Jeff Pantages

OPINION: There's good reason for the old saying, "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

The five largest U.S. banks had 16 percent of all bank deposits in 1994, 36 percent just before the panic, and are now at 43 percent. That’s right, despite the crisis and new legislation, big banks are getting bigger.

Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed. Right down to the wire before both sides came together but they averted Armageddon. At the last moment, the NFL owners and players union agreed to compromise and we will have football this fall!

It's summertime. The fish are jumpin', the beer is cold and the boys are back playing ball at Mulcahy. Let's leave weighty discussions for the fall and talk about something completely frivolous -- like bumper stickers.

Alaska is blessed with an abundance of natural resources, most importantly oil. Ask any old timer what oil has meant to the state. What was it like and where would we be without all that crude flowing through the pipeline? Prudhoe Bay was a game changer.

I'm not a curmudgeon, although this column may sound curmudgeonly. Chalk it up to the fact that I don't ski or snowmachine. Without diversions, I spend all winter noticing things and now need to cleanse my mind of all irritants through a good spring cleaning.

The song "Sixteen Tons" sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford reached No. 1 in the Billboard charts in 1955. With apologies, here is my slightly different rendition.

Years ago on a family trip to New York City I took my kids to the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street. Looking down on the maze of brokers and runners, hands flying, madly trading securities, my son piped up "But I don't understand. They're not making anything?"

Policymakers heading to Juneau will be revisiting the ACES oil tax legislation passed in 2007, which raised taxes on the oil companies. Since that time, exploratory drilling has gone down. Over the past year, oil and gas employment dropped as well. The pipeline is two-thirds empty, and output is going down 6 percent per year.

I'm usually reluctant to defend the tea party. Most of the people I know who are involved can defend themselves, but two recent columns in the ADN should be addressed.

Well the election is over, and good riddance to it. Was it my imagination or did Alaska set a record for mudslinging and negative campaigning in the hard-fought U.S. Senate race this time around?

A while back, in another state, my wife and I went to a charity event where we entered the $25 minimum silent auction bid for lunch with a former congressman at the congressional dining room in Washington, D.C. He had just been defeated in a bid to move up to a Senate seat.

The Anchorage Community Dialogues were a laudable effort to survey and get feedback from everyday citizens on what they want in terms of municipal services and how they think we should pay for them.

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman is at it again. Writing on this page (ADN July 6) he advocates more and more government spending to avoid a third Great Depression.

I flunked the garbage test. Arriving home one evening my trash remained uncollected and a florescent green ticket was attached to the receptacle. It stated that my cart was not served because: "Cart is facing the wrong direction."