Launcher Fails on Mac OSX 10.8.5

The launcher fails occasionally and becomes unresponsive. Only way to remedy the problem is to quit the launcher. Second attempt also fails. All successive attempts fail as well. The .jar file is unmodified and I am running 1.6.4 as my internet connection is currently not quick enough to download 1.7.2 (running on mobile broadband via tethering currently).
The only solution I have found for this is to restart the system (takes several minutes). I have uninstalled and reinstalled the Minecraft Launcher several times, downloaded from the Minecraft website.