Very true. Most of the hate for java is actually because of the frameworks. But Play framework has made java web application development fun again. Also I find static typing very useful for large projects. Even though I go to python for small programs (file handling, quick database insert), I still go to java for large projects. What I miss in java is the succinctness of python(like list comprehension). But I still don't want to loose static typing. I thought scala was the answer. But I was not impressed when I tried it.
I like Python too, the dynamic type system and performance hit are the only things that might discourage me from using it for a big project. Go might be worth checking out, it's supposed to give you things like first class functions in a compiled language.
