Fred, THIS NEEDS DOCS!  The function docstrings tell the tale.
Christmas present to myself:  the bisect module didn't define what
happened if the new element was already in the list.  It so happens
that it inserted the new element "to the right" of all equal elements.
Since it wasn't defined, among other bad implications it was a mystery
how to use bisect to determine whether an element was already in the
list (I've seen code that *assumed* "to the right" without justification).
Added new methods bisect_left and insort_left that insert "to the left"
instead; made the old names bisect and insort aliases for the new names
bisect_right and insort_right; beefed up docstrings to explain what
these actually do; and added a std test for the bisect module.
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_bisect.py b/Lib/test/test_bisect.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1292915
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Lib/test/test_bisect.py
@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+from test_support import TestFailed
+
+import bisect
+import sys
+
+nerrors = 0
+
+def check_bisect(func, list, elt, expected):
+    global nerrors
+    got = func(list, elt)
+    if got != expected:
+        print >> sys.stderr, \
+            "expected %s(%s, %s) -> %s, but got %s" % (func.__name__,
+                                                       list,
+                                                       elt,
+                                                       expected,
+                                                       got)
+        nerrors += 1
+
+# XXX optional slice arguments need tests.
+
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [], 1, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1], 1, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1], 2, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1], 1, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1], 2, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1, 1], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1, 1], 1, 3)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1, 1], 2, 3)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1, 1, 1], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1, 1, 1], 1, 4)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1, 1, 1], 2, 4)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2], 1, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2], 1.5, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2], 2, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2], 3, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1, 2, 2], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1, 2, 2], 1, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1, 2, 2], 1.5, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1, 2, 2], 2, 4)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 1, 2, 2], 3, 4)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 3], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 3], 1, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 3], 1.5, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 3], 2, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 3], 2.5, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 3], 3, 3)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 3], 4, 3)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 1, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 1.5, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 2, 3)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 2.5, 3)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 3, 6)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 3.5, 6)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 4, 10)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_right, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 5, 10)
+
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [], 1, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1], 1, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1], 2, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1], 1, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1], 2, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1, 1], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1, 1], 1, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1, 1], 2, 3)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1, 1, 1], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1, 1, 1], 1, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1, 1, 1], 2, 4)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2], 1, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2], 1.5, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2], 2, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2], 3, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1, 2, 2], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1, 2, 2], 1, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1, 2, 2], 1.5, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1, 2, 2], 2, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 1, 2, 2], 3, 4)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 3], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 3], 1, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 3], 1.5, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 3], 2, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 3], 2.5, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 3], 3, 2)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 3], 4, 3)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 0, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 1, 0)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 1.5, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 2, 1)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 2.5, 3)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 3, 3)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 3.5, 6)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 4, 6)
+check_bisect(bisect.bisect_left, [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4], 5, 10)
+
+def check_insort(n):
+    global nerrors
+    from random import choice
+    import sys
+    digits = "0123456789"
+    raw = []
+    insorted = []
+    for i in range(n):
+        digit = choice(digits)
+        raw.append(digit)
+        if digit in "02468":
+            f = bisect.insort_left
+        else:
+            f = bisect.insort_right
+        f(insorted, digit)
+    sorted = raw[:]
+    sorted.sort()
+    if sorted == insorted:
+        return
+    print >> sys.stderr, "insort test failed: raw %s got %s" % (raw, insorted)
+    nerrors += 1
+
+check_insort(500)
+
+if nerrors:
+    raise TestFailed("%d errors in test_bisect" % nerrors)