A Bad Week for the West

It was a rough week for Western Civilization last week, and I hope things make a U-turn this week.  Otherwise, it could be head for the bunkers soon.  Freedom, human rights and representative democracy lost quite a bit of ground.

• ·        Topping the news was the sentencing of Larry Nassar, Michigan State physician that sexually abused dozens of girls over his tenure at the school.  This vermin apparently perpetrated his crimes under the auspices of “examinations” and complaints were dismissed or overlooked by the school, echoing the Penn State crimes of Jerry Sandusky.   The president of the school, athletic director and head athletic trainer all resigned in the wake of the scandal.  Ironically, an institution which should be protecting young women was being run by a woman.   And Pope Francis caused an uproar in Chile when he seemed to defend child abuse enabling bishop Juan Barros.  These two institutions should be primarily concerned with protecting children, and instead were protecting the perpetrators.      

•  A photograph with a smiling Barack Obama together with racist and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan surfaced after years of being buried by a “journalist.”  The photo received scant attention in the mainstream media, only a couple of weeks after the MSM went into an uproar over Donald Trump’s use of the word “sh—thole.”  I’m old enough to remember the MSM criticizing Trump for not doing enough to disavow the Charlottesville white supremacists.

•       Donald Trump instituted tariffs on select Chinese goods.  Yes, I know that the Chinese do not always play fair, but trade restrictions will cool this economy down faster than interest rate increases.  So far, Trump’s policies have been a big boost to the economy (and the Dallas Fed even said so).  Bringing our corporate tax rates in line with the rest of the developed world and rolling back some of the massive regulatory expansion under Obama has made doing business great again.  Trump’s announcement that “America is open for business” was a welcome announcement.   Trade restrictions would be extremely counterproductive. 

•       The California attorney general announced that it would prosecute businesses that cooperated with ICE.   This is the worst instance of nullification since the Civil War.  The defiance of several cities and California to federal law is a real threat to the republic.  With freedom of movement between states, we cannot have states decide on their own who they will permit to stay. Likewise, several states have also decided that they will be pursuing “net neutrality” on their own. 
  
• In a breach of decorum, Ruth Bader Ginsburg announced that she will not attend the State of the Union address.   She has been an outspoken critic of Trump, calling him a “faker” and asserted that misogyny played a role in the election.   I objected to Barack Obama scolding the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address and Ginsburg should show some grace and attend.  Her old pal, Antonin Scalia didn’t miss any of Obama’s. 
  
• John Kerry, in blatant defiance of the Logan Act, met with Palestinian leader Abbas and told him not to give in to Trump, that Trump wouldn’t last long.  I don’t recall ever in my lifetime a former official so brazenly undercutting U.S. policy. 
  
• Things overseas didn’t look much better.   Russia jailed its opposition leader Alexei Navalny.  Venezuela accelerated its “elections” to ensure the iron grip of Nicolas Maduro.  And in a ghastly move, the Polish parliament on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day made it illegal to refer to Polish concentration camps or implicate Poles in the complicity with the Holocaust.  Rewriting and sanitizing history is very bad policy--- whether it involves tearing down Civil War statutes or official denial of events. 
  
•  And if that weren’t enough, riots broke out when Nutella cut its price in France.  Yes, there were riots over that chocolate hazelnut spread.  And in Paris, 50 baboons escaped the Paris Zoo, necessitating a shutdown of the zoo.  Best spoof headline: 50 Baboons Escape Paris Zoo: France Immediately Surrenders to the Baboons.

Taken together,  these items do not present a pretty picture for the West and Western culture.

Yet amidst the chaos,  there was at least one hopeful sign.  The people of Iran still yearn to be free.  The young woman that wave her hijab in defiance has been freed, although another woman has been jailed.  Protests continue.  The Iranians

The Wallet and the Soul

Last week was a most fascinating juxtaposition.  I attended the Booth School of Business Economic Outlook, with a roundtable discussion by Rajan Raghuram, Randy Kroszner, and Austan Goolsbee.   Raghuram was formerly the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.  Kroszner served on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.  And Goolsbee was senior economic advisor to Barack Obama.  All three have held high level policy positions and are well respected economists.  They discussed the state of the economy in this 10th year after the crash.

The very next day after the Booth roundtable, I had an opportunity to hear and meet Ross Douthat,  author and religion columnist for the New York Times, whose topic was The State of Religion in America.

In 24 hours I got a concentrated view of the financial and the spiritual state of America, a pretty complete picture of this divided country.  As I digested it all, I came away with the feeling that the country is in a fragile, unsettled, and morphing state.

While we have had a rather lengthy expansion since the crash of '08, the first seven years of growth were rather muted.   When asked where the points of stress would come from, Rajan and Kroszner agreed that the next crisis will likely not come from the banking system, as we have done a great deal to buttress the banking system.  Rajan's concerns revolve around the "shadow" banking system. Raghuram and Goolsbee are concerned about leverage and asset prices as well as the levels of debt in China.   However, all agree that global growth right now is pretty good.  But Kroszner is concerned that people are too sanguine.

As far as the tax cut goes, Goolsbee (Obama's guy) predictably opposed it.  He argued that it will be a one time windfall and not change behavior long term.  Kroszner took an opposite view-- that it will align incentives and will incentivize investment in equipment, bring money in from offshore and raise wages.  I tend to fall in Kroszner's camp, and companies are already repatriating money and investing in assets and in people.

The group was divided and somewhat perplexed on the topic of Bitcoin.  While Milton Friedman predicted and internet currency, the lack of the rule of law and support from central banks are limiting factors.  Raghuram correctly said that if Bitcoin is to have legs, it will need the support of central banks.

Another interesting topic was inflation.  I grew up in an era where taming inflation was a primary job of the Fed.  "Volker taught us how to reduce inflation," Raghuram said, "but we know little about how to raise inflation."  Kroszner believes that the internet is at least partially responsible for lower inflation because pricing information is easy to obtain.  We used to worry about getting inflation down to 2% and now we worry about getting it up to 2% and have had to resort to exotic means like QE to get raise it. 

Overall, the group does not see a looming recession.  "The length of a recovery does not increase the odds of a recession," says Raghuram.    Overall, the economy is doing well.  The banking system has recovered (and probably overregulated).  But potential dangers remain:  a trade war, a credit bubble, a raft of municipal defaults are all potential triggers for a downturn.

Moving to the spiritual side, Ross Douthat put forward a more comprehensive view of religious life in America.  The general view is that there is a divide between the religious right and the secular left.  But Doughat sees it as a tripartite division.

1. Traditional Biblical-  represented by those that submit to some religious authority. In Christianity, it is moored to the Bible.

2. The Secular Left - represented by the New York Times and elite universities that are deeply skeptical of religion and the metaphysical.  They don't believe in a creator anymore.

3. The Mushy Middle- highly individualistic and at the center of our divided country.  It is represented by Oprah and the "Eat Pray Love" crowd.  It is the new populist center but can blur into the left or right.  It's guiding principle is "to get in touch with your own authenticity," and not submitting to any authority.

Douthat claims that the structure is unstable, and that each has problems in the modern world.  Traditional Biblical, for instance, oppresses gays.   The Secular Left, for example, aggressively goes after Catholic hospitals.  The Mushy Middle doesn't build community or permanent institutions.  He sees that the trend is for the fringe of the Traditional Biblical to move toward the center but the core Traditional Biblical is holding its own.

The Secular Left doesn't make sense to him at all-- you wouldn't be able to get a Bill of Rights out of it or recognize human rights.  He sees a few possible alternatives for the future.  The Oprah Middle and Secular may merge and Traditional Biblical will become isolated.   Alternatively, the Middle may drift back to Traditional Biblical.  Finally, it is possible that there would be a leapfrog of the Secular Left into Traditional Biblical.  The weaknesses of the Secular Left are stark and spiritual life remains a defining part of humanity.  Still, he sees the Catholic Church as having some real challenges--we are aging, and have fewer siblings, implying that many are alone and need help and the Catholic Church is not equipped to reach them.

The two events back to back painted a picture of an America that is in flux, and somewhat unstable.  Modernity, the dynamism of American capitalism and our post Great Recession economy has, on the surface, brought us back from the brink of a real catastrophe in '08.  Yet, I get the feeling that the tectonic plates continue to shift under the surface.

There were two takeaway quotes from people in two different realms that were worth remembering-

Randy Kroszner, "I'm worried when people aren't worried."

and 

Ross Douthat, "There is no evidence that God wants you to be happy."

Anxious quotes for anxious times.

The Great Sh*thole Debate

Donald Trump is a racist.  

That is the consensus view of the Left.  His question last week, “Why are we importing all these people from shithole countries?” leaves no room for doubt.  Not only is he racist but anyone that voted for Trump and continues to support him is racist.  They’ve been saying that consistently all along.   And now we know for sure.   Right?   And the beauty of labeling you as a racist is that it stops the conversation, stops the questioning and de-legitimizes all other points of view you may have because it is impossible to disprove.  We know that now because the MSM and academia has been beating it into us relentlessly since ’08.   “White privilege” on college campuses is what the scarlet letter was in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s time.  NYT opinion pieces have told us that it is permissible for blacks not to be friends with white people and  that it is ok to teach their children not to trust white people.  Other op-eds have asserted that even if no one can detect any racism in our overt words and actions, we still harbor “subconscious racism” that can never be eradicated.    Why, even Dr. Seuss was deemed to be racist last year.   And it is no surprise that after disclosing Trump’s remark (if indeed he did make it and there seems to be debate about what exactly was said).    Dick Durbin wasted no time lambasting Trump and even went so far as to say that the term “chain migration” itself is racist because blacks came over here in chains. 

We all know by now that Donald Trump is blunt, indelicate, course and sometimes vulgar.  Is he racist?  I don’t know for sure, but Left needs him to be and they will pounce on any phrase, wording or expression that gives them the slightest whiff of it to deny him success in advancing his campaign promises.  Now, instead of addressing serious questions about immigration and enforcement, we have devolved into a simple argument with one side accusing Trump of racism and Trump announcing that he is not a racist.

Important aspects of this issue are being overlooked, and I blame Trump, in part, for permitting the Democrats to frame the argument up that way and handing them their weapon of choice.

First of all, by convening Democratic and Republican leaders in a public forum, Trump has already done something that Obama never did on this issue--- put the issue right where it belongs, with the legislature.  Instead, Obama used executive power he did not have to jerry-rig (that’s not a racist term, is it?) an immigration policy through executive order and nonenforcement.  We do get a say in who comes into into our country (and should have a say in who comes into our bathrooms). Then, certain cities and states employed the pre-Civil War practice of nullification to blunt enforcement efforts.   Contrary to the narrative that Trump has totalitarian instincts, he gathered the legislators together and said, “You come up with something, and I will sign it,” signaling that he might even be open to some sort of limited amnesty.

Secondly, for all the flapping around, no one bothered to answer the question, which is a logical one that the average guy in Des Moines or Akron might ask.     Why are we bringing poor people from the third world here?   There is an answer, or several possible answers, but the Left refused to make a case.  Further, there are a number of questions that should be answered and deserve an answer, because those answers will determine the nature and character of our republic in the coming generations.

To ask the right questions, we need to break apart Trump’s question and tone down the language a bit.  And there are several more that must be answered to come up with a sensible immigration policy.

First, let’s delete the word “shithole” and substitute “impoverished nation.”  Second, it is helpful to separate out the economic benefits from immigration from the social norms that these populations bring with them.   There is a third aspect as well, which is providing refuge from tyranny—those that seek to come to the U.S. via refugee status.

First, on the economic front.   Immigration has benefitted the United States in the past and will continue to do so.  That should be a given.  Our economy depends on it. Yet 2018 America is not 1880 America or even 1929 America.   First of all, it has become a welfare state.  Most of our European grandfathers arrived here with no safety net.  And as Milton Friedman observed, “you cannot have open borders AND a welfare state.”   The math doesn’t work.

Trump’s question provokes a more important question.   Who is coming here?   What is their education and job skill level?   What is demand for unskilled labor now and what is it projected to be?   If most labor economists are projecting shrinking demand for unskilled labor, why bring them here in large numbers?  Many futurists are worried about robotics displacing low skill labor.  We know, for instance, that Uber has reduced demand for cab drivers.  Driverless vehicles will have a profound impact on demand for truck drivers.   “Shithole” countries tend to produce uneducated workers lacking in the skills necessary to compete in the knowledge economy.   Second, the cost of trade and transportation have plummeted, so there is less need to bring labor here-especially unskilled labor. (and that is the reason for China’s rise).   In the end, immigrants can only end up in one of three places: (1) working, (2) in the welfare system, or (3) in the criminal justice system.  We need to take care that we minimize the risk that they end up in buckets 2 or 3.

Our social welfare and benefits system is already underfunded and overburdened.  Sweden, an advanced social welfare state, is instructive here.  Because of its mass migration policies, and the costs attached to it, the retirement age was recently increased.   With social security straining, and with most American with insufficient retirement savings, do really want to replicate the same policy here?   Merely crying “racism” or “xenophobia” does little to address this issue.  It is vital that we do not bring people in that are likely to tax our social welfare system.

I will say little about our criminal justice system because we all accept the fact that we imprison at higher rates than any advanced country.   That system already is maxed out.

The second issue that no one one’s to talk about is cultural fit and crime.   And here, we cannot avoid talking about Middle Eastern immigration.  With mass migration, murder and other crimes have increased in London by double digits.  The chief of police of Vienna has warned women that they should not go out at night alone.  France and Great Britain are riddled with “no go” zones.   Sweden has now become the rape capital of Europe.  Further, we are a free and open society.   We drink beer.  We don’t have face coverings.   FGM and child marriage cannot be permitted to become social norms.   There is the increased risk of jihadism.  The reality is that there are aspects in some quarters of the Islamic word that are an anathema to Western liberalism, and more generally, it is prudent to question the wisdom of bringing large populations of poorly educated people from illiberal societies that have a long history of illiberalism.  These are things that need to be discussed with candor.

We have analogous problems filtering out bad eggs from Mexico and Central America.  The notorious MS-13 street gang from El Salvador has metastasized in many of our cities.   20% or so of our federal prison population is foreign born, and 90% of those are here illegally.  We cannot have a system in which states are free to reject enforcement of our immigration laws.   Our children are dying as a consequence.  And nowhere else is the casualty rate higher than places like the South Side of Chicago, where drugs and the battle over their distribution rages, and much of it through the distribution channels of illegal immigration.

Trump’s sin is not that he asked the question, but rather that he asked in such an imprecise, vulgar and insulting way as to invite the charge of racism, which thus obscured hard conversations about real issues.

In my view, there are four pillars for a sensible immigration policy:

1.  Pay your own way.   We need to ensure that immigrants have a high probability of being employed and that they don’t end up in the welfare system or the criminal justice system.  That means having a realistic conversation about the skill level of the people that come here.  Perhaps a starting point would be to put a cap on the number of people that will not be expected to earn enough to actually pay income taxes within 24 months of arrival.  The supervisor in Columbus trying to feed his family on $80,000 a year has no interest in paying for benefits for somebody from Senegal....or Norway for that matter.
2. Don’t kill us.  We need to have better methods of screening out radical Muslims that pose a risk and gang members and people involved in the drug trade (see #4 below) and aggressively move to expel those that come across the border that put our citizens at risk.   The notion of sanctuary cities is insane.
3.  You must adapt to our culture; we’re not adapting to yours.  While Trump’s reference to Norwegians was viewed as racist, I heard it as Western, and we should not hesitate to signal that we are much more sympathetic to immigrants that demonstrate a willingness to adapt to our Western, open, liberal society and democracy.   That means that the odious aspects of some of Islamic culture---burkas, FGM, child marriage, and such are not going to be welcomed in the U.S. with open arms.   We should not be placed in the position we have found ourselves, where Christian bakers are forced to bake cakes in contravention of their religious practices or religious orders are forced to pay for abortive contraceptives, and yet Muslims can refuse to deliver alcoholic beverages in the course of their employment and sustain a lawsuit when they get fired for insubordination for doing so.   Our house.  Our rules.
4. No nullification. Immigration affects the entire nation.   Just as the Commerce Clause is used to govern interstate commerce even if commerce is done within a state, so is it with immigration.  We have free flow across state borders.  If California protects immigrant criminals, that will effect all of us.  

If we come to a satisfactory place on these four plus a wall (enhanced by other technological security measures), I’d be willing to consider some sort of amnesty with age limitations and a lookback period (say two years).   We cannot continue with a lawless immigration policy, and there are limits to the number of people we can take in.

Israel walked from its peace deal with Arafat over “return rights”  because it knew that demography is destiny.  If it agreed to return rights, within a couple of generations, Israel wouldn’t be Israel anymore.  Its culture, its territorial integrity, its economy would, over time,  be overrun and overwhelmed by Arabs.  Israel was not wrong in this position and it has some lessons for the U.S.  Whatever country of origin or race, we have a right to expect that people that come here will assimilate into our culture and economy.

I leave you with this quote from one of my favorite economists:

“People in the poorest countries nowadays, who assume not unreasonably that their economies are zero-sum, reckon they can best advance by theft, graft, influence, corruption, rent-seeking [A/K/A “shitholes”].  People in rich countries reckon, on the contrary, that the best way to advance is invention and betterment, which is why such countries became wealthy, at any rate until government expenditures got large enough to encourage rent-seeking to take over again.”

Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, Bourgeois Equality.

Both Trump and the Democrats are guilty here--- of cutting off real debate of real issues.  Trump in his clumsy way walked right into the charge of racism, which was laying wait for him.  But the cynical and harmful labeling of racism and xenophobia by the Left masks the true agenda--- bring in as many immigrants as possible, try to give them victim status and/or get them hooked on government benefits.   Then you don’t have to worry about trying to get rid of the electoral college.

We need a sane, open debate from both sides about what the country needs and what it should look like in the coming generations.

A Touch of Class

As I wrote on this blog earlier this fall, I have given up watching N.F.L. football.  Although a lifelong fan, I refuse to watch when the N.F.L. countenances disrespect of the national anthem.  I articulated my reasons for my boycott in detail and do not need to repeat them here.  In addition, I believe that the N.F.L. has not done enough to recognize and combat CTE in its former players (along with other football induced infirmities--- see, for example, Wilbur Marshall’s bankruptcy while the N.F.L. fought his claims for disability benefits).

I turned instead to following high school and college football and followed our local Catholic high school to the state championship game (which it lost, sadly).

On the surface, Monday night’s Alabama-Georgia national championship game was a doozy.   The game itself was well played.  Underdog Georgia had perennial powerhouse Alabama on its heels as true freshman quarterback Jake Fromm for Georgia played out of his shoes, and it was amazing to think that less than a year ago, this kid was at his senior prom.  Alabama, suffering under a 13 point deficit, pulled its senior starter at halftime and gambled with its own freshman who led them to a thrilling overtime victory.

Still, I found some disquieting aspects to the game.   Sports is a reflection of society and the NCAA championship left me with uneasy thoughts about where we are.

First, the outburst of Alabama’s Bo Scarbrough yelling “F*** Trump” as the team walked down the chute to the game.   It reflected a gross disrespect for the presidency.  We’ve been conditioned to this by Colin Kaepernick, the MSM and people like Kathy Griffin, but now it has seeped down to the college level.  Once can only imagine the reaction if a white Alabama player had said the same thing about Obama.   It not only underscored the now accepted gross disrespect for the presidency, but the glaring double standard that exists.

The second troublesome occurrence was after Alabama player Mekhi Brown was penalized and then appeared to throw a punch at one of the Alabama coaches.  Brown was so incensed that he had to be restrained by some of his teammates.   It was such an egregious act that the commentators talked about extensively.  Yet, Brown was put back in the game later.   It’s hard to imagine that behavior in any work environment that would result in anything other than an immediate dismissal.

In another era both of these players would have been benched and perhaps kicked off the team, but Nick Saban apparently doesn’t really give a hoot about the public behavior of his players.  They are there for one thing and one thing only, to win football games.   Other aspects of their behavior can be overlooked.

Which brings us to Nick Saban himself.   Nick Saban is the highest paid public employee in the country at $11.1 million.  That puts him in the ranks of many public company CEO’s.  One has to wonder whether it is good for higher education, or for the country for that matter to have football coaches be the highest paid state employees in 32 states.

Sure, it was a good game and worth staying up to watch.  But I also saw some things that reflect where we have come as a society.  The MSM and, in particular, the Left is fond of bashing Trump for being brash, vulgar, and crude.

I began to think that maybe he, too, is simply a reflection of what we’ve become, that all semblance of dignity and class has been drained out of our society.

But the next day, I found a little glimmer of hope.   Saban benched his starter, Jalen Hurts at halftime when his team fell behind and put in Tua Tagovailoa, who helped win the game.   Tagovailoa tweeted out:

“Tired of people not appreciating the fact that if [sic] this man led us to the National Championship.  And for all the fans that are against Jalen, you against me too.  You either WITH US or AGAINST US.  Love you 2.  #BigBroLittleBro @JasonHurts.”

Hurts responded:

“Love You Too Lil Bro! Proud of You! #NationalChampions.”

A little faith was restored.

Let's Go Crazy

One of the Left’s problems is that they are so damn boring and predictable.

This bunch couldn’t even run a high school football team.  They run the same plays over and over and over again.

Take the Clintons.  At least the Clintons execute well.  When caught doing something nefarious, the first instinct is to lie and deny.   And keep denying. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”  “I kept a personal emails for convenience.”   Keep it up as long as you possibly can until someone comes up with physical, undeniable, irrefutable truth.  And that will be hard to do, because they obfuscate, hide evidence, resist disclosure every inch of the way.   And years later when all the facts are assembled and point to ethical breaches, the Clintons then claim that “this is old news.” 

Similary, the Left has consistently attempted to discredit a Republican president as either “dumb,” “crazy” or “addled.”  Gerald Ford was maligned as stupid and clumsy.   Ronald Reagan was an “amiable dunce” and claims were made that he was symptomatic of Altzheimers while he was still president.  George W. Bush similarly was vilified as stupid by the press as the press landed on each and every malaproprism as definitive proof.  

And now the Left has trotted out a couple of psychiatrists to buttress the Left’s claim that Donald Trump is “not fit to be president,” in a grotesque attempt to establish grounds to have him removed under the 25^th Amendment.   This is all interesting because the American Psychiatric Association adheres to the “Goldwater Rule” which forbids forming an opinion about the mental health of a person without an in-person consultation with him or her.  CNN knows this.  Yet it did not prevent them from trotting out some quack and it did not prevent an Ivy League psychiatrist from briefing Congress on his mental fitness.   Yale psychiatrist Bandi Lee makes the Chicken Little claim that Trump’s mental state could destroy the entire human species.  

I’m much more worried about the Soviet style tactics of the left---using the State’s security and enforcement apparatus to punish political enemies—that the F.B.I., NSC, and IRS have been thoroughly politicized.   I’m deeply concerned about the steady erosion of free speech on college campuses.  I’m much more concerned that the Democratic leadership has sidled up to Antifa as the recent photo of Keith Ellison with the Antifa handbook showed. 

The American electorate had plenty of opportunity to render a judgment on that, and will again in about 34 months.  It is not a decision by a couple of psychiatrists that are breaching ethical standards by talking about it.

The Soviet and Chinese Communists played this card all the time.  Dissidents were deemed by party psychiatrists to be mentally unstable.   It’s so painfully obvious that the Left is running this play again.  It needs to stop.  The conversation has shifted from “Russian collusion” to “Trump is mentally unstable,” moving the strategy from the FBI deciding on whether Trump should be president to psychiatric “experts” making that determination. 

I am much more confident in the will of the electorate making a judgment on someone’s fitness for office than a couple of people that are violating the ethical standards of their profession.  Sorry, but We the People get to make that decision.   But you do get to try again in 2020.

The Ice Bowl

As I walked out into the icy grip of Chicago’s polar winter on New Year’s Eve to my car to head over to the fitness center, I recalled that it was on this day 50 years ago that the most noted football games in N.F.L. history was played —the famed Ice Bowl.   As my teeth chattered, I remembered that the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys played a football game in weather that was even colder—about 10 degrees colder. 

I was only a young boy at the time, but was in Wisconsin, about an hour away at the family farm that day.  I have very vivid memories of that morning, waking up on a bright sunny but bitterly cold day.  I remember my grandparents astonishment at the news reports that the championship game would be played at the outside thermometer registered -15 degrees.   None of the cars would turn over and my father and grandfather shuttled pans of hot water outside in an attempt to warm the engine blocks enough to get some life into them.

The game was played in inhuman conditions.  The referee blew the whistle at the end of the first play and his whistle stuck to his lip and pulled part of his lip off with it.  The halftime entertainment was cancelled because of the same issue.   The electric tarp installed to heat the field only caused condensation that froze, making playing on the field feel like “playing on concrete with sharp edges.”  It was the stuff legends are made of.   The Packers squandered a 14 point lead were down 17-14 after two turnovers and needed a final desperation drive to win.  With less than 20 seconds left, Bart Starr followed guard Jerry Kramer into the end zone to seal the Packers 3^rd straight N.F.L. title.

50 years ago.

In addition to being an hour away on that fateful day, I have two other connections.  A former colleague of mine actually attended the game.  He was eight years old and said that he recalled it as a surreal experience.  Almost everyone in the crowd wore a wool facemask hat which gave the cheers a muffled sound.  Because of the vapor from everyone’s breath, there was almost a permanent fog over the crowd.  He said he remembers his father scraping the frost off of his glasses with his fingernails.  Today, taking an 8 year old to a place outdoors with a 40 below wind chill would be considered tantamount to child abuse. 

I also had the good fortune to meet Jerry Kramer a few years ago in person at our local bookstore.  He had reissued his diary “Instant Replay” in hardcover and was there to sign his book.  Instant Replay and Ball Four by Jim Bouton were on the required reading list of every preteen boy at that time.  My son was just starting his football journey in high school at the time and it was a thrill to meet the player that actually made the key block in that storied game.  Although in his 60’s, Kramer still had powerful hands and a stout frame.   It’s hard to imagine that he played on a championship team at 6’3” and 245 pounds.  Today, that is about the average size of a lineman on the local high school team.

While there are several highlight films of the game available on Youtube and on the NFL website, perhaps the best account is in David Maraniss’s 2000 biography of Vince Lombardi:  When Pride Still Mattered.  Maraniss devotes an entire chapter in his book to that game and I recommend it to anyone that loves the game and its history.

The Ice Bowl is from another era - before domed stadiums, pro-turf, big salaries, kneeling at the national anthem and CTE.   Both coaches and several players are gone now—Vince Lombardi, Tom Landry, Ray Nitschke, Don Meredith, Fuzzy Thurston.  But this cold New Year’s weekend triggered memories of that bitter cold day half a century ago.