I've been a freelance writer going on 14 years, and there are actually quite a few resources for health coverage if you know where to look. The National Association for the Self Employed can give freelancers access to health coverage, although they can be very aggressive about phone solicitations if you express interest, so beware.

If you write books like I do, the Author's Guild is another good source of both medical and dental insurance, as well as basic legal services. The National Writers Union is another source of medical, dental and vision coverage and is open to a wider range of writers.

I opened a SEP IRA many years ago, but I can add some other bits of advice that I've found to be vital now that I'm a father working at home with two little girls and a stay-at-home mom wife:

1. Find a go-to place that can be your "office." With wi-fi and a good laptop, you can escape the distractions of home and work at a Starbucks or any favorite coffeehouse. I do it 1-2 days a week, and without the temptations of playing with my toddler or reading the paper, I get more done at my "office" than I do at home.

2. Keep every receipt. Get your tax preparer (have one; it's very good advice) give you an organizational structure so you can create a file for every gas receipt, parking receipt and credit card statement. When you're freelance, many things are deductible that aren't when you work for a company.

3. Try to carve out a work-only space at home. I'm lucky enough to have a dedicated room I use as my office, but you can simply designate a section of a room or a part of the garage. As long as you only use it for business (no playing in Second Life until 3 a.m.), you can deduct part of your rent or mortgage, utilities, etc.

It's a great life, especially being home with my kids. We're thinking of leaving California for a place that's cheaper and offers a simpler lifestyle, and it's wonderful not to worry about finding a job. By the way, my tax preparer is marvelous and costs $315. If anybody wants her e-mail address, speak up and I'll post it here as long as that's OK with Salon.

Ann, thank you for sharing your story. I'm the father of two girls and I can't imagine your agony or the joy at having Annabelle. When I was done with your piece, I called my wife, who's out of town for the weekend with my two daughters visiting family, and told her I loved her and them.

I loved this. LOVED it. Because it's about time that journalists (there aren't many left, especially on TV, but they're out there) started jettisoning this nonsensical "balance" policy that respects the most idiotic, baseless bloviations of the Right Wing Shitbag contingent. Smart, journalists of any political stripe should be smacking down anybody who comes into their arena spewing brainless talking points instead of genuine knowledge and insight, regardless which side of the aisle they're on. Fortunately, most of those people come from the right.

Matthews enjoyed this. He knew James wouldn't know Neville Chamberlain from Richard Chamberlain, and he loved trapping him and watching him sputter in a wonderfully Glenn Beck/Michael Savage manner. James makes Ann Coulter look like Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Beautiful stuff.

Let's not talk to our enemies, because the other alternatives work SO much better:

-Economic sanctions. They got rid of Saddam Hu...well, OK, no they didn't.

-Bombing the shit out of somebody. That's made things all better in Iraq...wait, they weren't our enemy until we went and trashed their country and left the borders wide open for al Qaeda? Damn.

Talking might work pretty well. Of course, it doesn't make us feel all manly as a nation, and we really like feeling manly.

By the way, the root of "hysterical" is "hyster", Latin for womb or uterus. In other words, of and about women. Ben Smith was basically calling Obama a girl. Imagine what they'd say if Hillary had the nomination. "Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, obviously affected by PMS, threw a full-on hissy fit today when..."

First of all, what's with the lame-o dancing trio who are supposed to represent the gay-friendly, decadent SF queen and dyke culture? What's the matter, Graves, couldn't find the producer of a local used car commercial to give you some solid production values?

But beyond the cheeseball-ness of the whole thing, it's great to see Barnes' campaign striking back against this type of garbage in the way I wish Dems had had the brains and balls to do years ago: to point out that this kind of ad is an act of desperation and an insult to the intelligence of voters. Brava.

...someone, anyone get McCain to draft Joe L. to be his "shuffling-mate" (I think running is a little too much to ask of these fogies, don't you?). The sight of these two ideologically bereft, Karl Rovism-spewing living corpses crisscrossing the country would paint the perfect picture of the GOP as out of touch, out of date and completely irrelevant.

To quote some political figure or other of recent times: "Bring it on."

And bearpaw1? That was spit-Diet-Coke-all-over-my-monitor funny. Bravo.