getting Gdk-critical: file gdkfont.c error

[John Manko <jmanko@monkeynet.org>]

I get the following errors on many programs.  What is causing, and how 
can I fix it.
I think my font paths are correct.  (Bad file descriptor)?

Gdk-ERROR **: Fatal IO error 9 (Bad file descriptor) on X server :0.0.
<program>: 03:27:58: Gdk-critical: file gdkfont.c: line 318 (gdk_string_width): assertion `font != NULL' failed.
<program>: 03:27:58: Gdk-critical: file gdkfont.c: line 394 (gdk_text_width_wc): assertion `font != NULL' failed.
Segmentation fault