you alive! AAALLLIIIVVVEEEEEE!!!

Indeed... and kicking.  I just have little time for blogging anymore.

I watched--most of it--on Little Green Footballs just this morning.  I did not watch the man being beheaded or the woman being shot in the head--I pulled down the lid of my laptop.  I saw the beheading of Nicholas Berg a few years ago, and it affected me so negatively that I really can't take seeing such things again.  But this video was disturbing, wasn't it?

And welcome back, James.  Your voice and presence here are appreciated.

They skip the video of the beheading and played the audio, but did show the poor man's head separated from the body.  I don't quite know how negatively it affects me.  I suppose if you think that bearing ill-feelings towards that type of Islam is negative, then I suppose it affects most people negatively. 

Yes, I agree.  When we were in Israel, we met--in fact, for a short time, lived with a family of Arabs--the Ibrahim family and were treated with exceptional hospitality.  Nevertheless, hospitable or inhospitable, we should, as you say, pray that they will come to know Jesus.