Radio show host and conservative lightning rod Rush Limbaugh piped in yesterday on the Vatican’s assertion that the washing machine did more to liberate women than birth control. Discussing the matter yesterday, Limbaugh insisted the Vatican’s paper perpetuated "stereotypes" and did a "disservice" to women:

This comment does a disservice to women everywhere.  It plays upon stereotypes.  These stereotypes must be challenged; they must be swept aside.   

This is highly insulting to my sensibilities and my sensitivities.  I mean, the washing machine more liberating than the pill?

This continual playing to stereotypes must stop. It must be challenged, and it must be swept aside. Women face enough tough decisions each and every day particularly during this recession.

Could it be that Limbaugh, who once said that feminism was simply a way for unattractive women to break into mainstream society, has had a change of heart in terms of women’s rights? He did, after all, hold that summit on women’s issues, which he says highlighted his awareness of the "trials and tribulations" facing women. Not so fast, for Limbaugh, who’s known to pepper his commentary with a particular brand of humor, continued:

To sit here and pretend that you are a comedian and to say that the washing machine was more liberating than the pill according to the Catholic church, this has gone far enough.  Besides, everybody knows it was the vacuum cleaner that liberated women more than the pill.

His caller, Kelly from Ohio, said she would gladly take the washing machine and the vacuum cleaner, because the pill, she said, hurt women’s health and also encourages them to have sex willy-nilly, "Men and women are different and for me to be on the pill and then beholden to having sex whenever my husband wants to have sex, um, how horrible a relationship would that be?  We do NFP, Natural Family Planning, and it’s a — it’s a mutual understanding." Well, that’s a relief!