Well, either programming language researchers such as simon peyton jones are wrong, or developers such as google employee working on appengine, guido van rossum is wrong.
This is a subject near and dear to my heart, and I'm sure we could have a lovely chat about this -- got Skype?
i've added my email to my profile. however, i'm an antisocial recluse and never skype/im. there's lambda-the-ultimate if you're into programming languages, far more knowledgeable people than me hang out there.