of the troops carrying it out. [ speaking foreign language ] >> syrian troops, they're apparently taking aim on the people of homs. looking at this video one day after the syrian ambassador to the united nations said there's no armed conflict in syria. you can hear one of the men saying over the radio, the situation is good. as with almost all of the video coming out of syria, cnn cannot independently confirm what it appears to show. much more on the video and the story it tells ahead. the arrest, court appearance, and charges against a 29-year-old man accused of planning a suicide bombing at the united states capital. jeffrey toobin joins us to talk about that along with tom fuentes with new details just b those. what have you lurjed about the suspect and his alleged plot? >> the details we're getting this man, this suspect identified as a 29-year-old moroccan national seem to escalate during the points in the operation when he was working with people he thought were al qaeda operatives but were really five and other law enforcement undercover agents. one of the most extraordinary details we got was when he seemed to change his plans from first wanting to allegedly bomb a restaurant in washington, d.c. to possibly wanting to hit a military installation to mid-january amending the plans to wanting to detonate a suicide bomb in the capitol or on the grounds of the capitol, possibly in the visitor's center. >> stay with us because a sting operation netted the guy, and often cases raise questions of entrapment. we'll bring in jeffrey toobin and tom fuentes. tom, the complaints is a tip led to the fbi work. how do they taerm this one warrants serious attention? >> that's right. they get thousands and begin to look at every single one to see if there's any credibility or any possibility of truth in it. and fortunately, they weed out 99.99% of those reports as being unfounded or made up by somebody to get somebody else in trouble. so when they get into an area where the subject, where it takes on credibility, where they start to believe this guy really means it, he's going to try to do something, he's looking for someone to help him assemble an explosive or obtain the fire arms, provide the assistance he needs to carry it out, that's when it takes on the much more serious aspects of the investigation. >> and tom, you have great sources in the bureau. are they convinced this is a lone wolf and there's nobody out there who is part of the operation? >> yes, and that's something that is a key factor for them to determine when to take the case down, when to allow the subject to finally be arrested. assuming that they have all of the evidence they're going to need to convict him and have him sentenced to life in prison and make sure there isn't some unidentified subject out in the world that may be part of this thing that didn't get arrested. >> and jeffrey, anytime you have an operation like this, undercover fbi agents, allegedly trying to help the person, entrapment will be raised as an issue. how will that come up? >> it's important to remember, entrapment is often tried, rarely successful. it's a very difficult defense to persuade a jury. jurors don't like it. they feel often it's a last refuge of someone caught red-handed. so most of the time, it doesn't work. what is interesting about this case is that it appears that he was dealing only with people under government control. according to the complaint, there was u sef, who was apparently a law enforcement officer who hussein, who was cooperating with law enforcement. this does seem to be something that was set up by the government, but the key issue with entrapment is always predisposition. is someone predisposed to commit the crime? and if the allegations and the complaint are true, this guy was really initiating here. he was asking for bigger explosives. he was considering different sites. again, this is only an accusation, but based on what i have seen, entrapment is going to be a difficult defense to raise. >> let's stay on this a second because this is one of several cases post 9/11 where we have seen the fbi identify a suspect or suspects and infiltrate and work with them. a similar case like this, how is this evolving, the law enforcement role? >> law enforcement has decided after 9/11, there's no such thing as taking a case not seriously. they are taking everything seriously. they're pushing every case, and sometimes jurors have been somewhat reluctant. the miami case, there were convictions, but not on the big charges. upstate new york, some of the cases were not -- as they played out, they didn't turn into as big a case as they turned out to be. but none of these people walk out the door. and this case, where you have an actual test explosion, that's going to be incredibly incriminating here. that is well beyond just talk. the defenses that have worked is this is just a bunch of people talking, but if you have people going to a test explosion, that's a damaging piece of evidence if it pay pans out. >> why the capitol and why today? >> well, john, it seemed to indicate every step of the way this was an escalation. he came under the radar a year ago in january of 2011 when he was espousing extremist fews and intelligence sources got winld of this and notified the fbi and other enforcement agencies, then they started to monitor him. this escalated in december when they started working him undercover, and it escalated from there where he wanted to bomb a restaurant to wanting to baumg bomb a military installation and then the capitol. why today? that's not really been made clear in any of the documents or with the officials we talked to u but it did escalate to the point where he now was a ready and willing suicide bomber inside the united states. >> and tom fuentes, this is the third lone wolf arrested in the year for planning to hit targets in the d.c. area. what does it tell you? >> they're incapable of doing it themselves, and that's the basic vulnerability they have. they reach out to try to get somebody who knows something more about explosives or fire arms hoar can get the equipment they need or provide some type of logistical support. that's where the breakdown is, the old story of how many people can keep a secret, one can, two can't. as soon as they reach out, that creates the opportunity for law enforcement to be notified and infiltrate into the plan. >> the fbi is better at this they than used to be. they know how to do this and they have enormous sources, and this arrest should be a source of comfort to people, not alarm. >> that's an important point. thanks for your help, and let us know what you think, we're on facebook and google plus, add us to your circle. and up next, rick santorum's billionaire backer makes a tasteless joke about birth control, rick santorum attacks the media and levels serious charges. and later, saying good-bye to whitney houston. a live report from the church where music royalty is galtherring and we'll hear from a pastor who was whitney's friend from the highs and lows. >> you were there for her wedding and you're there for her coming home in a celebration of her life this weekend. how do you even go about writing the words that you're going to say? do you know what you're going to say? >> well, it's about praying and, you know, folk will talk about doing the eulogy, my job is not that of a eulogist. in technical term, my job is a homilist. 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[ male announcer ] another reason more people stay with state farm. get to a better state. ♪ keeping them honest. politicians belly aching about the tough and not so tough questions they face. complaining about double standards and gotcha questions. working the media instead of making the play. the latest member is rick santorum, asked about a billionaire supporters controversial remarks on birth control, these remarks. >> i get such a chuckle when these things come up. here we have millions of our fellow americans unemployed, jihadist camps set up in latin america, which rick is warning about, and people are so preoccupied with sex. it says something about our culture. we need a massive therapy session to concentrate on what the real issues are. and the contraceptive thing, it's so inexpensive. back in my day, we used aspirin, the girls put it between their legs and it wasn't that expensive where. >> that's foster friesz talking with andrea mitchell. he apologized today. before listening to santorum's reaction, mr. friesz is a backer, he's given thousands of dollars to the super pac. that's why hae was asked about his supporter's gaffe. >> when you quote a supporter of mine and i'm responsible for that, that's gotcha. >> nobody said you were responsible. they said how would you characterize it and what would you have said to it? not that you're responsible. it's to understand how you differ from what this person said. >> so i'm not going to have to respond to every supporter who says something now, i'm going to have to respond to them. this is what you guys do. you don't do it with president obama. in fact, with president obama, what you did was defend eed him against someone he sat in a church for for 20 years and defended him, he can't believe what he listened to for 20 years. that's a double standard. this is what you're pulling off. i'm going to call you on it. >> later, he went further, saying, quote, reporters sa s s there and say nothing white president obama sits in a church with a guy who was a racist, and somehow or other, foster friesz is just who i am. this is just crap. he's making two claims, double standard and gotcha journalist. the first claim doesn't stand up to the facts. the gotcha claim, that's more subjective. you can decide what is fair game and what is not. the candidates sure spend plenty of time complanling about it. >> this isn't playing gotcha and complaining about it. >> there are so journalists who only play gotcha journalism. >> we can sit here and you know, play i gaumpa questions. >> gotcha kind of questions. >> i'm ready for the gotcha questions. >> it's a gotcha question. >> gotcha questions. >> gotcha questions. >> i wish you would put aside the gotcha questions. >> keeping ourselves honest, we tried hard to find examples of democrats making gotcha complaints. barney frank saying gotcha this, gotcha that, gotcha journalism and gotcha politics. as for the other complaint of a double standard that reporters sat there and said nothing, unquote, about obama's former controversial pastor, judge for yourself. >> a new kroenchs on the campaign trail. a new one, at issue, barack obama's pastor, and the fiery remarks he's made. >> now barack obama is being questioned about questionable remarks once made by his pastor. >> barack obama on the offensive, explaining his views on the race. >> if you knew, why would it take you more an year to disassociate yourself. >> do you think reverend wright lovesmeric as well as you do. >> have you heard the comments? >> no, i didn't. >> how many times did you go to church a month. >> most people would be saying, why not just leave the church. >> you said black people shouldn't say god bless america but god damn america. why have you been listening to the pastor and close to him for nearly 20 years? >> that's a small sampling of a lot of coverage. according to the nonpartisan pew research center said the wright obouma story made up 40% of political coverage. the next biggest story at that time was the gasoline tax at 7 pr7%. let's bring in mary matalin and ron brownsteen. santorum turning this on the media, is this how a front runner handles tough question? >> gueye know, as well as anybody, there's a lot of juice in the republican primary for attacking the media. they're the conservative base of the republican party. it's not new. a long standing way is suspicious of the main stream media and believes they don't get a fair shake from them. there's some opportunity there, but we have reached a point in the republican race where this is secondary and not as combustible as it was in south carolina with newt gingrich. we're down to a real choice between mitt romney and rick santorum, and it's going to be much more tan jenjal than it was earlier in the campaign. >> if a major supporter says something outrageous, is it out of the realm to ask the candidate, what do you think of this? >> no, and i think santorum's frustration is he's right on the precipice of consolidating the not-romney vote, and he's up in michigan, he's more significantly, he's up in ohio, and he's rightly frustrated by it, and ron is right that it leverages a pre-existing opinion of conservatives that there is a double standard. yes, he should have been asked. yes, he did distance, not just distance, it was despicable. mr. friess was a lovely man who said a stupid thing. can know a lot of men who say a lot of stupid things about women, and ron is right, this isn't going to turn a lot of votes, and no voter is otherwise going to not vote for santorum because of his reaction to the supporter. >> let's get to the issues where they might vote for him. mary mentioned michigan and ohio. he's been doing better with white collar voters, santorum with blue collar voters. does he have the appeal sore is there a town downside? >> the actual polls we have seen in the five states where we have seen them, there's a class skew with romney support. he's a class candidate for the upscale voters, better educated voters. less religious voters. santorum, we impute, a blue collar appeal. we thing it should be there because he has a blue collar, he grew up in a western pennsylvania town, he talks about rebuilding manufacturing. but so far, in fact, john, he has not run better down scale than upscale, he hasn't run better among noncollege than college or less affluent or affluent. not only michigan, but ohio, 10 tenl, and oklahoma are places where that part of the republican party are the dominant part of the electoral. if he can win in michigan, he'll get a lot of momentum going into those places and an opportunity to change the dynamic of the race in a significant way. >> what happens, if you look at the polls, he's leading in michigan. that's where romney was born, where his dad was ceo and governor. what happens in the republican party? >> well, ron, and he wrote a really good piece on this today, he's exactly right. there's no, so far, electoral evidence of his attracting these voters, these downscale voters, if you will, or religious voters, but in michigan, he is culturally more like michigan than romney is. you and i worked there, mccome county is the original reagan democrats, santorum, sorry. it would be like, i mean, it is losing, romney would be losing his home state. then you go to ohio. and he got a really significant endorsement today, santorum, from senator, former senator ag dewine, a switch from romney. these are the swing states. romney doesn't get any credit for winning states we're not going to win in the general, and that is where he's winning. but that's where -- ohio and michigan is where this race is going to be won or lost and other states, obviously, but if santorum can do that, ron is right again, big shift. >> ron -- >> go ahead. >> one of the reasons barack obama was nominated in 2008 was because of the comp scissiositi the electorate changed. it's in the republican electorate. there are lot more of the populous blue collar voters than there used to be. the voters drawn to romney are less dominant than they once were. santorum can plabt the flag and fill the vacuum that romney's difficulty with the voters creates. there are a lot of states where that's a big portion, if not a majority portion of the republican electorate. >> the midwestern industrial states and small rural states as well. ron and mary, thanks for your time tonight. >> still ahead here, saying good-bye to whitney houston. family and friends will gather tomorrow for her funeral. among them, music royalty. also, remembering anthony shadid, one of the premier journalists of his generation. he died doing what he did so well and so bravely. plus, new video. you won't want to miss this. appears to show the syrian military firing on homs. it's an angle we don't often see. 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whoa. getting twice the points on great vacations. whoa! use chase sapphire preferred and now get two times the points on travel, and two times the points on dining and no foreign transaction fees. whoa! chase sapphire preferred. a card of a different color. apply now at chasesapphire.com/preferred [ male announcer ] engine light on? come to meineke now for a free code scan read and you'll say...my money. my choice. my meineke. in new jersey today, flags flew at half staff to honor whitney houston. a musical legend who died too young. there will be a private funeral tomorrow at her church where she sang in the choir and developed her enormous talent. a private viewing was held today for family members. outside of the baptist church in newark, they honored the hardest who once seemed unstop nl. the voice that ruled the pop charts in the '80s and '90s, she collected grammy after grammy, and shattered records after she made them, but it's these pictures that many are looking at to find clues. they show her leaving a grammy party where she sang a duet with kelly price and drank champagne, according to price. less than 48 hours later, she was dead. now investigators are focusing on the prescription drugs found in her hotel room, who prescribed them, hout she got them, and how she spent her final hours. but in newark tonight, that's not the focus. jason, we know a private viewing was held for the family today. what can you tell us about that? >> just incredibly sad, john. i was out there a little earlier this evening. the funeral home located just about ten minutes from where i am right now. during that private viewing, we saw people like cissy houston show up with bobbi kristina there as well. clive davis showing up for the private viewing. this was only for close family, only for close friends. as i was standing out there, they tried to keep this as dignified as possible. they had the street blocked off in both directions. they were keeping the public across the street. even the entrance for the funeral home, they had a white sheet set up so people coming and going could have as much privacy as possible during this very emotional time. >> and jason, what's the latest on what we can expect to see at tomorrow's funeral service? >> you know, you keep hearing about the list that keeps growing of people who will be coming out to perform, people who knew whitney houston and were close to her, people like aretha franklin, stevie wonder will be singing as well, alicia keys will be lending her voice. to the service tomorrow, kevin costner will be coming out. he'll be speaking here tomorrow when the funeral gets under way at noon. bobby brown will be here as w l well. when i spoke to the pastor here at the new hope baptist chiurch he said there will be a lot of tears but it will also be a celebration of what whitney houston did best, and that's singing. john. >> jason carol live in newark. and as jason noted, white a scene outside the funeral home. where whitney houston's body was brought earlier this week. fans come by, leave flowers, balloons, hand written messages. marvin wi wyans will deliver th eulo eulogy. they were close. that was clear from the interview. >> joining me now, pastor of the new perfecting church in detroit, marvin winans. you and your family, obviously, so close to the houston family, how is your family doing? how is whitney's family doing? >> well, my mother, after we had heard it, she said she felt as if she had lost one of her children. and i said, mom, it's because you have. and talking with cissy, just, when i called her, i said, mom, it's going to be all right. faith plays a great part in how we cope with uncertainties in life. it's not something that we run from in difficulty. it's something we run to. so by the grace of god, everyone's holding up pretty well. >> you were there for her wedding. and you're there for her coming home in a celebration of her life this weekend. how do you even go about writing the words that you're going to say? do you know what you're going to say? >> well, it's about praying and you know, folk will talk about doing the eulogy. my job is not that of a eulogist. in technical term, my job is a homilist, and my job is to speak on the behalf of god as related to where we are and how we go further. so we pray. we speak from our heart, and we allow the holy spirit to lead us so we might begin to minister hope and healing to those that are there. >> how do you give that? obviously, you said faith is extraordinariably important, but in times like this, people question their faith and say, why would a young woman be taken from us with such talent and such potential and such life ahead of her? >> well, the wonderful thing ability salvation is that it is a choice. and as i was talking to some people the other day, i thought about an old gospel song that says, we are our heavenly father's children, and he loves us one and all. yet there are times when we will answer to another's beck and call. so salvation is constantly a choice. it's a constant vigil of doing the right things. it's not a blame game on god that somehow got just took whitney from us. it's a fact that we have choices and the choices that we make may not be the best choices, but just as a son or a daughter may disappoint their father, doesn't mean that he doesn't love them. >> you and i were talking before the show, and i was asking what you wanted to get across. i think one of the things you said to me was really important, which is that the importance of praising people and telling them how much you care about them and love them in their life. not just after they have passed. >> it is amazing. and we take life and love for granted so often. as you play that video of bb and cc, whitney was supposed to play with the winans first, but we ran into contractual problems, but just as a family, we lost our brother ronald, and whitney came and sat with us and rode with us to the cemetery. and that's what families do. we rally around each other when someone is hurting. we lay aside what we do professionally, and we find the time to be there. the power of presence is so great. and so people need to learn how to say i love you and i miss you. last week, whitney was alive. i was here preaching. there were no cameras, no one was calling me, but since her death, you know, we're fighting off news agencies, simply because they don't understand that we lost a sister. this is not a break or an opportunity. we are really hurting and seriously grieving. and it amazing me the insensitivity of the media when it comes to things like this. >> i think, you know, often people see thises, reporters see this as a news story, and there's facts to get out for family in the epicenter in this, for a family of friends, its prr not a story. it's life and death. it's heartbreak, and a heart' break that never heals. >> it's someone that was there and now you can no longer speak to them. and maybe you didn't tell them that you loved them. maybe you -- if you had known you would have did some things differently. so there's a lot of questions, a lot of things that go through the minds. why wasn't i there? why didn't i help? what if i had picked up the phone? what if i went and got her? and you have to reconcile all of that within yourself and you miss that person so greatly. >> i think a lot of her fans wanted some sort of public service that they could take part in. for you, the importance of it being private, and of it being family is clear, no? >> i don't think knowing cissy and the houston family, i don't think it was a matter of public or private. as it was this is my daughter. this is my sister. this is my mother. this is my friend. and we want to do this with dignity. we don't want to have a parade. we loved her when she was nippy in new jersey. the world loves her because of her voice. but if nippy could not sing, the houston family would love her. and i knew that mama houston would do it the way she wanted it done, which we're going to church. and we're not going to be worried about if the world can get in. we're going to lay our daughter to rest in the confines and the tradition of what we do. >> well, there are so many people around the world listening to her music and sadly now, who weren't listening to it last week, but i hope you know that there are -- and i hope the family knows there are just countless people around the world who are sending them their prayers, and i wish you the best, and it's going to be a difficult weekend for you. >> it will be difficult, but god answers prayers, and prayer changes things, people, and circumstances. >> pastor winans, i really appreciate you being on tonight. thank you, sir. >> thank you. this quick programming note, cnn will have complete coverage of the funeral tomorrow on cnn and cnn.com. whitney houston, her life and music, starting at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. and coming um, remembering journalist anthony sudeed. i today, i spoke with a friend and colleague who was held captive in libya with shadid last year. >> and stunning video showing syria's crackdown from a whole different view. from the armed gunman the assad government invist don't exist. 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[ speaking foreign language ] [ speaking foreign language ] >> we don't know exactly who leaked this vedio, and cnn is not confirming what is shows, but the story seems to show a different story from what they have said. syrian's united ambassador to the nation said there's no war, no armed conflict. the opposition says at least 61 more people killed today, and sadly, it could be about to get worse. we're near homs tonight. arwa, there are reports of a major new onslaught coming. what are you hearing about that? >> yeah, it certainly seems, at least from what we have been hearing from various sources that the syrian military is trying to beef up the presence, especially in that neighborhood. residents are bracing themselves for the worse. and when we say they're bracing themselves for the worse, they have entered the 14th day straight of intense shelling by syrian security forces. the intensity, the level of the shelling that was taking place throughout the day today was quite simply some of the heaviest we have seen since we were actually inside the city a few days ago. numbers of casualties rushed to the field hospital, and most of the residents are trying to keep themselves safe, but they're struggling just to be able todoo that. inside bunkers, women, children, men. all of them grab at you, wanting to tell you a story about a loved one who died. supplies are running incredibly low. we met with the head of the humanitarian office newly set up in the last few months trying to deal with the ongoing crisis, and he said they have not received food supplies in three weeks. in another week, he said, people are going to begin to starve to death, and everyone is concerned. there's a potentially imminent military operation. they have suffered 14 days of constant shelling, and now they are dreading the moment that syrian security forces are going to come through in a full-force, sweep the entire neighborhood, and knock over everybody. >> and you mentioned food is in short supply, medical supplies are almost nonexistent, and there's a threat of an onslaught, if the syrian military comes through, how deep of a humanitarian crisis and is there anything to fight back? is there any organized force to fight back? >> there's only certain roads -- >> the humanitarian crisis is on the verge of being a complete and total disaster. food supplies are running down, medical supplies, incredibly hard to come by. getting those things in involve a fairly elaborate network to bypass government check points. even when they try to bring those things in via the routes, they're not able to bring in the quantities they need. they're on a regular basis, people at these makeshift medical clinics inside the city, who are dying, quite simply because they're unable to get the care they need. when it comes to the capabilities of the free syrian army, this is very much a one-sided war. what they have at their disposal, ak-47s, rocket propelled grenades and a lot of courage and determination on pace with what the government has. they're really absolutely no match whatsoever, which is exactly why we have been hearing this consistent call for international intervepgz, and people are quite simply unable to fathom how it is that the int international community has been watching what they're going through and has been unable to unite and take concrete action. as one put it as we were speaking to her at a hospital when she was standing at the foot of a bed of a colleague who died, she said, these are human beings. this isn't stone. this is flesh and blood. how many syrians have to die? what is that magic number that is going to force people to do something to stop the bloodshed. >> arwa damon, reporting from inside syria. thank you, stay safe. >> another correspondent who defied the regime to bring back the truth has paid for it with his life. anthony shadid died of an aparent asthma attack. he covered this for two decades. last year, he was held captive for two weeks. >> steven feral, you knew and worked with anthony for nearly a deck idin very dangerous situations together, including being held by libyan forces in 2011. what stands out about your friend and journalist? what do you want people watching to know about him? >> he had a very rare combination of gifts. a journalist is gifted in different ways, but with anthony, he had not only the courage to go to places that needed to be gone to. but when he was there, he had the language skills, the arabic, and he was steeped in the culture. the religion, the society, the people. so he could gather, he could collect a vast amount of information, much more than many other correspondents. but many correspondents speak arabic, many can gather. his extra talent was to condense that to crystallize it, and to write it in a way that magnified the import of what he was reporting on. to bring to people in a very poetic way what was happening in these areas. so really, the full range, the ability to get there, the ability to understand what was going on, the ability to express that in words that could be matched by few, and a unique ability to put it in context, to see the microcosm, and the regional microcosm. >> and so many risked, stephen, anthony took, and you know this first hand, kidnapped, beaten by gadhafi's forces, he was in syria dying on an assignment. what drove him to going back into dangerous? >> he was a foreign international correspondent. he was a foreign correspondent. when you're a foreign correspondent and as passionate and committed as he was, certainly to the region in which he was working, you know, he was driven by a desire. we talked about it after libya, we sat down, we had conversations. he was driven by a desire to report people's stories, to be there, to tell people what was happening on the front line or in places that you can't just report sitting in your office or in your bedroom, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 pliels away. i was looking at a piece, an excerpt from his book on iraq, earlier today, and he described his decision to stay in baghdad in early 2003, when the bombing was going on, and he said he wanted to be there because he didn't want to be part of some media managed embedded, if you like, operation. he want saed to be where the becames were falling, where the human cost was being felt, and he wanted to report that and tell people the cost of war. that's what drove him. >> yet, someone who was so often in danger, so often in chaos, ang the bombs falling, and you talk to friends and colleagues, and they say gentle, would you describe him that way? >> he was, certainly. he had his drive, his ambition. he did have a passion, but yes, there was no sense of competition or meanness or desire to squeeze people out. he was very generous with his time, with his language skills. very generous with his knowledge. yes, he was not a person who flapped, who was flustered in a crisis. yeah, he was -- i think that is a fair description of him. >> and anthony shadid was with tyler hicks when he died. what made them such good partners in the field? >> i was with them in libya and with our partner lindsay when we were captured a year ago. tyler is unflappable, my heart goes out to him. he had to bring anthony's body out of syria. if there's anybody you want to be in a crisis with, it's tyler. and anthony had the knowledge of the region, the ability to know what was going on around him. the empathy to deal with hem, and the street smarts, so yeah, they were a team. and it's so heaard to talk abou them as were, was. >> stephen ferrell, thank you for your time on this difficult day. >> a lot more happening tonight. a place that is 10,000 degrees hot, it's pretty cool. nasa's new images of the surface of the sun. i'd race down that hill without a helmet. i took some steep risks in my teens. i'd never ride without one now. and since my doctor prescribed lipitor, i won't go without it for my high cholesterol. why kid myself? 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