Vox Sentences: Rage against the vaccine

Welcome to Vox Sentences, our news bulletin breaking down the day's biggest stories.

1. Chris Christie's rage against the vaccine

(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

• Chris Christie said that parents should have "some measure of choice" over vaccinating their kids. People are mad, and his office walked the comment back.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• In 2009, Christie wrote a letter voicing concern about the (false) vaccine-autism link.

  [The Daily Beast / Olivia Nuzzi]

• Obama also flirted with anti-vaxxers during the 2008 campaign.

  [Vox / Sarah Kliff]

• And Rand Paul said, just today, that "most [vaccines] ought to be voluntary."

  [Bloomberg / David Weigel]

• It would be very, very bad if anti-vaccine theories were to become identified with either party — especially because they're so hard to debunk.

  [The Atlantic / David Graham]

• But in case you're on the fence, here's why vaccinating your kids is a moral obligation.

  [Vox / Sarah Kliff]

• Here's the case that people are overreacting to Christie's comments.

  [National Review / Daniel Foster]

2. Obama has a new budget

(Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images)

• This is Obama's first budget where he stops trying to be polite to Republicans and starts getting real.

  [Vox / Matthew Yglesias]

• Here's a good chart of the big winners and losers in Obama's budget.

  [Vox / Matthew Yglesias]

• One of the winners would be the US road system, which is running out of money. Obama wants to tax corporations to pay for some fixes.

  [Vox / Brad Plumer]

• The Department of Defense is trying to use the budget, and last year's chaos, to get a bunch of new cash.

  [New York Times / Helene Cooper]

• Unsurprisingly, Republicans aren't exactly big fans of Obama's budget proposal.

  [Politico / Seung Min Kim and Burgess Everett]

• But there's a case that Republicans and Obama might come to terms on a few important issues, like the Earned Income Tax Credit.

  [Washington Post / Jared Bernstein]

• This budget is all about addressing inequality, but even if it all passed it wouldn't make a huge dent.

  [New Yorker / John Cassidy]

• And here's what the new budget says about pizza.

  [Wall Street Journal / Tennille Tracy]

3. About that pass...

(Rob Carr/Getty Images)

• The New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. In more stating-the-obvious, it was a great game.

• The game was decided by by a goal-line interception by rookie Malcolm Butler, who was as stunned by the play as you were.

  [Boston Globe / Rachel Bowers]

• But why was Seattle, who has one of the best running backs in the game, passing at all? Here's the best case for coach Pete Carroll's call.

  [Vox / Matthew Yglesias]

• Even if you take that argument seriously, though, Carroll really should have just given the ball to Beast Mode.

  [Grantland / Bill Barnwell]

• It wasn't just about the interception — the Patriots' offense, and Tom Brady in particular, played an amazing third quarter.

  [Grantland / Robert Mays]

• Here are the eleven best Super Bowl ads (Jeff Bridges FTW!).

  [Vox / Todd VanDerWerff]

• And here are five depressing ones (what the hell, Nationwide?!).

  [Vox / Alex Abad-Santos]

• During the halftime show, Katy Perry rode in on a giant metal tiger/lion — and still got outperformed by Missy Elliott.

  [Washington Post / Alyssa Rosenberg]

• Besides Elliott, the best part of the halftime show was Left Shark, everyone's new life avatar.

  [SB Nation / Rodger Sherman]

4. Misc.

• What privateers tell us about American patriotism.

  [Marginal Revolution / Alex Tabarrok]

• It's Groundhog Day, which raises an eternal question: is Punxsutawney Phil evil, or merely incompetent?

  [Vox / Phil Edwards]

• This Israeli lawmaker isn't even 30 years old yet — but she's shaking up the Israeli political scene big-time.

  [Ha'aretz / Judy Maltz]

• Your toddler might know more about your private life than you think.

  [Pacific Standard / Nathan Collins]

• Baghdad's only movie theater has cancelled screenings of American Sniper.

  [Washington Post / Liz Sly]

5. Verbatim

• "They obscure the possibility that 2014 was not an isolated event but rather the latest manifestation of a resurgent Republican coalition."

  [National Journal / John Judis]

• "It may be that some brains could benefit from a little less order."

  [New Yorker / Michael Pollan]

• "Thus began a new phase of Taylor Swift’s life: Strategic Girlfriend Collecting."

  [Buzzfeed / Anne Helen Peterson]

• "Whether science or cultural fancy, the wish — the fantasy — is the same: to speak to animals, to hope that once that dream is realised, the Shiba Inus will actually speak doge."

  [Aeon / Stassa Edwards]

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