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Today former President Bill Clinton held an impromptu press conference in order to support the tax-cut deal that Obama reached with some Republicans. The mainstream media is already speculating that the circumstances of the conference, the demeanor of Obama and Clinton during it, along with Obama’s abrupt departure partway through, will provide much food for fodder for conservative talk radio hosts and others who are speculating that Obama has all but abdicated.

But let’s put that aside.

Let’s also put aside the fact that the bill that has emerged from this tax-cut deal is arguably another disaster waiting to happen, full of more “stimulus” and pork. Senator Jim DeMint is urging everyone to vote against it, with the idea that Republicans can get a “cleaner” bill after the new members of Congress take office.

The thing that struck me most about the press conference was something that Bill Clinton said about the meaning of the midterm elections in November of this year. He said, about the midterm elections in 1994, “After the ’94 election I said that the American people, in their infinite wisdom, had put us both in the same boat, so we’re going to either row or sink. And I want us to row.” He continued, “Everybody’s got to give a little.”

In other words, as one Associated Press writer paraphrases Clinton’s advice to the Obama administration and to Congress: “Republicans and Democrats both have to accept the message voters sent in the last election, which is that they want the president and lawmakers from the opposing party to compromise.”

Um, no, we don’t. I’m not sure if Clinton or the media understand this, but we were not given the opportunity to vote out Obama in November. If we had been, I’m sure we would have done that, too. We did the best that we could, which was to put as many of the “better” Republicans and Tea Party members in office as possible, with the hope that they could at least stop the bleeding. We did not vote for compromise. Gridlock, sure. Compromise, no.

On my wish list for 2011 (although I understand none of it may come to pass until 2013): A “clean” bill extending the Bush-era tax cuts; A bill that repeals Obamacare (without “replacing” it with a watered-down Republican version); Massive cuts in the size and scope and intrusiveness of government. That is what I meant by my vote.

For those who don’t know, Simon Le Bon is the lead singer of the successful British pop/rock group, Duran Duran. Duran Duran’s new single, “All You Need is Now,” was made available (for free!) today on iTunes, and they plan to release an album later this month. So I figured it was a good time for me to tell my “I met Simon Le Bon” story.

Barbara Branden, in her book, The Passion of Ayn Rand, lists Le Bon as one of the many people who “have been powerfully affected by [Rand’s] work and acknowledge an intellectual debt to Ayn Rand.” (FN, p. 409; p. 419) (I read Branden’s book soon after I read Atlas Shrugged, early in college. I had a friend who was also an admirer of Rand, and who warned that I should read the Branden books before getting involved in the Ayn Rand Institute or the Institute-sponsored campus club. He said the books would show me how Objectivism was a cult, etc., etc. So I read them and, like so many others with their heads screwed on relatively well, I dismissed their attacks on Rand.)

As a Rand admirer, AND a certified “Durannie,” I was excited to read this. Simon LeBon, influenced by Ayn Rand?! Very cool!

Fast-forward to a time many years later. After spending years apart, pursuing individual projects, Duran Duran reunited. The band offered a special “VIP” event in Las Vegas to kick off their reunion tour. Fans had the chance to meet the band in person at a specially arranged party, and then get up-front seats at their concert. I couldn’t resist, and I brought my trusty Duran Duran scrapbook, which I had kept from my teenage years, so that I could have all the members of the band autograph their sections. (Being the geek that I am, I divided my scrapbook into sections featuring individual photos of each band member, group photos, live photos, etc.)

At the party, everyone got the chance to speak with each band member and, when it was my turn to talk to Le Bon, I had to ask, “Were you influenced by Ayn Rand?” (I told him that I had read that he was.) He said that it would be fair to say that Jim Morrison had more of an influence on him than did Rand and that, while he liked Rand’s writing, he disagreed with her ideas.

On the one hand I was let down. Jim Morrison more of an influence than Ayn Rand?! Yikes! On the other hand, Le Bon did not follow the usual pattern of liking Rand’s ideas while dismissing or being critical of her writing style. So that was to the good, especially given that Le Bon himself is an artist of sorts. Would I take from that exchange that Le Bon “acknowledge[d] an intellectual debt” to Ayn Rand? Probably not.

Le Bon signed my scrapbook page, and recommended one of his favorite books.

So much virtual ink has already been spilt on the TSA’s latest exploits, that I will confine my remarks to what I believe I can, somewhat uniquely, add to the discussion.

How did we get to a point where government agents are routinely taking nude photographs and patting down the genital areas of United States citizens, citizens about whom those agents have no particularized suspicion of anything other than wanting to get from point A to point B by airplane? Aren’t we supposed to have a “right to privacy,” protected by the Fourth Amendment, to guard against such intrusions by our government?

I believe it is, ironically, the right to privacy itself which allows a power-grabbing regime like the Obama Administration to completely disregard our privacy in situations such as this. There should be no distinct legal “right to privacy.” Rather, I think states of privacy should be legally protected in terms of our rights to property, contract and liberty. Such rights, at least up until the last century or so, were not held to depend upon: (1) whether we had the appropriate subjective expectations, and (2) whether society was prepared to recognize those expectations as reasonable. (That is the “reasonable expectation of privacy” test that has been applied since the Supreme Court’s decision in Katz v. United States.) As Rand often said, something we enjoy only by permission is not a right.

Those who are interested may read more here.

Or if you just need a little comic relief, because you simply can’t believe how bad things have gotten, you might enjoy this.