Stackless Python, Tail Recursion and Functional Programming

[beno]

Hi;
Someone wrote me from this list advising me to drop my passion for 
functional programming because Python doesn't optimize for it. Then I 
remembered Cameron Laird's *Stackless Python*. Doesn't this take care of 
this problem by converting the stack into a tree, just like XSLT? Doesn't 
that make optimization for tail recursion a cake-walk? And, if so, if I 
implement the necessary changes to my Python distro, can I write recursive 
programs without worrying about optimization problems?
TIA,
beno