News that Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry used to hang out and hunt at some west Texas hunting camp called "Niggerhead" hasn't made him too many new friends among the American public. Oh well! At least he's still got his old friends to support and help him. Or hurt him. Helpfully hurt him.

The New York Times called up Wallar Overton, described as "the son of Mr. Perry's scoutmaster in his home county of Haskell," to see what he had to say about all this hateful-speech hoopla:

Overton... said the hunting camp had always been known by that name.

"It's just what it was called from Day One," Mr. Overton said. "I personally am not offended by the name, and I don't like the word."

"That's just what people call it," he said.

Right. Since Day One, folks. The beginning of time, when God molded the Earth out of a ball of Play Doh that He got at the big celestial Kmart, for free, because God created that Kmart just like He created ranches and Texas. It's not like people could call the place "N-Word Head," because that's not what God called it, and besides, it sounds too clunky. (The next time you use offensive language to describe a person, place, or thing, just go, "that's just what people call it," and walk away.)

Overton's answer is strangely similar to that of Haskell County Judge David Davis, who went on the record for Perry in the Washington Post article. Maybe Overton read that article and was like, "I'll just say what that Davis guy said," and did that. Or maybe all of Rick Perry's friends and associates are space robots programmed with the same microchip, sent here to colonize West Texas and promote their planet's weird cognitive dissonance religion.

In other news, Perry traveled to New Hampshire with his Sharpie. See, he's got black friends.

[NYT. Image via AP]