marcus300 interviews TheGodFather


marcus300: Which country are you from and how do you like living there?
TheGodFather: United States, and clearly its the best country on the planet with one of the highest standards of living.

marcus300: What do you do for a living?
TheGodFather: I'm a full time student, and also am involved in sales.

marcus300: What would be your ideal profession:
TheGodFather: Surgeon, I am applying to medical school this year, so we shall see in the coming months if my ideal profession will become a reality.

marcus300: Are you married and do you have children?
TheGodFather: No and No.

marcus300: What are your current stats and what would be your ideal ones?
TheGodFather: 5'9 190lbs.... My ideal stats would be 5'9 205lbs at 9-10% bf...I'd like to achieve that and keep a static weight and bodyfat year round. I believe 10% bf would be maintainable, and my goal is a maintainable weight and bodyfat, so I do not have to keep yo-yoing my weight every year.

marcus300: How long have you been training and what are your goals?
TheGodFather: Since I was 18 years old, so I suppose about 6 1/2 years now.

marcus300: Have you ever taken steroids, if so what and how many cycles?
TheGodFather: I took M1T my senior year of high school, which took me from 140lbs to 170lbs. I have done an injectable cycle after that, but I do not care to elaborate any further on my cycle history. We will leave it at that.

marcus300: What have been your happiest times of your life?
TheGodFather: I would have to say my junior year of college was probably the best year of my life. I was getting straight A's, I was partying all the time, I was in the best shape I've ever been in my life (200lbs at 10% bodyfat), I was having to beat chicks off of me with a stick, and I just overall felt on top of the world.

marcus300: What have been the lowest times of your life?
TheGodFather: My grandparents passing, who were like my second parents, I still have trouble dealing with it to this day, and try not to talk about it too much. And the most recent of course, would be my girlfriend of 2.5 years cheating on me and starting a relationship with the guy, who happened to be a friend of mine. We had plans to move in together and get married, and it came from out of left field, so it was a rough time.

marcus300: How did you cope with your girlfriend running off with your mate and how long did it take before you was back to normal?
TheGodFather: Lol...cant believe anyone remebered this. It actually took about 1 year... I ended up forgiving her about a month ago, and actually telling her that i felt sorry for her. I'm completely over it and have moved on with my life. But, if I were to see him out at the bar, I probably wouldn't hesitate to crack him in the jaw, and then I'd tell him not to press charges because he knows he deserves it.

marcus300: What was the last book you read?
TheGodFather: "The Road to Serfdom" - F.A. Hayek

marcus300: If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional. with whom would it be?
TheGodFather: Ronald Raegan

marcus300: What frustrates you about the world and how would you change it?
TheGodFather: The degradation of our society. Every generation looks at the coming one and says that things are "getting worse," and I don't buy into that. However, I can realise that things like honor, integrity, chivalry, etc, are almost meaningless and absent most peoples vocabularies today. What I really detest the most though, is that now days very few people act like MEN. I mean this among men of course, that many 'men' today act like boys, they do not possess the traditional values of what it means to fight like a man, to have respect like a man, etc. I believe in never saying anything behind a persons back that you would not say directly to their face, I believe in honor, in fair fights, and in helping people who cannot help themselves. I watched a show recently that filmed people in staged incidences of injustice, such as a group of thugs pretending to beat up someone, and people passing by and acting like they didn't see anything, in another case, a man pretending to steal something from a woman, and people not trying to help. It's the selfishness and lack of integrity of most people, and by and in large, the MEN of the United States today, who lack the courage and moral fortitude to intervene and put the interest of others before themselves. I guess I'm ranting, but the sum it up, it is the pussification of the "man" in todays society, that bothers me the most. We are placated, and we are marginalized my the media today, we are portrayed in commercials and other media programs as having to 'wear pink', to act more femenine (the advent of the metrosexual), to be kakniving and to be absent of all of the attributes to what it means to be a MAN. To be stern, strong, moral, possess integrity, courage, and HONOR.

marcus300: Who would you most like to meet from AR?
TheGodFather: Well I've actually met a few bros from here that live around me. Hazard and I tore it up in NYC last year, fist pumping our balls off. I'd really like to meet MuscleScience, him and I have been friends on the boards for a very very long time, we have all of the same interests (in science, lifting, etc), and I really think it'd be a great time for us to hang out finally.

marcus300: You have been a member here for a long time, why do you keep coming back to this site?
TheGodFather: I enjoy this site, because no matter what area of fitness you need information in, there is at least 1 or 2 guys on here who are basically experts in that area of fitness. You get responses so much more quickly on this site, than on any other bodybuilding forum out there. In addition, I have developed freindships on this site, and I really enjoy a lot of the guys who have been here a while and interacting with them.

marcus300: If you won $20 million in the lottery, what would you do with the money?
TheGodFather: Build a house on some property that we own. The rest would go into an IRA or a diversified portfolio of stocks, like a 401k. Maybe invest in rental properties, since its a buyers market, and more people are renting due to having their homes forclosed. I'd also have to get myself a black on black S63 AMG and a black on black Escalade. Cars are such bad thing to buy, but you have to splurge sometimes, even though they're depreciating assets.

marcus300: What makes you angry?
TheGodFather: People who are dishonest. People who think that it's ok to take someones hard earned money (via taxation) and give it to someone else who has not EARNED IT (aka Social Security, Welfare, HUD, WIC, Food Stamps, so on and so forth). Liberals, Progressive Liberals, and most Democrats save a few. I also cannot stand people who lack motivation, integrity, and honor, as I've stated previously. Also, one of the things that pisses me off more then anything, is when people curse in front of children, the elderly, or older adults in general.

marcus300: When was the last time you cried?
TheGodFather: When I forgave the g/f.

marcus300: How many close friends do you have?
TheGodFather: I have 6 close friends that I grew up with. I have about 5 more that I've met through out college and so forth.

marcus300: On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you?
TheGodFather: 6 at the moment, due to school.

marcus300: Tell our readers 2 things what would shock us about your or your life?
TheGodFather: Hmm....I do not believe in any organized religion, although I do believe in an intelligent creator of some sort, although I do not postulate on who or what that creator is, or calls himself/herself/itself. I'm also TERRIBLY BAD at math, which is interesting considering I'm pursuing one of the hardest careers out there, and it's very math intensive to get into, lol. I think I'll add another one, I've only been in 2 serious relationships in my life, despite screwing a ton of girls, and I honestly can say that I get nothing out of banging random chicks, its rather meaningless and unfulfilling to me, although I did it quite frequently just for the ego boost that it provided me. I used to have a terribly inflated ego and sense of self worth, and my friends and I said things such as "So and so should be priviledged to even know me" and "That chick should be honored that I let her talk to me"... We used to start shit with people, and just be arrogant dickheads, I guess we fit the stereotype of the typical Jersey guidos at the time. So, I've moved on, but some of them haven't. To be honest, it was actually my second girlfriend that really grounded me and put my ego in check. I honestly consider that a good thing that I got out of my failed relationship, that I became a much better person, and had a change of heart, treating everyone I interact with now with dignity and respect unless they give me a reason not to, instead of vice versa.

marcus300: What are your plans for the future?
TheGodFather: I hope to get into medical school, get to 205 @ 10%, find a respectable girl that actually has morals (I wont hold my breath, and I may need a snickers bar)... Be successful, buy a house. The normal things that people in their mid-twenties want to do.

marcus300: If you were Admin for AR, what would you do different?
TheGodFather: I'd probably make a rule against posting the same questions ad nauseum. I'd also institute some sort of system to discourage the assholes who sign up, ask for advice, and then when they receive aforementioned advice, they attack, disregard, or are otherwise obstinent, rude, or a plain fu**ing dickhead to the advice giver, because it is not the advice they wished to hear.

I'd also like to stop the posting of journal articles, or at least the interpretation of journal articles by people not qualified to interpret such data, and even more disturbing, draw wild conclusions declaring something to be 'safe' or 'unsafe' based on reading a fu**ing abstract. I'd start a sub-forum SPECIFICALLY for journal articles and research. It would be similar to the 'journal clubs' that residents/fellows have to present each week at the hospital. I would put 2-4 members who have the necessary qualifications to interpret the articles, and encourage meaningful discussion about the articles among all the members, but stressing the importance of not drawing conclusions, as most articles are not directly researching the efficacy and safety of many of the compounds used by the members, and if they are, most relations are correlative at best.

I'd also institute a rule requiring EVERYONE to speak in the third person, or refer to themselves as "A friend of mine" when talking about planned cycles, so as to avoid self incrimination in anyway. The internet is not nearly as anonymous as members think it to be, and such wreckless posts in the past such as "I have 8 million metric tons of gear on the way to my house, coming this Thursday, at 4:00pm, and the tracking number is xxxxxx," are completley unsafe and anyone who does something that fu**ing stupid should not be a part of this community.

members question:Where do you see the USA by 2050 and do you think it will still be the worlds leading super power?
TheGodFather: This is a loaded question. I began to type a long drawn out explanation, as it is such a complicated issue that it requires so much background information, statistics, and data that I would probably lose anyone who attempted to read it. So I will type a succint answer, and then in the subsequent paragraphs leave the explanations. So for 2050, entitlements will begin to outstrip available revenue streams in the next 10 years, even despite rising excise and income taxes. The US Dollar is becoming increasingly weaker, meaning that the purchasing power of American citizens has begun to decline, and will likely be in free fall over the next 10 years. It's position as the reserve currency of the world will likely become threatened by stronger currency's like the sterling pound, and the Euro. If this happens, we will not be able to 'inflate away our debt' any longer, and essentially the United States open line of credit will evaporate. Our country, will very much, be like a homeowner who isn't able to open any credit cards, yet doesn't have enough liquidity to purchase the things that we need. Americans presently are only experiencing pay increases of about 3% per year, while inflation is outpacing these increases each year. Additionally, health care costs are expected to rise roughly 40% over the next 10-20 years, whilst the government believes it can cut reimbursements (Medicare/Medicaid) by 25% in the same time period. This will inevitably lead to an enormous decline in the quality of healthcare for those on the government doll (public sector workers, elderly, and the disabled/poor). It will likely lead to many healthcare practioners simply choosing NOT to accept Medicaid/Medicare, further exacerbating the problem of finding enough doctors who will treat our elderly and poor. Furthermore, with the purchasing power of the dollar declining, inflation rising, US credit drying up, rising healthcare costs, and government largesse and spending unlikely to be cut at all, the standard of living in the United States for everyone except the top 1% of society will drastically decline. Currently, even our "poor" live at a much higher standard of living than other countries poor, which has always been a measure of the United States wealth. Although we have what can be considered a very large bimodal distribution in standard of living, our poor still live at a standard of living which far outpaces other countries poor. The main problem is, that we as Americans, CONSUME more then people in most other countries. We consume more fuel, more perishable goods, more electronics, more of everything really. Surprisingly a perfect analogy is the fact that we have the highest rate of obesity per capita than any other country in the world, and while we view it as a major public health problem, being overweight actually used to be a status symbol and a sign of great wealth two thousand years ago, because it indicated that you could afford to indulge in food, when most people could not.

So what does this amount to over the next 40 years? Our infrastructure has already begun to decline significantly, our bridges, roads, plumbing, water supply and infrastructure, airports, sea ports, etc, and so on. With almost 50% of our countries budget being diverted to entitlemens, we will have little money for infrastructure, and our country may start to resemble that of some countries in the 3rd world, at least in some parts of the country (look at Detroit). If the cost of goods like milk, bread, fuel, and other essentials continues to sky rocket, and inflation continues to outpace the average income, we could see a situation resembling the Weimar Republic in Germany post WWI. We would likely see a great degree of civil unrest, riots, and a state of Marshal law may be instituted. Once the number of retiree's on government entitlements like SS/Medicare outpaces the number of workers in the workforce, the entire system will go bankrupt, and NO ONE will recieve the services that they paid into their entire lives. There will be no healthcare benefits for the retirees, and there will be no monthly checks for those who rely on social security for their retirement, so those who did not plan their retirement properly, will be up shits creek and without a paddle. Essentially, the entire system will collapse, the United States government will become insolvent, and no one will be able to recieve government assistance.

The solution? The United States must drastically reduce SPENDING. This means cutting all non-essential government departments, reducing defense spending, pulling back the majority of our troops occuping 130 of 190 countries, and weening people who are dependent on government entitlements, off of those entitlements. Taxes will likely have to be raised, and measures to stop inflation will have to be instituted. Additionally, Americans as a whole, will have to start CONSUMING LESS. This means, no big screen TV's, iPods, pay per view, developments where 5,000 sqft homes on 1 acre lots are the norm, etc, and so on. We will have to start driving more fuel efficient vehicles, and reducing our consumption of just about, everything. This particular issue will become exacerbated over the next 40 years as China's developing economy and middle class starts to demand a much larger portion of the worlds energy supply. The United States is essentially, fastly approach a point similar to that of the Roman Empire prior to its collapse, and as we know, all large empires have collapsed due to insolvency, not due to being invaded or defeated by an equally large superpower.


BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Well, we have over 40 trillion in unfunded entitlements. Meaning, by 2050, we having over 40 tillion dollars of projected entitlements, mostly in the forms of social security, medicaid, and medicare, and absolutely no idea where we are going to get the money, i.e.- the unfunded part. This presents a rather troublesome figure. One of the main problems is the birthrate in the United States has declined. The entire system of social security and medicare is dependent upon there being more workers than retiree's. However, as the baby boomer generation (post WWII children) begin to retire in the next 10 years, the number of retiree's will begin to outpace the number of new workers entering the workforce each year, and thus paying 'into' the system. It is essentially, a ponzi scheme (pyramid scheme) the likes of which the world has never seen. There is honestly, no way to pay for these massive entitlements, and there is the very real, and I would say almost guaranteed chance that those of us like myself, who are in our mid-twenties, will spend a good portion of our lives paying into the SS/Medicare system, only to not be able to actually collect the benefit we've paid for most of our lives. We want the chance to opt out of the system, but of course, politicians cannot allow us to do so, as the system would soon collapse.

This is the overarching problem of people wanting to be coddled from cradle to grave, and if there has ever been a more fine example of why 'socialism' does not work in practice, this is precisely it. There is always a period when there are benefits for a portion of the population, and moderate-heavy levels of taxation can support such a system, but only for a short period of time (measured in decades). What we are seeing, is essentially what happened to the soviet system, happening to us, only over a much longer period of time. We saw the collapse of the soviet system in a protracted time period, because it was a "full blown" socialist system, and everything was "sped up" as entitlements were the status quo, and they could not possibly tax their citizens heavily enough in order to provide what they promised. The United States, contrary to popular opinion, ALREADY has a quasi-socialized healthcare system, and retirement system. Medicare accounts for nearly 50% of healthcare expenditures and 'revenue' for the private healthcare system (if you can call it revenue, debateable).

marcus300: Describe yourself in 3 words?
TheGodFather: Integrity, Honor, and Family.