Man Told to Remove American Flag From Desk.

"You will be poking your eyes out over this one."

Ralph Silvestro, a legal clerk who works at the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia, never imagined that anyone would have a beef over the American flag he had taped to the side of his work computer.

After all, he works in a courthouse.

To Silvestro, who served in the Navy for six years and in the Air Force Reserve for another six, the miniature American flag affixed to his computer was a symbol of his patriotism, he said.

For months, that flag and another one that Silvestro had taped to his computer - a black "pirate" flag with skull and crossbones - greeted a steady stream of folks, mostly lawyers, who lined up daily at the front counter of the court's Active Criminal Records department to file motions that Silvestro processed.

No one complained about the flags, Silvestro said.

Then on Sept. 23, Silvestro got an e-mail from his supervisor:

"Keith has advised me as your supervisor, that the flags must come down. They are not appropriate for the workplace," the e-mail said.

The "Keith" mentioned in the e-mail was Keith Smith, the new director of Active Criminal Records.

Silvestro, 34, said he could understand why Smith didn't want him to display a pirate flag - a symbol of thievery on the high seas - in a criminal courthouse. The flag was a gift from a co-worker who had bought it while on vacation and knew that Silvestro liked pirate stories and had served in the Navy, Silvestro said.

But Smith's ban on the American flag just burned Silvestro's butt, he said.

"I served this country for 12 years. I could have died for this flag, but I can't hang it up. What's up with that? I don't understand," Silvestro said in an interview earlier this week.

Silvestro added: "For me, this is about my rights being taken away from me in a building where your rights are supposed to mean more than anything."

Smith did not return two phone calls from the Daily News yesterday.

When asked if Smith had violated Silvestro's constitutional rights, perhaps infringing on his freedom of expression, a civil-rights lawyer said: "No."

"Here's the thing: Your boss rules your life," said Mary Catherine Roper, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania's Philadelphia office. "Your employer gets to make the rules."

As long as Smith applies the same rules to everybody evenly, meaning no staffer is allowed to display the American flag at the public counter, Smith is on solid legal ground, Roper said.

"People really have no idea how much control they have to give up when they go work," Roper said. "Workers generally don't have a lot of rights."

Even so, the episode has outraged many of Silvestro's customers. And, being lawyers, they didn't mince words.

"It has me so ticked off," said lawyer Rania Maria Major-Trunfio. "It's absolutely ridiculous"

Silvestro, who grew up in South Philly and wears his jet-black hair slicked back in a ponytail and talks in a rapid-fire staccato, is a colorful figure in an otherwise sterile space. Major-Trunfio said she immediately noticed that the flags were gone and asked Silvestro about them.

"It offends me that he had to take the American flag down," she said. "Not enough people feel a real strong sense of patriotism for our country and, quite frankly, if someone is going to be upset that an American flag is in the courthouse, then America is really in a sad place."

Silvestro said he talked with Smith after receiving the e-mail from his supervisor. Smith told him that he wanted to keep the front counter looking clean and uniform, according to Silvestro.

"I kept telling him, 'I don't understand. It's the American flag. Who is it bothering? Who is it offending?' " Silvestro recalled. "He said, 'You can hang it up at the back of your desk and it has to be kept out of sight.' I was really furious and hurt."

Major-Trunfio said she walked up to the motions counter yesterday and her eyes widened when she saw the Christmas lights, garland and small fake tree.

"I'm like, 'How come you get to put Christmas decorations up, but you can't put the flag up?' " Major-Trunfio asked. "The female clerk just looked at me and said, 'You're funny.' "
- Philly.com

What this boss needs to understand is that the American flag symbolizes our great democracy our freedom. Any boss who forces an American flag to be taken down should be fired. As for Silvestro I am proud of him for standing up! I just don't understand how the American flag offend anyone expesially in America?

ACLU Starts up a Racial Profiling Hotline.

I guess if your a Muslim acting suspicious at an airport or along the border and the police pull you aside to ask questions or if someone stares you down at the airport you can call ACLU and take them to court and win a lot of money. sighhhhhhhhhh I just think a lot of people are going to be falsely accused of racial profiling.

Rapid-Fire Killer Robot Passes Flight Test

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

That's the sound made by the "Multiple Kill Vehicle," a frightening but fascinatingly cool hovering robot meant to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles.

Video of a Dec. 2 flight test conducted at Edwards Air Force Base in California by defense contractor Lockheed Martin has made it onto the Web, and it looks like something out of the "Terminator" movies.

Rival defense contractor Raytheon is also working on its own multiple-kill-vehicle program.

Inside a large steel cage, Lockheed's MKV lifts off the ground, moves left and moves right, rapidly firing all the while as flames shoot out of its bottom and sides.

The plan is to mount one or more MKVs onto carrier missiles, which would launch into space to engage enemy nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles at the apogees, or peaks, of their trajectory arcs.

Once in space, the MKVs would break off from the carrier vehicles, then use highly accurate targeting computers to shoot big bullets — in military speak, "kinetic interceptors" — to destroy the enemy warheads before they drop back down to Earth.

None of this description does any justice to the video. You have to see it for yourself. - FOXNEWS.com

This is awesome. Check out the video below.

Happy "Day Without A Gay!"

SAN FRANCISCO — Some same-sex marriage supporters are urging people to "call in gay" Wednesday to show how much the country relies on gays and lesbians, but others question whether it's wise to encourage skipping work given the nation's economic distress.

Organizers of "Day Without a Gay" — scheduled to coincide with International Human Rights Day and modeled after similar work stoppages by Latino immigrants — also are encouraging people to perform volunteer work and refrain from spending money.

Sean Hetherington, a West Hollywood comedian and personal trainer, dreamed up the idea with his boyfriend, Aaron Hartzler, after reading online that a few angry gay-rights activists were calling for a daylong strike to protest California voters' passage last month of Proposition 8, which reversed this year's state Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage.

The couple thought it would be more effective and less divisive if people were asked to perform community service instead of staying home with their wallets shut. Dozens of nonprofit agencies, from the National Women's Law Center in Washington to a Methodist church in Fresno collecting food for the homeless, have posted opportunities for volunteers on the couple's Web site.

"We are all for a boycott if that is what brings about a sense of community for people," said Hetherington, 30, who plans to spend Wednesday volunteering at an inner-city school. "You can take away from the economy and give back in other ways."

Hetherington said he's been getting 100 e-mails an hour from people looking for volunteer opportunities, and that his "Day Without a Gay" Web site has gotten 100,000 hits since mid-November.

Despite Hartzler and Hetherington's attempt to fashion a positive approach, some organizers of the street demonstrations that drew massive crowds in many cities last month have been reluctant to embrace the concept, saying that it could be at best impractical and at worst counterproductive to "call in gay."

"It's extra-challenging for people to think about taking off work as a form of protest, given that we are talking about people who may not be out (as gay) at work, and given the current economic situation and job market," said Jules Graves, 38, coordinator of the Colorado Queer Straight Alliance. "There is really not any assurance employers would appreciate it for what it is."

Graves' group nonetheless is arranging for interested participants to volunteer at the local African Community Center in Denver. The agency said it could find projects to keep 20 people busy, but so far only 10 have pledged to show up, said Graves.

Scott Craig, a fifth-grade teacher at Independence Charter School in Philadelphia, had no problem requesting and being granted the day off. So many of the school's 60 teachers were eager to show support for gay rights they had to make sure enough stayed behind to staff classrooms.

About 25 teachers plan to take Wednesday off and to have their work covered by substitutes while they discuss ways to introduce gay issues to their students and volunteer at the local branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, Craig said. A letter telling parents why so many teachers would be out went home Monday.

"We want to get the conversation going in the community that gay is not bad," Craig said. "For kids to hear that in a positive light can be life-changing."

Join The Impact, the online community that launched protests last month over the passage of gay marriage bans in California, Florida and Arizona, has urged people to withdraw $80 from their bank accounts Wednesday to demonstrate gays' spending power, and to devote the time they might otherwise spend watching TV or surfing the Internet to volunteer work.

Witeck-Combs Communications, a public relations firm in Washington that specializes in the gay and lesbian market, published a study this year that estimated that gay and lesbian consumers spend $700 billion annually.

Bob Witeck, the firm's chief executive officer, said it would be difficult to measure the success of Wednesday's strike since gay employees occupy so many fields. And rather than suspending all consumer spending for the day, gay rights supporters would have a bigger impact if they devoted their dollars to gay-friendly businesses year-round, Witeck said.

"Our community leaders who are running book stores, newspapers, flower shops, coffee houses, bars and many, many other things are hurting right now, so paying attention to their needs during this hard time is an effective form of activism," he said.

Hetherington said he has been careful to design A Day Without a Gay — he came up with the name after the film "A Day Without a Mexican" and liked it because it rhymed — so no one feels excluded or threatened.

He has specifically urged high school students not to walk out of their classes and assured college students they won't be disloyal to the cause if they go ahead and take their final exams. He also has listed opportunities — ranging from writing letters to members of Congress about federal gay rights legislation to spreading the word about Wednesday on social networking sites — for gay marriage backers who cannot miss work. - Associated Press

I'm sorry but this is funny. They think it is really going to effect anything. Didn't the Latinos do the same thing and it really didn't effect a thing.

College Bowl Games.

Just in case you missed it.

1. BCS FedEx National Championship Bowl: Florida vs. Oklahoma Sooners

Perdiction: Florida beats Oklahoma.

2. Rose Bowl: Penn State vs. USC

Perdiction: Penn State beats USC.

3. Orange Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech

Perdiction: Cincinnati beats Virginia Tech

4. Sugar Bowl: Alabama vs. Utah Utes

Perdiction: Alabama beats Utah Utes

5. Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State Vs. Texas

Perdiction: Unfortunately I feel Texas is going to beat my Ohio State Buckeyes.

I Can Do Whatever I Like

I found this funny video on You Tube. It is an Obama parody on the song, "Whatever You Like" By T.I.

49 States Get An "F" For Making College Affordable

http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=3262631&referralPlaylistId=playlist


This will be our next problem if colleges don't stop getting greedy by jacking up the price of tuition. More and more people wont be able to pay for college so you will see a record number of people not going with with a very competitive job market many won' t be able to get jobs because they have not attended college.There will be like 30 to 40% unemployed because nobody can get a job without going to college. Then colleges will lose lots of money. Schools will be asking the government to bail them out. Talk about a more messed up situation than what we have now. Its pretty weird I was thinking about this a few months ago and look I was right!