I just started having this problem w/ a client’s site, and was able to fix it by modifying the plugin as detailed here:
http://urbangiraffe.com/support/topic/home-page-is-redirecting-to-another-wp-page-without-my-instruction-to-do-so#post-4066
Works just fine now. I hope this helps someone!
Turns out it was some combination of wp-post-views and yet-another-related-entries plugin.
All fixed now, thanks a lot.
Available memory, both in php.ini and in wp-config.php is 128M, which I think ought to be plenty.
Renaming the plugins folder to something different and creating an empty plugins folder makes the posts pages load extremely quickly. This makes it seem like it’s a plugin of some kind.
Thanks a lot. If/once I figure out which plugin is giving me problems, I’ll let the forum know.