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)
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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]
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In 2009, Christie wrote a letter voicing concern about the (false) vaccine-autism link.
[The Daily Beast / Olivia Nuzzi]
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Obama also flirted with anti-vaxxers during the 2008 campaign.
[Vox / Sarah Kliff]
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And Rand Paul said, just today, that "most [vaccines] ought to be voluntary."
[Bloomberg / David Weigel]
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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]
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But in case you're on the fence, here's why vaccinating your kids is a moral obligation.
[Vox / Sarah Kliff]
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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)
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This is Obama's first budget where he stops trying to be polite to Republicans and starts getting real.
[Vox / Matthew Yglesias]
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Here's a good chart of the big winners and losers in Obama's budget.
[Vox / Matthew Yglesias]
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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]
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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]
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Unsurprisingly, Republicans aren't exactly big fans of Obama's budget proposal.
[Politico / Seung Min Kim and Burgess Everett]
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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]
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This budget is all about addressing inequality, but even if it all passed it wouldn't make a huge dent.
[New Yorker / John Cassidy]
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And here's what the new budget says about pizza.
[Wall Street Journal / Tennille Tracy]
3. About that pass...
(Rob Carr/Getty Images)
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The New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. In more stating-the-obvious, it was a great game.
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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]
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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]
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Even if you take that argument seriously, though, Carroll really should have just given the ball to Beast Mode.
[Grantland / Bill Barnwell]
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It wasn't just about the interception — the Patriots' offense, and Tom Brady in particular, played an amazing third quarter.
[Grantland / Robert Mays]
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Here are the eleven best Super Bowl ads (Jeff Bridges FTW!).
[Vox / Todd VanDerWerff]
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And here are five depressing ones (what the hell, Nationwide?!).
[Vox / Alex Abad-Santos]
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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]
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Besides Elliott, the best part of the halftime show was Left Shark, everyone's new life avatar.
[SB Nation / Rodger Sherman]
4. Misc.
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What privateers tell us about American patriotism.
[Marginal Revolution / Alex Tabarrok]
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It's Groundhog Day, which raises an eternal question: is Punxsutawney Phil evil, or merely incompetent?
[Vox / Phil Edwards]
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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]
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Your toddler might know more about your private life than you think.
[Pacific Standard / Nathan Collins]
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Baghdad's only movie theater has cancelled screenings of American Sniper.
[Washington Post / Liz Sly]
5. Verbatim
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"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]
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"It may be that some brains could benefit from a little less order."
[New Yorker / Michael Pollan]
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"Thus began a new phase of Taylor Swift’s life: Strategic Girlfriend Collecting."
[Buzzfeed / Anne Helen Peterson]
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"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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