Installing Python 2.7.8 on CentOS 6.5

CentOS 6.5 ships with Python 2.6.6 and you can't yum update past that. I really need Python 2.7. Since, 2.7.8 is the latest version (excluding Python 3) as of today, I'll go with that. I might be drunk, but I'm not so drunk that I can live without the argparse module, the unittest enhancements, OrderedDict and Counter classes.
I did all these commands from the root account, without that your mileage may vary.

Update CentOS and install the development tools

yum -y update
yum groupinstall -y 'development tools'

I'll want the following packages enabled for Python, and so should you.

yum install -y zlib-devel bzip2-devel openssl-devel xz-libs wget

Install Python 2.7.8 from Source

Download and extract the source:

wget http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.8/Python-2.7.8.tar.xz

xz -d Python-2.7.8.tar.xz

tar -xvf Python-2.7.8.tar

Compile the Source and Install

# Enter the directory:
cd Python-2.7.8

# Run the configure:
./configure --prefix=/usr/local

# compile and install it:
make
make altinstall

# Checking Python version:
python2.7 -V
# Python 2.7.8

Install pip and virtualenv

No Pythonista worth two dead parrots would be caught dead putting together anything of complexity without these tools. So here's how to install them.

# Install pip
curl --silent --show-error --retry 5 https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python2.7

# Install virtualenv
pip2.7 install virtualenv

And you're done.