How about a focus on the US business community to provide reasonable accomodations for working, nursing, pumping women? And that means ALL women.

Yes, I successfully worked and pumped for two solid years, one year per child. I also have a "good" job (i.e. a while-collar, well-paying job) for a progressive company that provided me with breaks, a clean pumping room with a locked door, space in the fridge, a phone to use while pumping, and a net connection so I could plug in my laptop and get some work done. I had the best of all possible work/breastfeeding worlds, and I was able to nurse the requisite full year because of it.

What about women who work at Wal-Mart? What about women who work in a gas station? Waiting tables at Denny's? Cleaning houses for Merry Maids? Don't their children deserve the same benefits? Likely their children need the immunities and other benefits of breast milk even more, because these women are unlikely to have paid sick time when their children get sick (which they will typically more often when formula-fed). Yet there is no mention of exactly how these women are supposed to breastfeed.

There are plenty more women with "good" well-paying jobs that are simply not set up for pumping three or four times a day. Police officer, nurse, teacher, construction worker... Should all those women quit their jobs, go home, and live on welfare for the duration of their breastfeeding year? Somehow I don't think the current administration would think too highly of that either. Perhaps they should return to 1950, sell their houses, live on one income (if they're lucky enough to be married to someone who is employed), and (not) spend accordingly. Could the current economy really take that hit?

Anyone on their high-horse preaching "breast is best" should try using a breast pump on a 15 minute break in a gas-station bathroom or in the back room of their local McDonald's.

Yes, working and pumping is great for all involved. Many, many employers, however, are not so accomodating. This is a two-part problem, between women and their employers. Bullying women into thinking they're harming their children and doing nothing on the employer front is a waste of time and money.

Absolutely go to school and get that degree in fine arts that you've always dreamed of. Some of the other posters have recommended some excellent books (Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" is here on my own desk).

However, be a little bit practical. Think hard about your expenses and how you are going to support yourself as you become an artist. Artists still have to eat, to wear clothes, to pay the electric bill and buy orange juice. And pay off your school loans. What kind of work can you do perhaps part-time, to support yourself and get your artistic career off the ground?

The trick is to keep your art (your true calling in life) separate from your day job (how you pay your bills), in your consciousness, and don't ever let the day job take over your art. Think hard about how you want to live, how you're willing to live, in order to give your art time and space to happen. Can you do without a car? Can you live in a studio apartment? Can you live in a less expensive part of town? Every single life choice you make that takes either time or money has an effect on the amount of time you have available for your art.

Two more books to look at are "Your Money or Your Life" and "The Tightwad Gazette". There is great power to achieving your dreams in how you choose to spend your life energy (your time and your money). Amy Dacyzyn (the author of "The Tightwad Gazette") is very clear that you should know what your goals are for the tightwad life. Her personal goals were a large family and a house in the country. But she says any other set of life goals is just as valid. Just be very clear about what they are and what they cost, and make a clear plan on how you are going to get there.

You can do this. We can all do this (achieve goals that seem unrealistic or fanciful) if you are willing to live within your means and give yourself what you dream of.

I read the memo. I hope this makes the CBS nightly news. The average barcalounger-sitting, TV-watching person really needs to know this. We have taken a bad situation (Saddam) and made it truly intolerable.

I keep thinking of Antoine de Saint-Exupery in "The Little Prince." He said "You are responsible for what you have tamed." Trouble is we haven't tamed it yet. But we're still responsible for what we've created.

"Your Money or Your Life" by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. And get all these books from your local library (don't buy them).

The end parts about never invest in anything but T-bills is a bunch of hogwash (in my opinion), but the beginning and middle are fantastic. The authors take you through a whole lot of exercises and activities to help you get at what it is you want out of life, and how to organize your finances accordingly . It's about the emotional side of money, debt, and work--really looking at how you got where you are, and how to get where you want to go. A great read.

And I agree with the other posters. Don't declare bankruptcy.