A question for the psychologists out there
I'm relieved, but not surprised, to learn that some of the more over-the-top accounts of post-Katrina New Orleans (Astrodome rapes, babies with their throats cut, etc.) are looking more and more like urban legends.
Compare and contrast this with the "fog of war" immediately following 9/11. The anecdotes we heard then were often as not tales of hope, like the 80-story windsurfing cop, for example.
Why would our reactions to these tragedies be so different? Why would the rumors swirling around Katrina only serve to exaggerate the horrors of an already nightmarish situation?