I recently purchased a home built in the early 80's. I'm not an electrician but know what the hot, neutral and ground wires do. There are two outdoor lights, one on each side of the garage, using either of two wall switches in the house. One of the lights had two neutral wires and the ground wire twisted together and connected to the white wire on the light. A white wire and hot wire (black) were twisted and connected to the black wire on the light. So there are two things I am concerned about:

1. Why would the ground be twisted with the two white neutral wires? (I removed the ground wire from this pair and connected it directly to the the ground wire on the new light assembly).
2. The white wire connected with the hot black wire. I'm assuming that white wire is not neutral because it didn't short with the hot wire?
   

Thanks for any insight on this.