I would go one step further and recommend that you uninstall Java thus removing one attack vector. I did so a couple of months ago and have yet to find a case where I really needed Java.
I just want to point out that's there's a big difference between having an interpreter on your machine like python, ruby, or java, and having a browser plugin that executes remote code by default.
There's nothing wrong with the former, there's everything wrong with the latter.
(Yes, non-executable data can still deliver a malicious payload, e.g. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms04-02.... It's just much less common-- presumably because it's a much smaller attack surface.)
But mostly it is buffer overflow bugs that get you now.
I keep Java around for some other reasons, so when I update, I have to remember to go and disable the browser plugins once again.