shorting is theft

Can't seem to shake the idea that shorting is just theft.

Slight of hand, smoke and mirrors, call it what you will but shorting in a down market, IMO, should be illegal (or just not allowed at all in any market).

Barrons had an article this morning on why shorting is good and did not give one factual/tangible reason why, with the exception that you could make money - it even gave 5 stocks to short. What the Barrons article failed to make clear is that for every winning shorter there were 100's if not 1000's of losing longs, not to mention pension funds affecting millions - but what the hey, longs are suckers, right?