Readers Write: (Sept. 22): Minnesota Renaissance Festival, the NFL, combating ISIL, Tim Pawlenty, employment, steer-tailing

As a Renaissance Festival goer since 1979, I must say the situation at the site is dire. Barbed wire? Yes, and as a Sept. 16 story pointed out, that's just for starters ("Mine chips away at Renaissance magic"). If you look at the map of the mining area, you will see a bulge on the right side. That's where the pirate ship was supposed to be torn down this year. It was only protests from performers on that stage that saved it. For this year. Also, what about any future expansion of the festival? That is now out of the question at its present site.

I am wondering why festival planners didn't try to buy the land they needed back in the mid-1970s when permanent structures began to appear on the property and it looked like the Renaissance Festival was here to stay. This might not be a fair comparison, because both are year-round amusements, but Disney World and Universal Studios in Orlando bought the property they sit on at the beginning of their development and wisely included vast acreage with an eye on expansion. Nothing like that happened in Shakopee.

Now the issue, in my opinion, is a lost cause. A beloved Minnesota institution is about finished. It didn't have to be this way but for decisionmaking 30 years ago. Let's hope that a new site can be found and that this time management keeps an eye on fun for future generations instead of on a quick buck and a pinched penny. Huzzah?

If you are disgusted by the NFL's refusal to assess harsh penalties to players guilty of serious misconduct, there is a way to make your voice heard. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., has introduced a bill to strip the league of its tax-exempt status. Individual team ownerships pay taxes on their income, but the NFL, a multibillion-dollar entity, does not. Why? According to our tax code, it is a "fraternal association," relieving it of any and all tax obligations. Tell your representatives in Washington to support the Booker bill. Demand that at least $100 million of the revenues generated by this new tax be dedicated to domestic- and child-abuse prevention.

I find Thomas Friedman to be one of the most clear-thinking journalists ever featured on the Star Tribune's opinion pages. His Sept. 18 opinion column ("Perhaps it's best if U.S. steps aside") did a brilliant job of framing just how insane the situation in the Middle East has become. For the United States to engage there militarily again and expect a different outcome represents its own brand of insanity.

I agree with Friedman: As long as the U.S. continues to get involved in Middle East conflicts that have their roots in centuries-old traditions, we will not be getting at the cause of the perpetual blood feuds there. The situation there is a whole different paradigm than what we in our democratic, freedom-of-religion, freedom-of-choice, freedom-of-speech world can understand. I know this will sound brutal and totally contrary to our Judeo-Christian values, but the U.S. and the rest of the Western world governments should let those in the Mideast fight it out among themselves. The world of Islam has to decide for itself if it wants to join the rest of us in the 21st century.

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So we're going to use a $4.5 billion aircraft carrier to launch a $57 million F/A-18 Hornet armed with a $180,000 Maverick to be fired at a $140,000 Humvee that we gave to the Iraqi Army, which rolled over and lost it to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

Has anyone calculated how much we have to borrow from China to keep both sides equipped with weaponry and targets?

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The president was talking about defeating the ISIL while Army National Guard units around the country were canceling drill weekends because the Guard ran out of money for the year.

Now: "A lobbying group led by [Pawlenty] … aimed to keep consumer complaints about banks off a federal website" ("Pawlenty group ends PR push," Sept. 17). Is that what he calls "doing the right thing"? Sure glad he isn't still our governor.

According to the "Figuratively Speaking" feature in the Sept. 16 Business section, 39 percent of full-time workers are on the job at least 50 hours per week. If this is correct, this country does not have an unemployment problem, it has a jobs problem.

Thank you for bringing steer-tailing — in which cowboys on horseback try to grab a steer's tail and topple it — to readers' attention ("Steer-tailing spurs complaint," Sept. 16). I read the article with growing disgust and horror that people would treat animals so inhumanely for their own of enjoyment.

The host of the event stated that it is steeped in culture and family. Seems to be much the same excuse we heard from Charles Barkley regarding Adrian Peterson's choice of punishment for his little boy.

It is also stated in the article that no animals are hurt. Really? Too bad the steers can't talk. I can only hope Andover and other communities make such events illegal.