Re: Portage issue

OK, I've got it pared down to some degree. These few block programs in portage are still preventing a world update and I don't believe I can remove them without destroying my system. They are:

[blocks B     ] <sys-apps/portage-2.1.4_rc1 (is blocking app-shells/bash-3.2_p33)
[blocks B     ] kde-base/ksync (is blocking kde-base/kdelibs-3.5.8-r10)
[blocks B     ] <sys-apps/baselayout-2.0.0_rc (is blocking sys-apps/makedev-3.23.1)

Total: 617 packages (568 upgrades, 5 downgrades, 35 new, 9 in new slots, 3 blocks), Size of downloads: 2,090,644 kB
Fetch Restriction: 1 package (1 unsatisfied)
Portage tree and overlays:
 [0] /usr/portage
 [1] /usr/portage/local/layman/sabayon


I'm thinking that there must be a way to hold back the upgrade on these last three files in order to permit the portage upgrade.
When I do emerge -pv portage I get:

java bob # emerge -pv portage

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!

[ebuild     U ] sys-apps/sandbox-1.2.18.1-r2 [1.2.18.1] 232 kB [0]
[ebuild     U ] dev-python/pycrypto-2.0.1-r6 [2.0.1-r5] USE="-bindist -gmp -test" 151 kB [0]
[ebuild     U ] sys-apps/portage-2.1.4.1 [2.1.3.4-r1] USE="-build -doc -epydoc (-selinux)" LINGUAS="-pl*" 361 kB [0]
*** Portage will stop merging at this point and reload itself,
    then resume the merge.
[ebuild     U ] app-shells/bash-3.2_p33 [3.2_p15-r1] USE="nls -afs -bashlogger -plugins% -vanilla" 2,564 kB [0]
[blocks B     ] <sys-apps/portage-2.1.4_rc1 (is blocking app-shells/bash-3.2_p33)

Total: 4 packages (4 upgrades, 1 block), Size of downloads: 3,306 kB
Portage tree and overlays:
 [0] /usr/portage


So it looks like the important one to look at is:
  <sys-apps/portage-2.1.4_rc1 (is blocking app-shells/bash-3.2_p33)
So if I could prevent the update to bash then portage should update. Is this correct? How would I do this?

Thank you,
Bob