Now, briefly before our next interlude.... back to the original question....
have you tried :
- The "reset safari" function
- Quitting safari, moving " ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist" to a temporary (perhaps permanent) new home, and then opening safari again
- Repaired permissions courtesy of disk utility
P.S. I didn't realise they were still offering security update coverage for 10.6 ?? 10.7's long gone and 10.8 won't be around for too much longer (although well worth the upgrade IMHO).