<p>Are "out" parameters a bad thing in .NET? Any good articles/discussions on this topic?</p>

For most circumstances I would recommend against using Out parameters. They basically add side-effects to your code and could be a nightmare when it comes to debugging.
There's an article on MSDN regarding Out parameters available here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/t3c3bfhx.aspx