Why would I learn Python over other languages?

[GGarramuno]

>Kinda like taking the best of Red Wine, urine and Champagne and mixing
>them up in a bottle, which must be as good as all of them
>combined. Urine is not all that good, but you can hardly deny that it
>has some redeeming qualities ;-).

Well, the idea is to get something better not just as good.  If you distill
urine well enough you can end up with just water, which may help diluting the
other two and thus avoid the headache of drinking pure alcohol :).  You can
then add some spice to it, too.
>From my pov, Ruby's distilling still feels like rancid water, thou, but
somewhat better than having no water or soda at all.  I do like its sugary
taste, thou.
At work, I may still prefer to invite my clients to drink a good red wine, just
to be safe, but if all my competitors also drink and buy the same wine, I am
also interested more and more in finding a new and not so well known cocktail.

>Still, Python has had it easier. It had Perl to compete with, which is
>easier because the superiority of Python was so obvious, even back
>then. 

Not sure that Python had it easier.  Python's clear syntax was really nice all
along, but its performance, libraries, etc was severely lacking until v1.5/2.0,
when it became clear it could take on Perl on even the most demanding tasks. 
Also,unless you had attempted big and multiuser projects with Perl, you most
likely wouldn't see the need for python.
I see Ruby in a somewhat similar situation now, but being able to benefit from
the still prevalent perl user base as well any python users that have not been
100% satisfied with it (probably not the ones reading this newsgroup).

>The discussion of these things is mostly redundant, though - google
>has it all. There are several wikis on the issue.

Yes, but many of them are also quite out of date (both in the python and the
ruby side).  
Few of them even discuss some of the decisions in the core of the language as
they effect performance, scalability and others (and how this could change in
the future).
Also, all wikis are also always slightly slanted towards the most well known
language.
Having the question pop up every now and then is good.  Only get worried if the
question keeps popping way too often.