Well, like so many other tools the evil is in the intent of the wielder. I've been finding that javascript has become absolutely essential as web users have come to expect the same level of slickness they see on their desktops from their web browser. A case in point is the MyLibrary portal I implemented at the U. I expected the user comments to ask for more services and better grouping of information, y'know, the type of thing librarians might be concerned with. Instead almost all of the suggestions for changes in the next version were about the interface. Adding it all up, it was clear that the users were expecting the stuff in their web browser to behave like their main computer interface in terms of windowing, menu selection, being able to minimize things and so on. I don't know if I could have implemented their requests without Javascript