It seems that with blogging, the rules should be different. Having outbound links is a standard part of blogging and the theory behind pingbacks is that it allows readers to find another post related to yours. In theory it should encourage lots of linking all over the place because you then get traffic back.
Then again, google is quite, quite mad. Who knows what the hell is going on with it.
(By the way, I wrote a silly post, asking why google has forsaken me like a guilty lover:
Hey Google: Ms Naughty is about porn for women)