In my op-ed piece today in The Baltimore Sun, I write about the stubborn Internet conspiracy theory that Michelle Obama's vegetable garden has "toxic" levels of lead.

 Just about every day, I get a Google alert that carries one more reference to the garden's pollution as a result of an application of "sewage sludge" during the Clinton Administration.

(That may, in fact, be true. It was not uncommon in the 1980s to promote treated sewage plant waste as a fertilizer. It has since fallen out of favor. Probably because of public perception issues, as opposed to environmental issues.)

Sheesh.

The National Park Service has reported a lead level of 96 parts per million, a level that is "ridiculously low" according to experts interviewed on the very credible Obama food blog, Obama Foodorama. The blog refers to those who persist in believing the garden is polluted as "leadites," not unlike the "birthers," who insist that the President's Hawaiian birth certificate is faked.

Just today, there was another Google alert for me: The White House vegetable garden will cause alzheimers.

I couldn't make this stuff up.