For example in tarfile.rst and logging.rst there are function
definitions using *args and/or **kwargs like:

.. function:: debug(msg[, *args[, **kwargs]])

The * and ** should be escaped IMO, so that they are not mistaken as
reStructuredText markup, which confuses the syntax coloring of my Vim.
While escaping * with a backslash works fine in normal text, it does not
work in a function definition and the backslash appears in the HTML output.