Two important things to keep in mind about Mountain Lion, entirely reblogged from Adam Laiacano because his pictures are worth exactly two thousand of my words:
One saving grace -- at least on my machine -- a Java runtime was automatically installed while I was installing Python. Why not just preinstall it in the first place?
(N.B.: If these images didn't immediately strike a chord with you, don't worry about them!)
(With thanks to Adam -- check out his full blog here!)