iCloud preference pane loads indefinitely and prevents access to System Preferences When I open System Preferences, it opens straight to the iCloud pane, which loads a spinner, states that it is loading, and then runs until I give up. While the spinner is up, I can't quit the app or load the pane, nor can I access any other preferences. 

I don't have an iCloud account, and I'd like to quit the pane to make changes to my system. Is there any way to disable the pane or this behaviour?
Launch Activity Monitor (in /Applications/Utilities) and look for a process named "com.apple.preferences.icloud.remoteservice".  Select it, click the little stop sign with the x inside it, and select "force Quit".