‘Good news: Pat Robertson is sane.’ “Since I have been hired, temporarily, to write about the news, here’s some: seeing Pat Robertson on television cheered me up. Until recently, about the nicest thing I would have said about this televangelist is that he isn’t boring. Remember when he wanted to boycott the ‘Satanic ritual’ that is Halloween? Or when he said, ‘The husband is the head of the wife’? Or when he warned the city of Orlando that the flying of homosexuals’ upbeat rainbow flags might incite divine retribution in the form of hurricanes or ‘possibly a meteor’? Yep, good times.

Nevertheless, when I spotted Robertson in a lineup of celebrities including Brad Pitt, Bono, George Clooney and the also-never-boring Dennis Hopper, I was delighted to see him. He was in the One Campaign’s television ad asking for help in the crusade against poverty, starvation and AIDS in Africa and elsewhere.

In the commercial, Robertson says, ‘Americans have an unprecedented opportunity,’ and then Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs, of all people, finishes his sentence, concluding that ‘we can make history.’

On a recent ‘Nightline,’ Robertson showed up with his new best friend, Clooney. When asked if his group Operation Blessing would promote ‘the responsible use of condoms’ along with abstinence in its AIDS education program in Africa, Robertson answered, ‘Absolutely.’ Pat Robertson!” — Sarah Vowell (New York Times op-ed)