Imagine the heart-ache

This incident could have been a lot worse. See if you can guess where I'm going here:

A jail guard has been suspended after allegedly thumping an inmate with a Bible.

James Lee Sheppard, 56, has been charged with two gross misdemeanors for allegedly swatting a Blue Earth County Jail inmate with the book, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him against steel bars on Feb. 8, according to the criminal complaint.

A video shows a guard entering the cell of inmate Jeremy Hansen, 26. The guard then takes Hansen's Bible and strikes him in the side of the face with the book. The two exchange words as the guard walks away, said Mankato Police Officer Allen Schmidt who watched the video.

That's right. Imagine if, instead of Jeremy Hansen, the inmate had been, say, Jamal Hussein. Andrew Sullivan and the rest of the chorus of the perpetually indignant would be having fits about the guard being a "Christianist" thug. CAIR would be suing the Blue Earth County Jail for racial discrimination. It would be the new Abu Ghraib.

In other words, we'd never hear the end of it.