Call me crazy, but a scientific theory is only what is proported to be the best explaination to a set of natural observed occurances and behaviors. It isn't required to be without holes. Perhaps Linus is referrign to Laws, which are not certified by anybody, but assumed to carry the weight of universal (or at least near universal) truth, such as the Law of Gravity or the Law of Conservation of Mass and Energy.

Certainly Linus is allowed to say that a particular spec is useless, but I'm not throwing out my processor spec book anytime soon. The point is that useful specs match reality. It would have been nice if this post had included anything reguarding whether the protocol in question actually matches reality or not.