(still) cannot properly install lxml 2.3 for python, but at least 2.2.8 works
30 jun 2011 -- I am awarding @Pablo for this question, because of his answer . I am still unable to properly install lxml 2.3 for reasons discussed in his comments. I gather for a little bit of work I could, but I have already spent a ridiculous amount of time on this problem. I have, however, written the code I needed and successfully installed lxml 2.2.8. The code functions with this version. Better yet, Pablo was the only one to properly diagnose the error. Which was libxslt needed to be updated to a version with support for exsltMathXpathCtxtRegister I appreciate everyones help on this