A new conspiracy theory began percolating on the port side of the Internet last month. The essentials of the story are best summed up by this Huffington Post headline: “Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaire Koch Brothers.” Confirms? Many on the left have alleged that the Koch brothers, prominent philanthropists and supporters of libertarian causes, were puppeteering the Tea Party, which in fact was as spontaneous a political uprising as any seen in recent American history. Whatever one’s views of the Tea Party, whether one takes the Koch accusation seriously has proved to be a good litmus test for honesty and sobriety in political discourse. As for the supposed role of Big Tobacco in the Tea Party, The Scrapbook is regrettably well-versed in left-wing conspiracy theories, but the allegation that the Tea Party wants to give you cancer was new to us.