Python version of perl's "if (-T ..)" and "if (-B ...)"?

[Lloyd Zusman]

Perl has the following constructs to check whether a file is considered
to contain "text" or "binary" data:

if (-T $filename) { print "file contains 'text' characters\n"; }
if (-B $filename) { print "file contains 'binary' characters\n"; }

Is there already a Python analog to these? I'm happy to write them on
my own if no such constructs currently exist, but before I start, I'd
like to make sure that I'm not "re-inventing the wheel".

By the way, here's what the perl docs say about these constructs. I'm
looking for something similar in Python:

... The -T  and -B  switches work as follows. The first block or so
... of the file is examined for odd characters such as strange control
... codes or characters with the high bit set. If too many strange
... characters (>30%) are found, it's a -B file; otherwise it's a -T
... file. Also, any file containing null in the first block is
... considered a binary file. [ ... ]

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

-- 
 Lloyd Zusman
 ljz at asfast.com
 God bless you.