The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint

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Simon and Schuster, Aug 1, 2006 - Biography & Autobiography - 224 pages
Beloved stoner comedian TOMMY CHONG is now older, wiser, and officially an EX-CON.

On the morning of February 24, 2003, agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration launched a sting called Operation Pipe Dreams and forced themselves through the door of Tommy's California home, with automatic weapons drawn. As a result of the raid on his home; the simultaneous ransacking of his son's company, Chong Glass; and the Bush administration's determination to make an example out of the "Pope of Pot;" he was sentenced to nine months in prison because his company shipped bongs to a head shop in Pennsylvania that was a front for the DEA.

Well . . . now it's Tommy Chong's turn to fight back and tell his side of the story.

Beginning with Tommy's experiences growing up in Canada in the forties and fifties as a mixed-race kid and going on to become a comedy legend, The I Chong is at once a memoir, a spiritual exploration of his time in prison, and a political indictment of the eroding civil liberties in post-9/11 American society. He tells the unbelievable story of his trip down the rabbit hole of America's war on drugs and of his experiences in the federal prison system, and he offers up timely observations on combating the conservative political forces at work in this country. Introspective, inspiring, and incendiary, The I Chong is a unique chronicle of one man's life and how his humorous and spiritual point of view saved him during his wrongful incarceration at the hands of an administration without boundaries.

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Contents

Chien The Creative
1
Shih The Army
26
PO Splitting Apart
41
Kan The Abysmal Water
50
Ting The Caldron
68
Chên The Arousing Shock Thunder
79
Chieh Limitation
90
Chûn Difficulty at the Beginning
120
Sung Conflict
126
Copyright

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About the author (2006)

Tommy Chong is a sixty-eight-year-old writer and director, best known as half of the legendary comedy duo Cheech and Chong. The pair found a wide audience through their stand-up routines, comedy albums, and popular films about the hippie, free-love, and (especially) drug culture movement. A father of five, Chong lives with his wife, Shelby, in California and performs with her at comedy clubs across the country. This is his first book.

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