Since when was Javascript slower and less useful than Python and Ruby? V8 has made JS one of the fastest interpreted languages and it is one of the most used languages around (you're running it right now!). Also, node uses libev for its event loop, not some 'hand-rolled' one.
PyPy's faster than V8 and all of the maintained reactors in Twisted are faster than libev/libevent. Also, no, I block JS by default, and HN is written in Arc (a Lisp), not Node.
I could not find any resource stating that PyPy is faster than V8. May you provide us with your source?
Another thing, the fact that you're blocking JS may counter the "you're running it" example, but as you know, it doesn't invalidate the point that JS in one of the most used languages.
And every time you bank, you use COBOL. You rely on millions of lines of C just to start your computer. You're currently in a web browser written in more C++ than any single site has of JS. (Although I'm sure this last point has a counterexample somewhere, which saddens me.)
