Hey, sid_licious: I, too, have suffered through the maddening torture of The VoiceOver.  Especially maddening is its' apparent randomness in bringing itself to life.  I've wondered if, for example, the movement of my headphone cable jack in the ipod itself could have caused the problem.  I HATE, HATE, HATE the feature: it has no place in my life (or ears) so I looked around the apple website and found these instructions to uninstall VoiceOver completely.  Not sure if this permenant solution is what you're looking for but, I'm going to give it a try later today.  That said, I obviously don't know if it's going to work.  Here it is:

How to uninstall VoiceOver Kit

By downloading VoiceOver Kit to your computer, your iPod will announce the names of your songs, artists, and playlists. If you no longer wish to use the VoiceOver feature on your iPod and want to remove the VoiceOver Kit from your computer, follow the steps below.

For Mac OS X:

1. Quit iTunes.
2. In the Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder.
3. Enter /Library/Application Support/iTunes and click Go.
4. Drag the "iPodVoiceOver.framework" folder to the Trash.
5. Open iTunes.
6. Sync your iPod to iTunes.

For Windows Vista and Windows 7:

1. Quit iTunes.
2. On the Start menu, click Control Panel.
3. Under Programs, click Uninstall a program. Alternately, in Classic View of Control Panel, click Programs and Features.
4. Select VoiceOver Kit and click Uninstall.
5. After the uninstall is complete, open iTunes.
6. Sync your iPod to iTunes.

For Windows XP:

1. Quit iTunes.
2. On the Start menu, click Control Panel.
3. Open the Add or Remove Programs control panel.
4. Select VoiceOver Kit and click Remove.
5. After the uninstall is complete, open iTunes.
6. Sync your iPod to iTunes.

Good luck!

Well, Sid, I've wondered about the earbuds too, but I've never used a set with a mic in them and still had the problem.  This most recent time (and, if I recall, at least once previously) it was when I rotated the earbud jack in the nano that The Voice started her maniacal onslought of obtrusive inturruption.  So far, I've used the nano a couple of times since I fiddled with the two 'voice off' features and ~ knock wood ~ haven't had any trouble since.  What I remember from the last time I had probs with this, though, is that even with the settings 'off' it would sometimes resurrect itself, zombie-style, and begin the litany all over again. 

BTW, I added an edit to that post with the instructions.  The edit was important because it basically said you can't follow the instructions, not at least on OSX 10.8.2.  There's no iTunes folder in Application Support. 

Anyway, I wish you luck with yours, too!

V

Trying turning voice over off on the Nano and in Itunes to no avail.

Finally found thru googling (Not Apple who did not know) that the cause is using headphones with a microphone, changed to the headphones wo a microphone and the problem was resolved.

Suspect that this was the case with the ipod touch I initially purchased as it had a similar issue, I returned it for a nano only to find the same problem.

Sorry I traded the itouch in as I liked it very much but really can't take the chance of getting one again after my bad experience.