steveb - 11:33 pm on May 6, 2010 (gmt 0)

"why is linking to home bad?"

Anchor text is key to Google. If you tell Google your own page is about "home", why should they not believe you?

It's critically important for you to tell Google what your pages, and your site, is about. Using link text of home is of no positive benefit, and for most sites a huge negative missed opportunity.