How do JPEGs respect anything outside them, or the building blocks of the system, or the browser?

HTML is nothing more than content hosted on a web site. Nothing in the HTTP spec says anything about HTML. Nothing in the HTML spec says anything about JPEGs. (Other than as random examples.) Of course, it's perfectly reasonable to say that a "web site" is the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JPEGs, PNGs, and GIFs hosted on an HTTP server. It's also perfectly reasonable to say that it also includes any object intended to render inside the browser.

I said I wouldn't get sucked back into this, but your arguments and analogies are becoming increasingly asinine. I no longer care about the Apple/Adobe thing, not that I think I was ever intentionally defending Adobe, at least as a primary concern.

If I go to, for example, http://www.audemarspiguet.com/, which is Flash-only, and I have no Flash capability, nothing renders (other than a background). Your argument would be "that's not a web site", which is prima facie asinine.

Caleb's analogy with the baseball bat was kind of weak, but you counter it with one that is not only weak, but barely relevant at all. How is formula racing even remotely equivalent to the iPad? Are you trying to say that the iPad is merely a competition ground for developers? (For the record, a closer analogy might be that of a DVD player that disallowed playing of animated content.)