This is about Afghanistan, so maybe you can illuminate my limited exposure to mathematical constructs and explain the possible mass killings of Taliban prisioners by the application of some fractals.

And if there is still a survivor from the previous mathematical postings, let me inform you that the Pythagorean theorem is only a theorem in Euclidian geometry, so unless you qualify it properly I can claim that it is not a theorem.

Try to draw a triangle in a Rimman space and see how well the Pythagorean theorem works.

That will be like insisting that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Unless you qualify the geometry of the surface then that can be shown to be false.

To back up Mr. Greenwald stated possibility that Attorney General Holder may decide to do the right thing, let me inform you that using chaos theory, it is impossible to determine the exact behaviour of any specific component of a dynamic system therefore, who knows? Mr. Holder could make the miracle happen.

Isn't this fun! and totally useless.

If after reading this nonsense, you fill compelled to loose your supper please do not tell me. I will feel bad (but unrepented)

Holder would probably not want to go down as the A-G who let politics get the better of justice. One can hope!

London Lad is never wrong! Ever. Faced with the fact of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing which contradicted his firm conviction that al Qaeda would never attack American civilians in America, he didn't blink once, but just turned to personal attacks.

---

Ondelette's point, in oversimplified terms, is that if, legally speaking, the US had invaded Afghanistan, then the President can legally detain P.O.W.s until the war is over, and wouldn't need all these contortions regarding indefinite detainment.

Not really worried about being "outed" as some of you geeks have posted. In fact I stand behind what I said, much as Glenn would expect of anyone who speaks to the media - ie no hiding behind veils or anonymity. Sorry you didn't like to hear my opinion, however the posts that followed auger to the conclusion that the so called debate over Glenn and Blogs is non-existent on this blog. In actual fact I dont think that I said anything that was contraversial, rather offered my own critique of Glenn's blog. Not to worry, neither yourvelves or Glenn has to worry about me again. DP

What part of "for all right triangles in plane geometry" do you not understand?

As for the mass graves, this is what I wrote today,

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/07/11/accountability/permalink/da2ca0c4f7041e8555ab181f6b5e4e49.html

And here is what sysprog wrote about it on the thread yesterday, which you ostensibly followed,

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/07/09/guantanamo/permalink/497029faebcc41efd29b4b78302b1c6b.html

Now why don't you drop it? You're attempts to prove that mathematics is irrelevant to all of life except making money in computer science aren't really very insightful about mathematics. Because it isn't. Perhaps you didn't study enough of it.

Just crack open the nearest book you can find on Afghan history and start reading.

The First Anglo-Afghan War is an interesting case. The whole war basically was one big war crime.

that any of you are at all surprised at Obama's actions being very similar to his predecessor's. Why WOULDN'T they be ? Because of "campaign promises" that he made ? Has it never occurred to you that ALL national-level politicians are of the "promise-her-anything-but-take-the-train-out-of-town-in-the-morning" school of practice ? The naivete on this site is nothing short of astounding, sometimes.

Time to face some realities, people---for the politician, it's all about getting into office and then staying in office. Any other consideration is STRICTLY secondary at best. This is why I'm a believer in VERY, VERY limited government (of the Articles-of-Confederation type, at most, if that); because those in power can do something FOR you in proportion to what they can have done TO you.

Remember the words of the immortal Dean Ing: "Power politics is the only kind there is." And don't trust ANY member of the political class any further than you can shoot at him.

Your servant,

Lord Karth

As to so-called "war crimes"---all political leaderships, in all countries, at all times are capable of committing them.

It's one of those things that Humans do, that's all. And, remarkably enough, it's one of those few things that Human beings seem to be good at. Under the circumstances, there's only one realistic course of action: make some popcorn, grab a bottle of your favorite beverage, sit back and watch the show !

"Human politics: Reality Television/Absurdist Comedy At Its Very Best. Hours and hours of Pure Viewing Entertainment !"

Your servant,

Lord Karth

Best news we’ve heard in a long time.

The article (link at sig.) attempts to downplay the importance of this action, however, by stating:

“Such a decision would roil the country, would likely plunge Washington into a new round of partisan warfare, and could even imperil Obama's domestic priorities, including health care and energy reform.”

“Roil the country?” Who are they referring to?? The Neocon Wingnuts???

The majority of the American population (indeed the world population) would like to see our nation come to terms with the Torture Issue through an independent prosecutor/investigation. To say that this would “roil the country” is absolutely absurd.

Some people do not have to study too much to learn, they are simply gifted.

My limited understanding of mathematics has allowed me to develop propraetary algorithms that a number of Fortune 500 companies have licenced (and still licence) that had made me very wealthy. I am glad I am so ignorant.

What part do you not understand in the claim that the Pythagoras theorem is only true in Euclidean geometry?

With your claim you are moving into truly stupid territory.

And by the way, for those of you that may be intimidated by the claims about dynamic systems and chaos theory made by ondolette. Let me point out that one of the most common examples of such a system is "weather systems". The believe is that it does not matter what the accuracy of our measurements is, they will always contain uncertainty.

Applying that idea to historial systems is totally BS. The problem is the lack of complete knowledge, not the true uncertainty of the historical consecuences.

If we would have known that a large airliner with a particular masss and momentun, and loaded with fuel were to crash againt a WTC tower with occupants inside, it would not have taken a rocket scientist to know that there would be a signicant number of casualties. That is the truly significan event.

If the issue were to determine in what direction all the fragments of the airliner would disperse, or how the body parts were to be found, that is a complete different issue. Here chaos theory could help but how historical relevance does it have?

It would not have taken a very advance knowledge of the potential energy represented by the structure to know that what the terrifing show we witnessed defies simple physics and complex systems theory. There was not enough potential energy to pulverize concrete to the micron level simply from gravity