Gentleman:
Regarding the above thread located at:
http://fts.postgresql.org/db/mw/msg.html?mid=1030673
I got the error: "Bad abstime external representation ''" when attempted to start psql as a particular user and the postmaster shutdown.
The problem, we discovered, is that this user had a carriage return contained within his password. Changing the password to remove the CR avoided the system shutdown.