I received a request to hide the “View Properties” and “Reply” icon and text that appears in the far right of the flat topic view in SharePoint 2010.  Here is a CSS style statement to hide both links and the separator image that appears in-between.

/* Discussion Board - Flat topic view
-Hide View Properties and Reply options on far right
*/

table.ms-disc-bar td a[id^="DisplayLink"], /* View Properties link */
table.ms-disc-bar td a[id^="ReplyLink"], /* Reply icon and link */
table.ms-disc-bar td.ms-separator img /* Separator bar */{
display: none;
}