[lit-ideas] Ultima ratio sapientum?

The chancellor of Germany has been using the term 'ultima ratio' a lot in the past week in reference to the expropriation of a real estate company. In my research to discover just exactly what that term means (or, more importantly, just what she thnks it means and why she is using it) I came across 'ultima ratio regnum' (the last argument of the king) - a motto inscribed on (or cast into) the barrels of cannons.
I've come pretty close to despair over the responses to the 'financial crisis' (and would 'blow a gasket' attempting to point out the egregious errors in reasoning found therein), so am figuratively inscribing my spade with the term 'ultima ratio sapientum' and am going off to England to (among other things) help a friend dig, plant and otherwise set up the garden around his newly-purchased house.
(I perform this figurative inscription in full cognizance of other uses for spades; particularly keeping in mind Kant's opening remarks in 'Zum ewigen Frieden' [usually translated as 'Perpetual Peace']. I certainly hope to return - in about 10 days - in a more encouraging frame of mind.) 

Chris Bruce,
off to seek solace in
vernal splendour, from
Kiel, Germany
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