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think, in both time and space.
    Recession.
    Depression.
    Repression.
    Whichever word you use, there’s a smaller pie to slice up and the knives are out. (See Clip, Video.) Layoffs, lop-offs, the market self-correcting. Companies becoming more efficient and the Baja Cartel is at the cutting edge (oof).
    “How do you think we should respond?” Ben asks in the Skypesession.
    “Reach out to the Mexican world.”
    “Violence is not necessarily the answer,” Ben says.
    It’s not necessarily
not
the answer, either, Chon thinks.
    This violent state of mind.
    This violent state of mine.
    As he watches the old president—aka the Sock Puppet—wave and get on the helicopter.
    The last time someone tried to muscle Ben and Chonny’s it was a biker gang. Those boys picked up one of their retailers and beat him to death with a tire iron as a message that Ben and Chon could no longer do retail in the greater San Diego area.
    Ben, natch, was off doing good somewhere, so this is how Chon took care of it.

31
     
    Flashback:
    Chon rolls down the 5 in his classic black ’66 pony.
    Pointed toward Fun Dog.
    Etymology:
    San Diego
    Sun Diego
    Sun Dog
    Fun Dog
    In the backseat under a blanket sleeps a Remington Model 870 SPS Super Slug pump action, 12-gauge shotgun with a synthetic cantilevered slug and a rubberized pistol grip that “advances deer-levelingtechnology to farther reaches and smaller group sizes than ever before possible.”
    Right now it’s resting up for the big business meeting.

32
     
    Chon likes to keep meetings short.
    Learned that in a book,
Things They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School.
    A short meeting is a good meeting.
    He drives down to Dago, finds the house in Golden Hill he’s looking for, and parks on the street. Wakes the shotgun up (“We’re there”), crosses said street, and knocks on the door.
    Tire Iron opens it. Big wooly motherfucker, heavy hairy shoulders showing under the wifebeater.
    Chon puts the shotgun to T.I.’s throat and pulls the trigger.
    Guy’s head goes ballpark.
    (
Fun
Dog!)
    Something they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School.
    “Savages, How to Deal With.”
    Savagely.

33
     
    Continuing in flashback mode:
    Chon goes back to the Tuna—
    Etymology:
    (And, by the way, Chon really likes the word “etymology,” the etymology of which is Greek and means “in the true sense.” Hmmmm …)
    Laguna, rhymes with
    Tuna—
    Holes up with a freaking arsenal, tells O not to come around until the biker gang responds.
    They don’t.
    He never hears from them again except by word on the California Bongo Drum Communications System that they’ve decided to get out of the herb business and focus their efforts on meth.
    A sound management decision.
    Do not expand horizontally until you have achieved maximum vertical capacity.
    Also: do not fuck with someone until you know exactly who the fuck you’re fucking with.
    And then don’t do it.

34
     
    “Don’t fuck with people at all”
    Is a central tenet of Ben’s personal as well as business philosophy.
    Ben is a self-described Baddhist, i.e., a “bad Buddhist,” because hesometimes eats meat, gets angry, rarely meditates, and definitely does consciousness-altering substances. But the
basics
of Buddhism, Ben is down with—
    Do no harm
    Which Ben articulates as
    Don’t fuck with people.
    And he doesn’t think the Dalai Lama would argue with that.
    In addition to the interest-accruing deposits in the karma bank, it’s been a very successful business strategy, the very foundation of the very successful Ben and Chonny’s brand.
    A brand it is.
    You go into B&C’s as either a customer or a sales partner, you know exactly what you’re getting:
    As a customer—
Top-o’-the-line, not-to-be-bettered, safe, healthy, organic, prime hydro at a fair price
    As a sales partner—
a superb product that sells itself
profit participation
excellent working conditions
day care
health care
    Yes, health care, written through Ben’s