Besides, those who say "people use C because of speed, but computers are getting faster and capacity of memory are getting larger" are pathetic. As hardware becomes better, what people demand of software will too.
Small Java apps that is easy to maintain, or a small servlet or applet that interface with a user, handling small amount of input is fine. But when you try to make it run a massive parallel system, it will fail, badly.
Most toy language's implementation... look at it? Does it not have the same "memory" problem which people like to argue as C? I mean, down to the lowest level, it's probably utilizing someone's C or assembly code. It's not anymore different to use someone elses memory management functions (OS) than say using Java's own gc since in the end it's the same thing provided whoever wrote them is experienced enough.
C just gives the responsibility to the programmer, rather than taking someone else's code and reuse it. Which I admit, is a good idea when you're working, when you're learning, it's not so much a good idea.
How about a new architecture? New ISA? PHP "Programmers" would have no fucking clue how to port their apps, instead they will rely on other REAL PROGRAMMER's implemetation to do their job. Atleast with C or asm, you have a working knowledge of the internals of the machine so learning a new architecture becomes easier.
tl,dr; the guy who wrote that is a fucktard that needs to stay away from the processor