...and once you say "strong typing" (or "weak typing"), you are probably off in to serious hand-waving unless you have taken care to clearly define exactly what *you* mean when you say "strong typing", as the term is used in the literature to mean diametrically opposed concepts. In one perfectly reasonable sense, Perl is far more strongly typed than java.

I think that trotting out the phrase is often an attempt to take a swipe by implying that strong == good (and therefore weak == bad) thus my fu is better than your fu.

It's mostly just BS.