I tried to ignore the whole Rush-Limbaugh-calling-Sandra-Fluke-a-slut-for-using-birth-control debacle because Limbaugh's comments struck me as so willfully stupid and cruelly inflammatory as to have been said purely for the media spectacle. Obviously, women take birth control for reasons other than because they're sexually active, and there's no 1:1 ratio between birth control pills and sexual encounters, so arguing that women "have so much sex they can't afford birth control" is just dumb.

And really, who the fuck cares what Rush Limbaugh thinks? Who the fuck even listens to his garbage show?

But today's news that President Obama reached out to Fluke to give her his presidential blessing is touching:

“You were in our green room getting ready to come on and the White House tells us that we can reveal that you just got off the phone with President Obama,” MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell explained.

“Yes, I did,” Fluke agreed. “He encouraged me and supported me and thanked me for speaking out about the concerns of American women.”

“And what was really personal for me was he said to tell my parents that they should be proud. And that meant a lot because Rush Limbaugh questioned whether my family would be proud of me,” she added, fighting back tears.

A call from Obama is worth a million bitter old men screaming into their tin cans about sluts. ("They're in the walls! They're in my hair! Sluts, sluts—they're everywhere!") Still, though: I wish we could get back to ignoring Limbaugh and his stupid old man "get off my lawn!" rants like normal.