The coup had failed.
That was the situation in Tehran on the morning of August 16, 1953.
The Iranian officer sent to remove Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh had been arrested. The Shah had fled the country. Mosaddegh was still in power.
Months of covert planning had collapsed in a single night.
I have decided that, with very few exceptions, I am only buying cars made before 1993.
Why 1993?
Because I need a rule.
You have seen the footage.
A crowd somewhere in Tehran. Fists in the air. American flags burning. A cleric at a microphone. Thousands of people shouting three words that require no translation:
Death to America.
The footage needs very little narration.
Iran hates us.
Iran is irrational.
Iran is run by religious fanatics.
Iran wants to kill Americans.
And if you are an American of roughly my generation, Iran has existed in your political consciousness almost entirely in that form. The Ayatollah. The hostages. Hezbollah. Nuclear enrichment. That chant.
There was a time when I could walk into a grocery store, see that something was on sale, put it in my cart, and pay the sale price.
Apparently, that was too simple.
Now when I walk into Kroger and see a product advertised at a lower price, I first need to “clip” a digital coupon. That means pulling out my phone, opening an app, signing into an account and digitally clipping something that does not physically exist so that a computer will permit me to pay the advertised price. Kroger currently promotes entire categories of “Weekly Digital Deals” built around precisely this process.
Why does buying cheese need a user account?
Six years ago I wrote a blog post called Gaslighting Liberty. In that post I separated my concerns about privacy and government power into two categories: the “now” and the “not yet.”
The “now” was easy. We were already willingly carrying tracking devices in our pockets. We were allowing Google to know where we went, Amazon to know what we bought, Facebook to know who we knew, and Alexa to sit in our kitchens listening for us to ask what the weather was going to be tomorrow. We traded privacy for convenience.
Willingly.
The “not yet” concerned me much more. The technology existed, or was beginning to exist, but the pieces had not yet been completely connected. My concern wasn’t necessarily what the government was doing with all of that information at that exact moment. My concern was what someone could eventually do with it once the infrastructure existed.
Six years later I think I need to revisit that distinction.
Because a lot of the “not yet” is becoming the “now.”
It’s been eleven years since I wrote about the tension I feel every December—the mixture of genuine joy in Christ’s coming and deep frustration with what we’ve turned the season into. Back then, I said that Christmas exists because of our sin, not our sentimentality.
I still believe that, maybe even more now.
(more…)Midwest Royal’s new music video “Samson” brings one of the Bible’s most human stories to life as a reflection on power, failure, and redemption.
Blending Baroque-inspired visuals with modern cinematic storytelling, Samson unfolds like a living painting. The imagery captures the tension between divine calling and human weakness — a man born with strength beyond measure, brought low by pride, and redeemed through surrender.
Set to a lo-fi, atmospheric soundscape of dusty guitars and cathedral reverb, the track balances raw emotion with haunting beauty. It’s part of the upcoming album Saints, Sinners, and Stories — a concept record that weaves biblical tales into timeless meditations on grace and humanity.
The video takes viewers from Samson’s miraculous birth to the fall of the Philistine temple, closing in the quiet aftermath — dawn breaking over ruin, light returning through dust. It’s not a story of vengeance, but of mercy.
“Let me fall with the guilty, your mercy is my breath. With arms outstretched the pillars break — a glimpse of the Savior’s death.”
Samson is now streaming on YouTube. Watch, listen, and remember: even in the collapse, there’s grace waiting to rise.
It has been many moons since my last post. I still think about writing time to time, but my time seems to be devoted to family, work, and music these days. Music is the main outlet, and method, of writing I have been focused on the last few years. I released an album under the “Midwest Royal” stage name back in 2022 that I wrote and developed with many friends for 12 years. Since then I have more focused about getting music out in a more timely fashion…
That being said, I have a new album releasing on All Saints Day 2025 called “Saints, Sinners, and Stories; and is includes 7 songs about some of my favorite bible stories. The Tower of Babel, Samson, Nebuchadnezzar, Jonah, Jesus writing in the sand, The Pool at Bethesda, and Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The album will release on all streaming services at midnight on All Saints Day, but I am including a secret link to the songs that are hosted on my Soundcloud Account here:
Midwest Royal – Saints, Sinners, & Stories
Please listen, comment, and feel free to share!
Once released it would be awesome if you could add any of the tunes you like to your Spotify or Apple Music or Youtube playlist!
Don’t worry.
The monsters aren’t under your bed or in your closet.
They’re your prized guest. Invited in, or more like…injected through the syringe of convenience and the needle of safety.
The medicine isn’t worse than the cure…it’s the disease.
intro: modern privacy
We have all been there.
It may have happened to you this morning.
Let me set the stage.
Your alarm goes off.
It’s set on your mobile phone that is charging next to your bed. (more…)