This guide shows how to install debian so that it can be booted and run from a USB drive on a MacBook Air. I use this to store a copy of my PGP master keypair. Networking is deliberately not configured and all operations requiring the master keypair (such as signing other people's keys) are done only on this system. See the debian wiki for information on how to separate your key. Note that this is slightly different to using a live CD. It is not possible to tailor the base configuration of a live CD to one's own requirements, and they frequently automatically connect to the nearest local network. Nevertheless, if you wish to use a live CD instead, I recommend Tails. Arturo Filastò has written a similar guide for Tails.
The method I use requires [VirtualBox][4], which should also contain a working debian installation itself. An alternative method would be to use [debootstrap][5] b