It's on because HN is under attack by a botnet. Sorry; we know people hate it and we don't like it either. The plan is to replace it with a different approach, but this is not likely to happen during the current attack. However, if you (i.e. anyone) email hn@ycombinator.com we can put your username on a whitelist to exempt you.

I would like to have my username added to the whitelist. Thanks.

Are you sure? I just logged out and back in and it worked without any Google mess loading.

Because google can already identify you through your cookies etc. If you turn off tracking and cookies it makes you do it when you login every time.

Yes, I'm getting the recaptcha every time I re-login.

Ugh. Apparently this happens when HN is under attack. Not sure if the cause justifies the means in this case. For many HN'ers having their HN account associated with their other Google database entries or employment records would be a line they surely do not want to cross.