Is it possible to combine contextual filters with regular filters? I would like to take my standard taxonomy term view and add a "meta" category that would show up in addition to the term selected. The result should be that items in the meta category show up as well as those in the term being viwewed. 

I tried adding the meta category as a regular filter or an additional contextual filter, but there's no way to add the "OR" logic needed between the contextual term filter and the specified meta term filter. In spite of using them for many many years, I still don't fully understand the all settings of contextual filters. Perhaps there is a right way to get it to do what I want?

Thanks for any leads or suggestions.
You can add "or" conditions to filters -- either regular or exposed -- using Views in Drupal 7 or 8 (in Drupal 6 you need to use the Views Or module). 

Add the filters you want -- in your example, a "Has taxonomy term" filter for "meta" and a "Has taxonomy term" exposed filter. Then click the arrow next to the "Add" link to expand the options and select "And/Or, Rearrange".



From there you can add a new group and drag both the "Has taxonomy term" filters into that group and set the operator to "or". (You can also set the operator between groups to "or" for more complicated scenarios.)



To add OR clauses to contextual filters, tick the "Allow multiple values" option and use the "+" or "," characters in the URL to indicate an OR or AND of values.

That should get you what you want.