speed up the process somewhat.

A New Writer?

Condoleeza Rice must have a new scriptwriter, because she has actually spoken of a great new idea to solve the Middle East Crisis. The idea is that we give the Palestinians a State all of their own. Yo, Condie, they already did have a place of their own, but Palestine was taken from them and called something else. The Palestinians have been making this point for years, and only now do you and the US Administration catch on?

Of course, the idea is good until one looks at a map of the area. The State of Israel is bordered by Syria, Jordan and Egypt's Sinai Desert. These countries will no more give up part of their territory than Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma would!!

There are still way more days of this administration left to run than there should be.

Broken Borders.. Broken Promises..

A National Icon? Almost..

Anybody travelling the highways of Spain will have seen one of these. It is a very large billboard advert for Grupo Osborne, wine and spirits producer. It has no wording on it because a law was passed some years ago banning roadside advertising, and the lettering was painted out. Later, there was a move to take all of them down, but after a 'spirited' campaign by the Osborne company where over 70% of people asked thought that they were a national icon, it was decided to leave them standing. They are the largest bulls anywhere, standing a little over 40' tall.

If over 70% said yes, that would indicate over 20% saying no. Most of the 20% and more live in the Cataluña region, where it has become the target of separatist groups.

Purdue?

Purdue University has recently released a computer generated animation showing the second aircraft involved in the 9/11 Twin Towers incident. It attempts to show the kind of damage that the airplane would have caused as it travelled through the tower. Don't expect anymore than that. Maybe the hope is that we will watch it and convince ourselves that the damage suggested was enough to bring down the towers.

The University took experience from the work done back in 2002 on what happened at the Pentagon, and this is a computer generated image from that time. It leaves more questions than it answers. The initial damage seen at the Pentagon was a 16' diameter hole at ground level, presumably made by the nose of the airplane as it entered the building. The image to the right would put the entry hole further up the building than actual pictures of the day showed. The building did not collapse, as shown in the next picture taken on the day, until almost an hour and a half after the initial impact.

The engines would have left some kind of trail across the lawn, but they did not. The lawn was as pristine after the event as it was before. So why did trucks come in and dump gravel all over the lawn? What was being hidden? One obvious thing missing from any pictures taken on the day is airplane wreckage.

Purdue, what are you trying to tell us? Is the purpose of your computer generated images to re-enforce the 'official' line, are you trying to tell us something else, or just hedging your bets on whatever truth is finally revealed at some point in the future?

Remember the Chinese Buns?

Maybe you do, and maybe you don't, so a quick recap is in order..

A Chinese reporter ran a story about some kind of bun that was being made with a mixture of 40% fatty meat and 60% mashed cardboard. There was even a photo of a 'bun operative' preparing the major ingredient.

This story, in light of others escaping China about zero-quality goods, came as no real surprise in the true sense of surprises. Nevertheless, the Chinese Government refuted it, and told the world that they had jailed the offending reporter for fraudulently making up the story after having been put under pressure by his bosses to come up with something.

In deference to the above, I deleted my 'take' of it from this blog. However, it has come to light that the guy may have been jailed for telling the truth. The Chinese are a little sensitive about how their products are reviewed, and want them only to be seen in a good light. China recognises that attempts to get into world markets with cardboard buns is not going to work well for them, but maybe for reasons to which they are oblivious.

The simple truth is that we already have food items with the consistency and flavor of cardboard, so you guys can keep making yours, and we will keep making ours. Deal?

In Line With One Of The Most Arcane Theories Yet..

A reminder of the theory.. "The reason we start a war is to fight a war, win a war, thereby causing no more war!"

Apparently, the Bush administration is preparing to ask congress to approve arms sales over the next decade to States in the Gulf. This is an obvious first step. One can't realistically start a war without first appropriating the chattels of war.

The actual 'fighting a war' involves convincing the military and families that there is a just cause. Easy enough, one creates a just cause. Winning a war is a little more difficult and requires us to accept a level of collateral damage. Collateral damage has two forms, the innocent who get in the way, and the families of the 'heroes', those whom have been convinced that a war is justified.

I don't know about you, but I find the last part of the theory to be incomprehensible.

In the case of the 'War on Terror', collateral damage is proving to be something of a brickbat. Under normal circumstances, the 'loss' of some 30,000 troops would be a small price set against keeping the home population in line and on side. Unfortunately, the collateral damage has come to the attention of the home and international crowd because the damage is growing by the day, and with no end in sight.

What better way then, than to arm all of the Gulf States to the teeth and let them do the fighting. It is a tried and trusted method, well maybe not entirely trusted because arms were sold to Saddam Hussein and he didn't use them for the intended purpose. What a bad boy!!

Hopefully, the new lot will be more amenable to sticking by the rules, and we can all sleep safe at night again.

Tell me that there isn't a camera and crew around someplace. C'mon, this is all a joke, isn't it. Somebody is going to put their arm around me and tell me to look at the trash can. Yes, I see the camera now. You had me fooled for sure. NOT..

Little Wonder That He Looks Happy..

A lapdog for ten years, and now they are paying for his kennel? A trust fund set up for him by the US Government?

The thousands of families directly affected by the 'War on Terror' must really like this one. They are having to deal with the loss of a loved one, either through death or because the returning soldier is so physically and/or emotionally destroyed, and Blair gets a pukka post, having deserted his own government.

Thousands of Iraqis have died too, women, children, and all because Laughing Boy (in the picture) and his mates on Capitol Hill decided that they would go after Al Qaeda, the terrorist organisation they claim was responsible for 9/11. Iraqi civilians are dying because Al Qaeda were responsible for 9/11, ALLEGEDLY.

No, I didn't make a typo here. I'll pass it by you again, and you can see how close the spelling is.. Al Qaeda - Iraqi Civilians. See? Hardly any difference.

Blair, Bush and Cheney have yet to prove that Al Qaeda had any involvement in 9/11, lack of proof further backed up by the fact that they went after a completely different target, passing us off with the excuse that it had to be done anyway. These three have committed atrocities against their own countries, people, brave soldiers and against the people of Iraq who truly believed that the West wanted to help them. They gotten suckered in just like everybody else.

It must be heart warming for some that two of the three are still in power and that the third is being protected by them. For the rest of us, it sickens to the stomach.

It Would All Be Too Funny..

.. if it wasn't for the fact that the lunatic statements made by a variety of governments didn't have such dire consequences for the rest of us.

The US is now blaming Iran for the accuracy of mortars fired into the Green Zone. Has it occurred to anybody on Capitol Hill that these guys may just be getting better by their own efforts? Most probably it has but that wouldn't garner support for maintaining and/or escalating the war in the Middle East.

North and South Korea are at serious odds over FISH? Is this what the 50 year or so standoff has been about?

Pakistan is now happy to announce that it has cruise missile technology which enables it to strike deep into Indian territory.

Well, these news snippets will help us all sleep better at night.

WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE TRYING TO DO? THIS IS ALL 4TH GRADE STUFF. DO US ALL A FAVOR AND GROW UP.

If..

.. you were CEO of a company, and you made some totally dumb statement not just once but multiple times, or pursued policies that appeared to be flawed even in the minds of the criminally stupid, you would lose your job. You would suffer public humiliation to the point where crawling under an inconspicuous rock would be heaven.

Public figures, those high up on pedestals for whatever reason, seem to believe that they have immunity, that they deserve special treatment. The public can be a tough audience, and a performer of any kind is judged only on the last performance.

Lindsay Lohan has recently been busted on a DUI charge. Ms Lohan has only just finished treatment at a 'rehab' clinic, a short period of time where she appears to have taken nothing too seriously. She would do well to learn from Paris Hilton's recent experiences, but not to follow in exactly the same footsteps.

Paris did end up doing here time, but what did she really learn from it. Her attempt at being 'religious' fell somewhat flat during an interview with Larry King. She claimed that she read her Bible when incarcerated. She claimed to be religious, having attended a Catholic school. She couldn't remember her favorite passage from the Bible. She hasn't learned how to be truthful yet, to others or herself.

Onward and upward. Butch Bush and Sundance Cheney are both having fun in the sun, and more so since their overall popularity is so low that it doesn't matter what they do anymore. These two guys are so above the law as to defy belief. Nobody can tell me that there were not warning signs of what was to come. Take a good look at this statement, made during Butch's first presidential debate.

"The reason we start a war is to fight a war, win a war, thereby causing no more war!"

For more like this, click on the 'How to create an angry American" video in this blogs basement.

I have just one question. Why are Butch and his sidekick still gainfully employed as leaders of the most powerful nation on earth?

Thought of the day

The American Indian found out what happens when you don't control immigration.

Genesis..

This is one of many depictions of the 'Garden of Eden'. There are also differing views regarding the location. You can see that this depiction shows the people as being 'white Caucasian', highly unlikely at best.

Every religion has its own 'Eden', and it always looks so good.

Darfur, 2nd Millennium A.D