metalman,
As you're clearly not retarded, you might be able to figure
out if there is a supply present to the light and if it is switched live
(you may not be familiar with this term) that there is continuity there
and no components are damaged.
Do you have any testing equipment?
you will possibly need some.
Has your circuit breaker tripped?
Reset it, if it trips immediately, then you've got problems....
US electrices are different to ours, get an expert in if you are not sure.
Always check the obvious first, thats why Adam asked you to check if
the light was switched on.
You seem to have a lot of things going wrong at once, were you
in the path of a hurricane or something?
hammy