Dennis Miller is the bebop king of comedy, the pope of the pissed-off. Ranting Again is his latest collection of rapid-fire riffs on everything from animal rights to the Internet, harvested from his hugely successful TV show. Miller's wit is razor-sharp, and his rants have the controlled spontaneity of good jazz--giving them the energy of a live performance even in book form. Like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin, Miller uses his quick, no-holds-barred delivery to chip away at some of our most ridiculous cultural obsessions. He may occasionally pick easy targets, but he hits them hard and funny. Here he is discussing the perennially touchy topic of violence in the media:"We're all looking for someone to blame if our kid goes bad, and the media is a defenseless target for the clusterfuck of self-righteous rhetoric that passes for intelligent debate these days.... The truth is, TV isn't the biggest influence on your kids. You are. There's probably more real emotional violence and bad vibes at the average American family dinner table than in an entire season of Highlander, not to mention better acting."Now, Dennis is not for the faint of heart, and you won't agree with everything he says, but something in here will make you laugh out loud. Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. --Simon Leake