Where to Travel in January : Travel Tips : Travel Channel
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Where to Travel in January
Don’t just start off January with a resolution to travel -- kick off the New Year by actually taking a trip! Get inspired with our list of
and some of the
every traveler should had to his or her bucket list.  Looking for more ideas? Check out our
slideshow to help start the new year off right!
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Ring in the Year of the Goat in . In addition to celebrating the , tourists can check out some of the country’s most popular attractions such as the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square and . Visit Chinatown neighborhoods in NYC, LA, San Francisco and Boston for the best US celebrations.
2. Coney Island, New York
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Did you spend New Year’s Eve overindulging? Plunge into the New Year with a refreshing dip, washing away all the bad juju from the year before. One of the most iconic New Year’s dips is the annual . If the icy Atlantic Ocean is too cold for a January swim, don’ there are
in warmer waters, too.
3. Park City, Utah
Sundance Film Festival
Are you a film fanatic? Head to
for the annual , America’s largest independent film festival. See world premieres of the most-anticipated indie films of the year. When you’ve had enough celeb-spotting and movie biz schmoozing, hit the slopes nearby to experience . And once Sundance ends, draw up your next travel wish list with our annual look at movies that inspire travel.
4. Dominican Republic
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After the holiday excitement is over, winter doldrums set in during January. Escape winter’s wrath and get a dose of Vitamin D by . A short flight from the US, the
is an ideal
if you’ve got a serious craving for sunny skies and white-sand beaches this winter. Don't forget to
for 2 to the DR.
5. Key West, Florida
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Food lovers should flock south to the annual
to savor sunny skies and standout seafood dishes. Stroll through the funky streets of Key West, tasting fresh seafood, unique local ingredients and stellar vintages from around the world. In typical
style, this event doesn’t take itself too seriously -- enjoy some foodie fun with wacky events like coconut bowling!
Looking for a unique
in a ? Spend a night to remember in an igloo! Every January, Quebec’s
is rebuilt entirely with ice and snow -- everything from the walls down to the beds are carved into an original ice sculpture edifice. After such an unforgettable night, get the blood pumping with a day of .
7. Detroit
Reuters/James Fassinger
Calling all auto aficionados! Rev up your motor with a peek at the sexiest and sleekest new rides of the year on display at the annual
in . You’ll be inspired to plan your next
after seeing all these hot wheels.
Travel Channel offers its Top 10 ways to reduce your carbon footprint and plan an eco-friendly trip. Go green!Bradley Manning Lives in a Nation of Laws, and, Hero or Not, He Broke 20 of Those Laws - The Daily Banter
Bradley Manning Lives in a Nation of Laws, and, Hero or Not, He Broke 20 of Those Laws
While fleeing from the law in Hong Kong, Edward Snowden encouraged
“the rule of law rather than men.” In spite of his politically incorrect usage of “men” instead of “men and women,” he’s right. Generally speaking, individual citizens shouldn’t be held above the law — least of all a soldier named Pfc. Bradley Manning who stole 720,000 classified documents and handed them over to be be indiscriminately posted for public consumption by Julian Assange’s Wikileaks.
Whatever we might think about the motives and repercussions of Bradley Manning’s actions, one thing we know for sure is that he broke the law. He was apprehended, arrested and, as a soldier, he was given a fair court-martial without a jury of his peers per his own . He was able to hire a defense team and was backed up by public advocacy around the world. From there, he plead guilty to breaking ten laws in the face of having pledged an . And on Tuesday, a military judge found him guilty on an additional ten charges.
Knowing this, I’m not exactly sure why there was such violent garment rending yesterday over the fact that Manning will go to prison per the mandates of the law. He was given due process, he was presumed innocent and he was tried in the plain view of journalists. So, why the angst?
I’m not clear as to how Manning has been able to attain such a small but vocal following of supporters given his recklessness and naivete in leaking so many documents, many of which revealed information damaging to American diplomatic endeavors. As with Snowden, there’s a vindictiveness in Manning’s actions — a destructive blurting of information in order to seemingly exact punishment upon his government and the people from which it’s derived. Had he released fewer documents with a more precise goal in mind and done so through more respectable channels, it’s likely he wouldn’t be facing 136 years in prison. Better yet, he probably wouldn’t have as many critics.
This brings us to the issue of transparency and the so-called “war on whistleblowers.”
It’s bizarre that we’ve reached a place and time in which we have to justify the need for state secrets, but here we are. No matter how entitled some of the more privileged Manning supporters think they might be, secrets must remain secretive. Full stop. It’s not necessarily because you shouldn’t know, it’s chiefly because successful national security and diplomacy depends upon it. Indiscriminate leaks carry the potential for catastrophic repercussions to the United States in the context of a blindingly adversarial world. And I say “adversarial” in every possible sense, including the chess-match of preventing wars as well as the maintenance of solid relationships with both allies and “frenemies.”
Elevating someone like Manning to hero status serves to encourage subsequent would-be “heroes” whose character and judgment is impossible for us to know, and so we should be cautious to blindly encourage more. One of the many reasons such behavior is against the law is obviously to prevent the willy-nilly circulation of documents to anyone who asks nicely. Should we as a society trust just anyone to have the laser-precise judgment and informed, morally-driven discretion to engage in the responsible leaking of secrets? I don’t think so. Doing so is a formula for chaos.
This is why it’s acceptable to responsibly encourage both transparency and benevolent whistleblowers. But it’s inherently dangerous to encourage slash-and-burn leaks and leakers, the likes of which we’ve observed in Manning and, to a lesser extent, Snowden. And when these leakers break the law, it’s critical that they be compelled, even by their supporters, to face the consequences of their actions. First, because, to repeat, America is a nation of laws. And, more specifically, without the barrier of law enforcement, future leakers, acting with public impunity, could prove to be even more reckless and harrowing than Manning.
Furthermore, I’m repulsed by the too-prevalent use of the term “whistleblower” to include everyone who leaks classified documents. It’s inaccurate as well as being hugely disrespectful to legitimate whistleblowers. Not everyone gets to be a hero just because they horked things from the government and then emailed their bounty to Glenn Greenwald. Put another way: just because someone successfully reproduces and makes a baby doesn’t automatically make that person the parent of the year. Whistleblowers who thoughtfully, selflessly, and often quietly expose illegal activity for the benefit of the people should be applauded. Leakers, on the other hand, need to be treated with caution and their character evaluated on an acutely discerning case-by-case basis.
By the way, contrary to what we’ve been told by Greenwald and others, there is no “” being pursued by the Obama administration. It’s pure fiction — a Greenwald agitprop campaign. It might surprise Greenwald’s readers to learn that President Obama signed the
last year. Among other things, it “expands protections for federal workers who blow the whistle on misconduct, fraud and illegality.”
It clarifies the scope of protected disclosures, tightens requirements for non-disclosure agreements, expands penalties for violating protections and adds to the staff of some federal agencies an ombudsman whose job will be to educate agency employees of their rights, a statement said.
Hmm. That’s a peculiar law to sign if your goal is to fight an “unprecedented war on whistleblowers.” Additionally, much of this so-called war involves seven prosecutions of leakers — not legitimate whistleblowers. Seven, including Snowden and Manning. Before Manning, the stiffest punishment has been
and the weakest was . Furthermore, Charlie Savage, who’s been covering the Manning trial,
that the appearance of a spike in leaker prosecutions isn’t due to a concerted “war” by the president or the Justice Department, but is actually the result of…
…several leftover investigations from the Bush administration, a proliferation of e-mail and computer audit trails that increasingly can pinpoint reporters’ sources, bipartisan support in Congress for a tougher approach, and a push by the director of national intelligence in 2009 that sharpened the system for tracking disclosures.
Savage also wrote, “[Eric Holder] has told associates that he has no desire for leak prosecutions to be his legacy.”
Reality is an inconvenient thing when you’re constructing a radical, histrionic agenda that paints Obama as an enemy of the free peoples of the United States. Sorry, Mr. Greenwald, there is no “war on whistleblowers.” There’s only the rule of law.
To that point, Manning and Snowden aren’t considered enemies of the state because Obama wants to institute martial law or to seize unaccountable executive power or to form a new American Stasi. Manning and Snowden violated a stack of laws. Snowden fled the country and has threatened to release documents that could “.” These are actionable trespasses, and they don’t deserve to be pardoned just because a debate was ignited or because Greenwald thinks these men are the victims of an unjust war.
Bob Cesca is the managing editor for The Daily Banter, the editor of , the host of the
podcast and a Huffington Post contributor.Sina Visitor SystemThe Hat Guys
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