Oh, that good old Missouri legislature’s at it again, creating and fighting battles that are best left unfought, while shamefully looking the other way in the face of serious and urgent plights that require immediate intervention.

If you believe that social justice requires aid and assistance to the unfortunate and downtrodden, as we do, then you probably are as removed philosophically as we are from the majority in Jefferson City.

While we should be trying to get people back to work, soften the blow of unemployment and combat poverty, promote job training and beef up Missouri’s woefully underfunded education system, here’s what legislators have busied themselves with:

• Making it easier to carry a gun into the Capitol

• Gutting a puppy mill law adopted by a large majority of Missouri voters

• Requiring poor people to get additional identification to vote

• Eliminating the state’s corporate franchise tax

• Removing restrictions on child labor laws

But several legislators have had enough time to block legislation from reaching the Senate floor (despite House passage) that would allow federal unemployment benefits to be extended in Missouri

Is it just us, or does something ring hollow here?