I came to my laptop this morning to find this happening once again.  No intervening reboot occurred for this to have been a startup-specific process.  My fans are whirring away at maximum speed just to keep my processor/GPU at 70 C.  This is entirely unaccpeptable.

killall metacity has no effect
Only one instance of metacity is running (some similar bugs reported two competing instances)
compiz --replace has no effect
Rebooting has no effect
the .gconfd/saved_state file contains over a thousand lines of this:

CLIENTADD "IOR: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"
CLIENTADD "IOR: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"
CLIENTADD "IOR: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"
CLIENTADD "IOR:010000001700000049444c3a436f6e6669674c697374656e65723a312e300000030000000054424f540000000101020005000000554e4958000000000a0000006c6f63616c686f7374000000290000002f746d702f6f726269742d6d63632f6c696e632d333835622d302d343264373364303631376166650000000000000000caaedfba5400000001010200290000002f746d702f6f726269742d6d63632f6c696e632d333835622d302d34326437336430363137616665000000001c00000000000000380a6ca0633068a8c02b28282828282801000000e6834dd101000000480000000100000002000000050000001c00000000000000380a6ca0633068a8c02b28282828282801000000e6834dd101000000140000000100000001000105000000000901010000000000"
ADD 3238003182 "def" "/apps/metacity" "IOR: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"
ADD 3254780321 "def" "/desktop/gnome/applications/terminal" "IOR: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"
ADD 3271557923 "def" "/desktop/gnome/interface/accessibility" "IOR: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"
ADD 3288334997 "def" "/desktop/gnome/peripherals/mouse" "IOR: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"
REMOVE 3271557923 "def" "/desktop/gnome/interface/accessibility" "IOR: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"
ADD 3305112355 "def" "/desktop/gnome/interface" "IOR:010000001700000049444c3a436f6e6669674c697374656e65723a312e300000030000000054424f540000000101020005000000554e4958000000000a0000006c6f63616c686f7374000000290000002f746d702f6f726269742d6d63632f6c696e632d333835622d302d343264373364303631376166650000000000000000caaedfba5400000001010200290000002f746d702f6f726269742d6d63632f6c696e632d333835622d302d34326437336430363137616665000000001c00000000000000380a6ca0633068a8c02b28282828282801000000e6834dd101000000480000000100000002000000050000001c00000000000000380a6ca0633068a8c02b28282828282801000000e6834dd101000000140000000100000001000105000000000901010000000000"