As the nuclear meltdown unfolds, those first words uttered by the ancient Irishman, are as true today as they were those thousands of years ago....as he raised his fist to the sky saying, why!

With a shift of her foot, Mother Nature caused massive destruction to the most earthquake aware society in the world. Japan has always had major earthquakes and constructs it's buildings to the highest standards, the envy of the world when it comes to earthquake preparedness.

The nuclear reactor facilities were engineered to withstand an 8.0 on the Richter scale, that is a major major earthquake. Only problem is, the earthquake that just hit was a 9.0, a thousand times stronger than an 8.0.

Then Mother Nature decided to throw a real tantrum and sent in a Tsunami.(Tsunami means tidal wave in Japanese, so they know what they are) Problem: Evidently the experts who designed the reactors to be earthquake proof and built them at the edge of the ocean, forgot to consider 30' tall tsunamis that could wash over them and wipe out their back up systems in the event of an earthquake.

Six thousand miles away and many hours after the Tsunami hit Japan and ricocheted towards the California coast, I happened to be standing near a small harbor along the California coastline.

The first thing I noticed was the water getting sucked out of the harbor at the speed of the fastest river. It roiled up the harbor bottom and spit out mud, fish and debris into the sea where hundreds of seagulls had a feast. Then there was an eerie calm and the water rushed back into the harbor at a terrific rate rocking boats and causing havoc.

At about the same time this was happening I heard the earsplitting roar of a squadron of F-16's overhead, cruising in perfect formation as they defended our coast. But in this instance they were powerless to defend against the enemy unless sidewinder missiles fired into the tidal wave could have any effect.

Japan is a major economic force, an ally to the west and a successful representative democracy. The damage caused to this country will have widespread effects on the rest of the world. Japan will need all of their capital to rebuild and repair their country which will mean they probably will not be buying any other countries debt for awhile. They might even want to be paid back on all of the loan money they have out. If that happens, cheap interest rates will be a thing of the past and running your economy on someone else s money is going to become very expensive.

Time to balance our budget Washington, because our economic Tsunami is on the way.